MICHELLE: Hi. This is Michelle (ph), and I just moved to Cleveland, Ohio. After 10 years as a software engineer, I’m gearing up for my first day of nursing school. This podcast was recorded at…
ASMA KHALID, HOST:
12:37 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, September 13. Oh, guys.
ELENA MOORE, BYLINE: Oh, no. It’s Friday the 13th.
KHALID: Friday the 13th.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: No one cares.
MOORE: You are such a grump.
MICHELLE: Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but it’s never too late to try something new. OK, here’s the show.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE BIG TOP ORCHESTRA’S “TEETER BOARD: FOLIES BERGERE (MARCH AND TWO-STEP)”)
MOORE: Domenico, why can’t you be more like her?
MONTANARO: I am. I just don’t think that we need to be, like, weirded out about Friday the 13th. Who cares? It’s not a big deal. Eighty percent of people don’t think it’s a big deal. There was just a thing I heard about that on NPR.
KHALID: Is this a poll?
MONTANARO: Yeah.
MOORE: Throwing a poll at us.
KHALID: (Laughter) Hey, there, it’s the NPR POLITICS PODCAST. I’m Asma Khalid. I cover the White House.
MOORE: I’m Elena Moore. I’m positive about today, and I cover the campaign.
MONTANARO: And I’m Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And I’m also optimistic about today, but that’s because I’m not superstitious about Friday 13th.
MOORE: Wow.
KHALID: (Laughter) All right, folks. Well, today on the show, we’ve got our Weekly Roundup, and we’re gonna kick things off with a look at the power, or lack of power, of political endorsements. Kamala Harris has racked up a few notable ones this week, like, of course, Taylor Swift. Elena, Swift had long been rumored to endorse Harris. There was this expectation she was going to do it, and she did, indeed, after Tuesday night’s debate. What did she say?
MOORE: Yeah. I mean, she endorsed President Biden in 2020, so she had a little bit of an expectation there. But the, you know, mega popstar does not weigh in on politics a lot, so that’s why it was kind of, you know, highly anticipated. She posted a photo on Instagram, and she has more than 280 million followers, so – got around. It was a photo of her holding her cat, with this lengthy caption about how she did her research. You know, she watched the debate, and she landed on Harris, that she would be supporting Harris this fall.
And, like, the cherry on top of all of this is she signed it childless cat lady, which is a nod at Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator JD Vance, who has made past controversial comments about, you know, women with no children. So in Taylor Swift fashion, there was a lot of Easter eggs in there.
KHALID: So, Elena, I’ve got to ask you about what impact, if any, this has. I mean, she directed people to register to vote. And I know you’ve been doing some reporting on what impact, if any, that direction had in terms of voter registration numbers.
MOORE: Yeah, I mean, she specifically called out first-time voters, which is kind of a nod also to some of her fan base. She’s got, you know, a lot of younger people. Millennials, Gen Zers have grown up with her. And so yeah, she was like, if you are first-time voter, you want to check your registration, here’s some information.
And she posted, in a separate post on her Instagram story, a link to vote.gov, which is a voter resource platform run by the government. And a spokesperson for the U.S. General Service Administration, which runs the site, told me that in the 24-hour window that Swift’s story was live on her Instagram, there were more than 405,000 visitors to vote.gov’s website via that unique link. And I guess, you know, the question after that is, like, how does that compare?
KHALID: Yeah.
MOORE: It is over 13 times higher than the daily visitors to vote.gov.
MONTANARO: Wow.
MOORE: You know, in the days leading up, they said it’s about 30,000 people visit the website. So that’s a lot of people.
KHALID: Yeah.
MOORE: And, you know, vote.org, which is a separate voter group that provides registering information you can register, told me that in between when Swift put out her endorsement and, like, midday on Thursday, they saw – they had 52,000 people register to vote on their platform. Fifty-two thousand – and 144,000 people checked their registration. So it’s like, you know, when we’re talking about how small these margins are, that’s not, you know, nothing.
KHALID: It’s not nothing. But Domenico, I mean, there is this broader question that I’ve often had of whether endorsements matter – particularly whether celebrity endorsements matter – because I think back to that 2016 election where Hillary Clinton famously received a host of celebrity endorsements against Donald Trump. Ultimately, as we all know, she went on to lose that election.
MONTANARO: Well, I mean, I think Elena makes the right point and uses the right word – margins – which I think is the word of this election, potentially. And, you know, someone like Taylor Swift going out and making an endorsement, you know, and saying that people should get out and register to vote and you see these spikes in registration, is certainly helpful to Democrats when younger voters are people who pay attention to Taylor Swift and who – in our polling, by the way – are the least likely group to say that they are definitely voting in this election.
KHALID: Right.
MONTANARO: Sixty-five percent say that, and any kind of marginal tick upward with them is a win for Democrats.
KHALID: I’ve also got to ask you, though, about some of the other endorsements Harris has been receiving. She’s received a bunch of support from folks that I would describe as kind of the old guard of the traditional Republican Party. I’m thinking of people who are quite influential – someone like the former vice president, Dick Cheney, the former Republican attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. These are people who, I would argue, are not necessarily popular amongst Democrats with a memory of the early 2000s, certainly progressive Democrats.
So I’m curious how you see Harris navigating these different endorsements. I mean, obviously, someone like a Dick Cheney plays well to a certain type of voter she wants, but I’m curious if you think that that could alienate some of the voters also that she needs.
MONTANARO: You know, Dick Cheney is certainly an eye-opener. I’m not young enough not to remember that Democrats saw him as public enemy No. 1, calling him Darth Vader and the like. But I think the point on all of this and, you know, the some 200 Republicans that Kamala Harris called out during the debate who have said that they’re endorsing her – people like Adam Kinzinger at the Democratic National Convention speaking on the stage, the former congressman from Illinois, who ran afoul of Donald Trump – and again, former congressman now – essentially saying that he doesn’t agree on a lot of policies but that we have to rise above, be bigger than that, necessarily, to be able to stand against somebody who they see as a threat to democracy and the normal way of doing things in the United States.
So the Harris campaign is clearly making, you know, a sort of sliding-scale judgment on who this will help her with and who this will hurt her with. And certainly, they are looking squarely at the middle and hoping that people in the middle – the, quote-unquote, “normal” folks who the Tim Walzes of the world are trying to help her appeal to – will come be on her side, again, perhaps at the margins, to help her over the finish line in places like the blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
KHALID: So I want to shift gears and ask you both a bit about some of the messages that we’ve been hearing from both Harris and Trump these last couple of days. They’ve been out on the campaign trail after the debate. Just catch us up on what caught your attention, Domenico.
MONTANARO: Well, the big news being that Donald Trump has now said that he’s not going to agree to any more debates – you know, Donald Trump still seems like he is kind of flailing a little bit. I mean, he talked about geese now and Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio. Again, false, debunked, not true – it’s way out in left field…
KHALID: Yeah.
MONTANARO: …Because again, he could have been much more rational in talking about the idea that this is a small town that’s had a significant influx of migrants and that resources may be straining, but he doesn’t speak that way. He doesn’t speak in these rational terms. He does what he does for the most provocation, for the most part. You know, Harris is trying to continue to build momentum off of what you’ve seen from the debate – the crowds, energy, again, packing some of these arenas. It’s certainly something that Donald Trump is watching and he can’t be happy about.
MOORE: Watching the way that both of these candidates have kind of spun what we consider the spin room – it was funny to kind of see that translate online on social media and see a version of that for, you know, a lot younger people. You know, on TikTok, it’s kind of part of my job now to just, like, constantly troll these accounts and, like, see what’s going on. And both Trump and Harris on their campaign accounts have been, you know, posting clips of the debate. It’s like, they’re using it as part of their campaign message to continue to try to, like, talk to this kind of a question mark of a demographic that they really want to win.
And, like, this all, for me, gets back to the Taylor Swift thing because, like, we’ve been talking about Harris having this momentum boost and Trump trying to pick up where he left off before, you know, Biden dropped out. And I think that, you know, moment like Swift endorsing – obviously, it’s not going to, like, make or break the election, but it adds a tiny bit of momentum, and it keeps that, like, Internet frenzy going a little bit. And so I think for me, I’ve just been watching how that’s played out online because so much of this debate is about viral moments now, and we know that from the June debate.
MONTANARO: One thing that I did notice, though, after this debate is that Trump did make a speech on a policy standpoint talking about overtime…
KHALID: Yes.
MONTANARO: …Police officers and people like that who work hourly and how they need to catch a break, quote-unquote But he didn’t really get into a lot of specifics or any specifics.
KHALID: But he said no taxes on overtime…
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: …Work.
MONTANARO: Yes. So clearly, the Trump campaign is continuing to try to focus in on those blue-collar, white voters, which is a huge portion of who goes and votes for Trump. But there are still continued questions about how these kinds of things would be implemented. You know, he wants to talk a lot about what Kamala Harris is proposing and how there’s no plan to get it done. But, you know, his stuff is also very, very superficial.
KHALID: All right, let’s wrap this up for now. Elena, I know you’ve got to go, but please don’t go too far away because we want to talk to you in our segment Can’t Let It Go.
MOORE: Sounds good.
KHALID: And we’re going to take a quick break now. And when we get back, we’ll check in on what Congress has been up to.
And we’re back. And we’re joined now by NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales. Hey there, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Hi there.
KHALID: I’m so glad you’re with us. It’s been a minute, I feel like, since I’ve actually spoken to you.
GRISALES: I know. It’s been a minute. I know.
KHALID: Anyhow, thanks for joining us, and you are with us because Congress is inching and inching closer to this deadline to keep the government open. I feel like you come on this show often when the spending deadlines approach, but help us understand. What is going on here? And what makes this moment any different from the previous deadlines?
GRISALES: Right. Yeah. Inching is a great way to put it. Slowly inching, and…
MONTANARO: Isn’t that Congress?
GRISALES: Yeah, that is Congress, aka inching. But yes, now this deadline is approaching on September 30, so there is a little bit of time. And when Congress has a little bit of time, they’ll use up every bit of minute for that last dramatic moment, oftentimes to finally figure it all out.
But this time around, the Republican-led House put out a first offer, if you will, in terms of how to address this deadline, September 30, with a stopgap funding bill. And with it, House Republicans attached the SAVE Act. And we talked about the SAVE Act, of course, more extensively in the pod yesterday, but to recap, it would ban noncitizens from voting, which is obviously already illegal.
However, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who put up this proposal, is trying to appease his hard-right wing. One of their own members sponsored this plan, and he likens this effort to preventing minors from accessing alcohol, acknowledging, yes, it’s already against the law. Democrats, for their part, are adamantly opposed. And even if some Republicans are against this plan for various reasons, they say they’re concerned that they’ll be the ones to blame – this is an election year – if they don’t figure out this funding plan in time.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate said this plan would be dead on arrival with this SAVE Act attached, and Johnson was able to get a procedural rule approved on the House floor this week. And he planned a vote on it later but had to pull it because he did not have enough votes.
KHALID: So, Claudia, I am still left wondering, though, why this seems to be happening so often, that Congress has this threat of a shutdown. I mean, it feels like that used to be once upon a time, a situation of…
GRISALES: Right.
KHALID: …Last resort. Now it’s just normal. We’re routinely talking about potential government shutdowns.
GRISALES: Right. It’s just a reminder of this tumultuous Congress for the last two years, and these threats grow with each different Congress. And this one is going to have that very hard right wing asking for some extreme demands that are very controversial among various factions of even their own party and, of course, Democrats. And so we continue to see these dramatic swings between the Republican-led House, the Democratic-led Senate and specifically within the Republican Party.
And a reminder how Speaker Mike Johnson will only hit his one-year mark as speaker next month. And so a lot of this chaos is tied to the smaller wing of his party, but Johnson is playing with a very tiny margin. He’s trying to make everyone happy, and if he doesn’t look like he is fighting, then he’s already in trouble. And so this is him trying to make that case for that wing of his party, but he has told his conference that a shutdown is not an option, and it’s clear that he’s going to have to negotiate with Democrats if they want to get out of this in time.
KHALID: And what role, if any, is the former president Donald Trump having in all this?
GRISALES: Well, he’s having a pretty big role, as usual. He did post on his social media account through his company Truth Social, saying that Republicans should accept nothing less than a bill that includes this SAVE Act. And, of course, this is really contrary to what Congress needs to do to get its work done on this plan if they want to avoid a shutdown. And again, Republicans worry if they don’t do this, they’ll get blamed. And so there’s a lot of back and forth, and Johnson, of course, responded this week to Trump’s statement that they should fight for this SAVE Act, and he said he is fighting. He’s doing everything he can, but it’s another wrench in the negotiations.
MONTANARO: Yeah, and if you have Republicans in Congress looking to hold onto their seats in swing districts, you know, we haven’t talked a lot about the race for Congress this year, but there’s a very different Washington and a very different administration and the power that comes with the presidency – a very different Harris, you know, administration if she were to win, a very different Trump administration if he were to win, depending on who controls Congress. If you have divided government, you have far less of an ability for either of them to do anything. And, you know, the other party is going to want to be able to control Congress to be able to stop the president from doing whatever he or she wants to do.
And Trump weighing in again with his sort of chaos theory of, you know, staying in the way, not compromising. That is the last thing that moderate Republicans need or want to be able to try to campaign on because it puts them on the defensive as they’re trying to sound reasonable, rational and paint Democrats as extreme.
KHALID: Domenico, I do wonder, though, in an election year, isn’t it plausible that both parties could argue, well, hey, look – the other side isn’t serious about making government work, so vote for us? I mean, do you have a sense of which party actually sees the benefit? Or couldn’t they both just point fingers at each other?
MONTANARO: Yeah, I mean, it’s more likely that Republicans are going to get blamed. I mean, just when you look at polling, for example, Republican favorability ratings are less than Democrats, you know, marginally. Democrats don’t do great, but they’re a little bit better than Republicans in general. Republicans are also running the House. So what Speaker Mike Johnson decides to do, you know, the ball is really in his court, so to speak, compared to it being Hakeem Jeffries in charge, you know, the Democrat from New York, who’s now the minority leader and could be the House speaker.
You know, and when you look at which party is more likely to compromise, Democratic voters generally say that they more value compromise than Republican voters do. So I think that’s gotten pretty worn in, the fact that Republicans are more likely to be ideologically immovable as compared to Democrats.
KHALID: All right, just 17 more days to go before that spending deadline is hit, so a lot to watch out for. And Claudia, I’m sure we will have you back on soon to talk about this all. Thanks so much.
GRISALES: Sounds good. Thank you.
KHALID: All right, one more break, and when we get back, it’s going to be time for Can’t Let It Go.
And we’re back, and Elena Moore has rejoined us.
MOORE: Hello.
KHALID: Hey. It’s great to have you with us. All right, it is time now for Can’t Let It Go. That is the part of the show where we talk about the things that we just cannot stop thinking about, politics or otherwise. And, Elena, why don’t you kick things off for us?
MOORE: Sure. OK, so mine has a little bit of a backstory, but former President Trump has referenced multiple times this baseless claim that there are, you know, Haitian immigrants in this town of Springfield, Ohio, that are eating pets. And it’s been fact-checked. It’s not true. And it’s actually had some pretty serious ramifications for the people who live there and their safety. That is, you know, a serious story that NPR’s been covering, but I cover young voters, and I am, unfortunately, online a lot. And so after the debate, I was on TikTok, trying to see how people were responding, and in the same, like, Brat-like fashion of people remixing Vice President Harris’ old remarks, this moment in the debate where Trump spoke about this, again, not true thing has become a TikTok song. And it is in my head, and I cannot let it go.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DONALD TRUMP: They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. Eat the cat. Eat, eat the cat. They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. Eat the cat. Eat the cat.
MOORE: Guys, I woke up with this song in my head, I went to bed with it in my head. My boyfriend – I was going to bed last night, and I told him that one day I’m gonna be, like, old, and he’s gonna be like, hey, how you doing? And I’m gonna just be like, eat the cat. Eat, eat the cat (laughter).
KHALID: My gosh.
MONTANARO: Oh, God.
MOORE: And so obviously, again, this is a very serious story and, like, I’m not commenting on that at all, but as someone who covers young voters and is on TikTok, this is something I have to look at for my job, and it’s just nuts.
KHALID: And how is it being received online?
MOORE: I mean, this video which was posted – I’m not sure who created the sound originally, but it was posted by this account with the user named Jay_haitian5, and that video has 157,000 views. And it’s being remixed. People are doing dances to it. It’s one of many. It’s one of many sounds that we’ve seen.
KHALID: But this is, like, the power of social media.
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: And I feel like, you know, imagine 20 years ago…
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: …A candidate says something wild. Fine. It lives in that initial moment of the debate and, you know, maybe gets talked about a bit. But here you have younger voters, who presumably, it sounds like, sort of thought this was a ludicrous statement…
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: …Who can take it and turn the story around on their own.
MOORE: Right.
KHALID: And there’s some power in that.
MOORE: Also, I will just say, as two New Yorkers on this podcast, the way he says dog has been in…
MONTANARO: I love it. I know.
MOORE: That specifically has been in my head. So I’ve been saying, they’re eating the dawgs (ph) nonstop. And again, so I just had to say that.
MONTANARO: It’s very horrible.
KHALID: Oh, dear.
MOORE: It’s very horrible.
KHALID: All right, Domenico, what about you?
MONTANARO: Well, I’m going to take us off the debate stage and the memes of the debate to something a little bit more heartwarming and compassionate. And I’m sure you’ve seen the video of Jon Bon Jovi on the bridge in Nashville, with a production assistant from his team, that went over and helped a woman who was on the other side of the railing. Broad daylight, they were shooting a video for Bon Jovi. They noticed this woman standing there and very casually went over, talked to her, engaged with her, got her to come back onto the other side of the bridge and gave her a big hug. And to me, it was a reminder – there are very real things going on in people’s lives, and sometimes a helping hand and a little compassion can really go a long way.
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: I loved that story because it’s just a basic story of, like, human kindness and goodness, and I feel like, covering politics, you don’t often – that doesn’t fill my orbit and world that often. Let’s put it that way.
MONTANARO: Yeah. And, you know, we should say, if people are struggling with suicidal ideation or being depressed, you know, you can call 988. There’s help.
MOORE: Glad you mentioned that. Really a heartwarming story. So Asma, what about you? What can’t you let go of?
KHALID: OK, well, I am taking us in a totally different direction. Not political, and I’m not even sure it’s really heartwarming, but I don’t know if either of you all watch the show “Emily in Paris.” Do you watch this show?
MOORE: I haven’t, but I…
MONTANARO: I haven’t seen that, no.
KHALID: Oh my God, guys, I’m addicted, and I can’t explain to you why I’m even addicted to this show ’cause you watch, and you’re like, I’m not sure this is good TV. Why am I watching this?
MOORE: That’s what I’ve heard.
KHALID: But I keep watching it.
MOORE: Yeah.
KHALID: And new season is out. I think I’ve discovered why I’m obsessed with this show. As you all know, I’m obsessed with fashion. Emily in “Emily in Paris” wears the most ridiculous/fabulous – I’m not really sure if they’re ridiculous or fabulous outfits. Just Google this, and you’ll be like, no one should wear this in public. It doesn’t matter if you live in Paris.
MONTANARO: I just did. Oh, look at that.
KHALID: Everything is, like, overly color coordinated.
MOORE: Oh, wow. The frills.
KHALID: The frills are extreme.
MONTANARO: You expect the raspberry beret and some of the black and white, but – yeah.
KHALID: (Laughter). But I think that’s part of why I love this show, is I just love to see the outfits that she wears because, I mean, there are literally, like – I think there’s an Instagram account dedicated to “Emily in Paris” outfits. And then some people have tried to see if they can actually wear these outfits in real life. And could you? I don’t know, guys. So if I show up next week wearing…
MOORE: Please.
KHALID: …A head-to-toe blue suit with ridiculously tall shoes, you’ll know I was inspired (laughter).
MOORE: You would literally slay in that. You would look so good. I’d be like, get on TV right now.
MONTANARO: This is Friday the 13th, and it does then make me think of costumes for Halloween.
MOORE: Oh, my God.
KHALID: Oh, yeah.
MOORE: You should be “Emily In Paris” for Halloween.
KHALID: Oh, my God, that’s kind of a brilliant idea.
MOORE: Yeah.
MONTANARO: Right?
KHALID: I kind of love that.
MOORE: OK, that’s great.
KHALID: Thank you for that inspiration. All right, well, on that note, let’s wrap up today’s show. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our producers are Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Special thanks to Ben Swasey and Brett Neely. I’m Asma Khalid. I cover the White House.
MOORE: I’m Elena Moore. I cover the campaign.
MONTANARO: And I’m Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
KHALID: And thank you all, as always, for listening to the NPR POLITICS PODCAST.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE BIG TOP ORCHESTRA’S “TEETER BOARD: FOLIES BERGERE (MARCH AND TWO-STEP)”)
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.