The joy is fading. Kamala Harris' manufactured, try-hard "joy"-based campaign was always as phony as her new "moderate pragmatist" makeover – or literally anything Tim Walz has ever said. But they committed to the bit and rode that wave for weeks on end, insisting through gritted teeth how very "joyful" they were. Many journos dutifully repeated the line, clapping along like the trained seals they are. But Kamala's joy era seems to have vanished with "Brat" summer, and now we're witnessing a sight that must be familiar to the legions of ex-staffers who have left Harris' employ in droves throughout her entire career. This is how her own husband, seemingly attempting to tell a lighthearted story, described the dressing down he received for daring to miss an important phone call from her while he was at an exercise class:
NEW: Doug Emhoff says his wife Kamala cussed at him and told him to "get to work" when Joe Biden dropped out of the race because he was in a spin class.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 15, 2024
Emhoff says his wife, who once forced staff to refer to her as 'The General,' was fuming when he missed her call.
"I just ran… pic.twitter.com/dkQEBNCwnx
Delightful! Speaking of Doug, he caught a rhetorical stray at the Al Smith dinner last night, based on this episode (which was reported by the same journalist who broke this story about other allegations against him):
TRUMP: "A major issue in this race is childcare, and Kamala has put forward a concept of a plan... The only piece of advice I would have for her in the event she wins would be not to let husband Doug anywhere near the nannies."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 18, 2024
LMFAOpic.twitter.com/SMyRXHD6sr
More on the Al Smith dinner in a moment, but first, I'll note that there was not much joy on display during Kamala's sit-down with Bret Baier this week. And this little bit seems pointedly unjoyful:
What happened to the joy? 😂 pic.twitter.com/33s8W956jy
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 17, 2024
Then there was the stone-faced, detached-from-reality statement the Harris campaign released after Trump's laugh-filled roast at the traditional Al Smith dinner in New York City:
Kamala Harris’s campaign issues a full-blown statement about Trump’s jokes at a joke dinner that she intentionally skipped pic.twitter.com/eQciSLam5C
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 18, 2024
Harris snubbed the event, becoming the first nominee of either party to skip the dinner in 40 years. Perhaps she thought only elected nominees were invited to attend in person. As I noted back when she first announced she wouldn't be there, a lot of people seemed mystified as to why she'd whiff on an easy opportunity to look loose and funny, relatably cracking jokes in front of a receptive crowd. Any number of prominent left-leaning comedians would have lined up to write her strong material. But I think she didn't show because part of her base doesn't want her to "normalize" Trump, but mostly because she isn't confident in her own abilities – for good reason. Harris' so-called "imposter syndrome" is real and earned. It's one of the few authentic things about her. She and her team may not believe she has the capacity to succeed in such a setting, as evidenced by an anecdote reported months ago, from earlier in her Vice Presidency:
In 2022, the White House internally pushed Harris to be the headliner for D.C.'s traditional Gridiron Dinner, but she resisted. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo did it instead...In April 2022, Harris was the guest for a dinner at D.C. news mogul David Bradley's home — a salon-style event Bradley hosts with Washington journalists and newsmakers. Harris' anxiety about the dinner was such that her staff held a mock dinner beforehand, with staffers playing participants, according to two people familiar with the event. Harris aides even considered including wine in the mock prep so Harris could practice with a glass or two.
She nixed a Gridiron Dinner appearance and anxiously prepared for a private dinner party. The Al Smith event may have been just a bit too much for her to handle. As for the statement above, it was another missed opportunity. The campaign could have issued a witty, well-written, amusing statement, in the spirit of the gathering she skipped. Instead, we got that joyless dreck, which somehow rapped Trump over wanting to use a teleprompter. An odd choice, given Kamala's obvious use of a teleprompter in her mailed-in video presentation – in which the, um, comedic heavy lifting was done by Molly Shannon's "SNL" character, Mary Katherine Gallagher, from 25 years ago:
VP @KamalaHarris video with Molly Shannon's Saturday Night Live character Mary Katherine Gallagher at the Al Smith Dinner.
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 18, 2024
Dinner MC @JimGaffigan: "As I watch that I couldn't help but think of, now I know how my kids felt when I FaceTime into a piano recital they were at." pic.twitter.com/ibigiim32G
Timely stuff. Heh:
Mary Katherine Gallagher is so old, people don’t even make that reference when they meet me anymore. There was an unfortunately large segment of my life tho during which people did that armpit thing in front of me.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) October 18, 2024
Harris' absence was booed by the crowd, and emcee Jim Gaffigan got some solid shots in, too:
Jim Gaffigan: "The Democrats have been telling us Trump's reelection is a threat to democracy. In fact, they were so concerned of this threat, they staged a coup, ousted their democratically elected incumbent, and installed Kamala Harris." pic.twitter.com/ZVgqMbT2p5
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
Kamala gets roasted for being the first presidential nominee since 1984 to skip the Al Smith charity dinner:
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
"She did find time to appear on The View, Howard Stern, Colbert — and the longtime staple of campaigning, the Call Her Daddy podcast..." pic.twitter.com/gVBxTcv6ou
JIM GAFFIGAN: "The media has begun discussing the phenomena of 'secret Trump voters' — people who publicly say they'd never vote for Trump, but then when they go in the voting booth, they do. It's a small group. They're called the 'Biden family.'"
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/73F7exog95
I'll leave you with a few of Trump's better lines of the night, in case you missed it:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: "I’d like to thank our M.C. this evening, Jim Gaffigan. Most recently, Jim has been playing Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live. That’ll be a very short gig, Jim, but it was fun while it lasted!...
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
Unfortunately, Governor Walz isn’t here himself. But don’t worry,… pic.twitter.com/lGSUg7OeSY
PRESIDENT TRUMP: "There’s a group called “White Dudes for Harris”... but I’m not worried about them at all, because their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me." pic.twitter.com/QWhzG1q1Sz
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
PRESIDENT TRUMP: "It is a true pleasure to be with you this evening... and these days, it’s really a pleasure ANYWHERE in New York without a subpoena for my appearance." pic.twitter.com/JykMDrMXQX
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2024
And by the way, look at this trend line:
🇺🇲 National polling trends with leaners by @EmersonPolling
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 18, 2024
August 14
🟦 Harris: 52.3% (+4.6)
🟥 Trump: 47.7%
September 4
🟦 Harris: 51.3% (+3.7)
🟥 Trump: 47.6%
October 1
🟦 Harris: 50.2% (+1.6)
🟥 Trump: 48.6%
October 16
🟦 Harris: 49.5% (+0.3)
🟥 Trump: 49.2% https://t.co/KQt4ho7AzK pic.twitter.com/iSgrzndzZp
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