Americanswers! Why have the Democrats backed Kamala Harris?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2024
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vice-President Kamala Harris has secured the support of a majority of Democratic delegates to become the party's nominee for president.
We answer your questions on how she’s gone from playing a backseat role, to the forefront of the party’s hopes in the election.
Plus - how will the Republican campaign respond? What’s George Clooney doing for the Democrats? And did the Secret Service director Kim Cheatle have to resign after the Trump shooting?
HOSTS: * Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter * Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email Americast@bbc.co.uk * Or use #Americast
US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s new BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155
This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, it's Justin, at home in South London. |
| 0:07.5 | And it's Anthony at the BBC Bureau in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:11.4 | And the two of us are here to answer questions and quite a few of them about the big news |
| 0:15.3 | that Camilla Harris has become not just the presumptive nominee. |
| 0:19.8 | Well I suppose officially she still is, but actually there just isn't anyone in the race. |
| 0:23.6 | She is pretty much rat it up, Anthony, in an extraordinarily quick time. |
| 0:28.1 | It is remarkably quick. |
| 0:29.7 | Basically all of the rivals, potential rivals for the Democratic nomination, endorsed her within |
| 0:34.9 | 24 hours of Joe Biden dropping out of the race. |
| 0:38.7 | And then there was a ground swell of donations, $150 million now to her. |
| 0:44.4 | And I think that shows that this wasn't just something |
| 0:46.5 | that was carried out by the very top, the party elders, |
| 0:49.2 | but this was support for Kamla Harris |
| 0:51.6 | that was broad-based going all the way down to the |
| 0:55.1 | individual donors in the Democratic Party. |
| 0:57.4 | Yeah and she used her first speech as the presumptive nominee to say in Milwaukee, Wisconsin what she is going to be saying again and again and |
| 1:07.8 | again because this is how she wants to frame the election now. |
| 1:12.0 | Before I was elected vice president, |
| 1:15.0 | before I was elected United States Senator, |
| 1:17.0 | I was elected attorney general of the state of California, |
| 1:20.0 | and I was a courtroom prosecutor before then. |
... |
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