Tipsheet

Kamala Harris Is Now Being Summoned to Put Out Fires

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  July 19, 2024 3:00 PM

Things are not well in Bidenland when Vice President Kamala Harris, a serial gaffe master, is hauled into put-out fires. The Democratic Party underwent what some have called a generational meltdown during the Republican National Committee. Joe Biden got cut down by COVID during a Nevada trip, more Democrats are calling on him to drop out, and the heavyweights of the party are done wiping their fingerprints from clear and obvious moves to force the president out. The Biden White House is besieged. 

Moreover, the president’s calls with House Democrats were outright disasters, so Kamala is next. It’s not who you want, but there’s no one left. Biden’s campaign managers and senior staffers can’t quell the rebellion, so why not wheel out the vice president (via NYT): 

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to address a network of major Democratic donors on short notice Friday afternoon, according to two people invited to the call. 

Ms. Harris will speak to the group at a time of extraordinary turmoil in the Democratic Party and when many Democrats are hoping that she will become the nominee. It is unclear whether Ms. Harris plans to encourage the restive donor base to calm down or to deliver some other message.

Ms. Harris’s aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The call is endorsed in part by Reid Hoffman, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest givers, who on Friday morning encouraged his Silicon Valley network to join the meeting.

“We continue to find ourselves in a rapidly evolving environment,” Mr. Hoffman wrote in an email addressed to “friends and allies.” “With the stakes as high as they are this cycle, we have to remain focused on the critical work that needs to be done to protect our democracy.” 

Reid Hoffman has been in the news since he and his top adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, were busted making disturbing remarks about Donald Trump and the assassination attempt against him. Before the July 13 attack, Hoffman joked about failing to make Trump an actual “martyr” for the GOP. Mehlhorn pushed a nutty theory about how the assassination attempt was staged like some Putin-like political ploy.