Black women mobilize for Harris campaign but brace for backlash | The Excerpt

On Wednesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry discusses how Black women are mobilizing for Vice President Kamala Harris' push for the White House. Sen. Bob Menendez will resign, following his corruption conviction. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. USA TODAY Campaign Reporter Zac Anderson discusses the possible roles that Trump family members could play in a second administration. A retirement surge is here.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Wednesday, July 24th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, how Black women are mobilizing for Kamala Harris. Plus, Senator Bob Menendez will resign. And we look at which Trump family members could have influence in a second administration.

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Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Milwaukee yesterday as she made her case to be the next President.

Kamala Harris:

I pledge to you, I will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so that we are ready to win in November.

Taylor Wilson:

The Harris campaign is touting $126 million raised since President Joe Biden announced his exit from the election. That includes $81 million in just the first 24 hours since Biden's exit, making it the largest one day fundraising haul for any candidate ever, according to the campaign. The fundraising comes as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between July 22nd and July 23rd found Harris leading Donald Trump 44% to 42% among registered voters.

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Meanwhile, many Black women across the country are mobilizing for Harris while also bracing for backlash. I spoke with USA Today National correspondent, Deborah Barfield Berry for more.

Hello, Deborah.

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Hi, Taylor. It's good to see you.

Taylor Wilson:

Good to see you. Thanks for hopping on today. So, I want to just start here, Deborah. Vice President Kamala Harris is now the likely Democratic candidate for President. What does this moment mean for Black women in America?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, from the women I talked to and the women who are putting things out on social media and different circles, there seems to be a level of excitement that some of them say they haven't had since some helped run campaigns like Obama's in 2008.

Taylor Wilson:

And would you just tell us about this Zoom call on Sunday that came after the announcement that Biden was dropping out of the race?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

I don't know how long it took before texts were going out, emails. Everybody was using social media and their network to reach out to women all across the country, me included, where they were putting out the fact that they were having this Zoom call that evening to talk about Harris and what to do next.

Word went out, and before you know it, folks are trying to get on the Zoom call, which had reached capacity, they say, before you even started, with 1,000. Then they expanded it to 3,000 and it had also reached capacity. Then they said they were going to expand it to 10,000. And by the time we got off the call, organizers said there were 44,000 people on the Zoom. So, needless to say, there were a whole lot of folks who were interested in being a part of that discussion.

Taylor Wilson:

And what was the focus of that conversation?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, much of it featured prominent Black women leaders of civic engagement organizations, congressional Black lawmakers, local lawmakers, faith leaders, community activists. It was a range of folks who were active in helping and promoting both get-out-the-vote efforts and helping Black women get elected to different offices.

It was supposed to have been off the record, so some of us respected that. So we didn't write about that as much as it happened and talked to folks later. But much of that focus was about VP Harris running and what they would do about trying to help support her candidacy and how important this historic moment was to both the country, to them, and to the world.

Taylor Wilson:

For years, as you write, Black women-led groups have been pushing get-out-the-vote campaigns and building infrastructure to support Black female candidates. Could you talk about the history leading up to this moment?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, actually, Taylor, a lot of those efforts weren't just about supporting Black women. Much of that infrastructure and much of that work that has been put into place for years was about supporting candidates that cared about issues that were important to this segment of the population.

So they were instrumental in helping candidates like Doug Jones in Alabama break some records by being the first Democrat in 25 years. They helped Biden in his bid. I mean, they played a key role in Warnock winning Georgia in the Senate race. So it's not always been about helping Black women, though that's been the push in recent years, especially since Black women have been becoming not just the backbone of helping people, but getting elected themselves. They've done it for candidates for years, so this is not new.

I think what's been more of a focus in recent years is that the groups have become much more organized. They've also been able to raise money to go along with that infrastructure and to use it to help women candidates run and win. So that's the newer part. And they've been coalescing. There's a coalition that's unshakeable, that they get together and they go hard in battleground states. They get together and have conferences. They strategize or simply have a phone call on a Sunday night that brings 44,000 people to the call and raises $1.5 million.

Taylor Wilson:

And Deborah, not everyone is optimistic here. What are some of the fears or concerns you're hearing from Black women?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, they already know this off the top, that there's going to be some backlash to having a woman, and especially a woman of color, running. That's already happening. It was happening before we even got to this point. So they're bracing for attacks about her race, attacks about her sex, about her history as a prosecutor, her ethnicity.

So what they've already done is come up with counter-efforts, and that is making sure they send out information, correct information, making sure they push back on some of the attacks. I just talked to Representative Clyburn of South Carolina, and for the most part he says that's going to come, but that the candidate and everybody else needs to stay focused on the message, stay focused on what they need to do, and know that that's going to be part of going forward in this campaign.

Taylor Wilson:

We're a few months out from November in the election. How critical is the Black women vote to Democrats success this fall?

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, traditionally, Black women voters have backed the Democratic candidates. Experts say it's absolutely critical. Not only do they come out and they support the candidates, but more importantly, they bring grandma out, they'll bring the cousin out, they'll bring their fathers out, the children. They, in many ways, are the backbone of the party, and they are the ones who will not only do the get-out-the-vote part, but they will make sure folks show up at the polls as well.

Taylor Wilson:

Deborah Barfield Berry is a national correspondent with USA Today. I really appreciated this story and you coming on and talking about it. Thank you, Deborah.

Deborah Barfield Berry:

Well, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez will resign. The lawmaker from New Jersey made the decision after he was convicted on 16 felony counts earlier this month. Menendez will step down on August 20th. He, his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez and others were part of a bribery scheme where Menendez received, among other things, cash, gold bars, and a luxury car in exchange for using his political influence. It's up to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to appoint someone to serve out the remaining months on Menendez' current term.

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In another notable and largely expected resignation yesterday, Secret Service Director, Kimberly Cheatle resigned 10 days after a lone gunman's near-assassination of former President Donald Trump. The incident shook confidence in her ability to lead the agency charged with protecting Presidents, candidates and other important figures. The agency confirmed later yesterday that Ronald Rowe, the Deputy Director of the Secret Service, will take over as Acting Director. Cheatle's resignation comes just a day after she was grilled by lawmakers at a House Oversight Committee hearing Monday, where she admitted the incident was the biggest security failure in decades for the protective agency.

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Last week's Republican National Convention saw a number of Trump family members take the stage, but who could have influence in a second administration? I spoke with USA Today Campaign reporter, Zac Anderson for more.

Hello, Zac.

Zac Anderson:

Hey, how are you?

Taylor Wilson:

Good, good. Thanks for hopping back on The Excerpt here on this busy week. So, I just want to start here before we look forward, Zac. How did Donald Trump previously tap family members when he was in the White House? What kinds of positions did they hold?

Zac Anderson:

So he's always had family members involved, especially with his campaigns. But when he won in 2016, he had his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner join the White House, and they were kind of senior special advisors. But in a lot of ways, people viewed Jared Kushner as a shadow chief of staff, in a way. They had their own profiles that they would work on. Jared Kushner was very involved in foreign policy, but they both were hugely influential in his first administration.

Taylor Wilson:

So I'm curious, if Trump wins this time, what can we expect when it comes to his family members and their roles in a new Trump administration? What might be some of the big figures here?

Zac Anderson:

So one of the things that we've seen since Trump lost in 2020 is that Ivanka and Jared have receded into the background. There was a lot that went on during the first Trump presidency. It was obviously very tumultuous. And the sense is that they kind of had had enough. They went down to their home in the Miami area with their kids, and they haven't been very public figures since then. They haven't been out on the campaign trail really stumping for their father as he runs for re-election.

And what we've seen more so is that other Trump family members have really taken the spotlight. People like Donald Trump Jr, people like Eric Trump, who are the former president's two eldest sons. We've also seen Lara Trump, who is Eric Trump's wife, really take the spotlight. She's the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. And all three of them spoke at the convention. All of them have been involved in the past, but they really are now the biggest figures, the most prominent, and likely the most influential if Trump were to win re-election.

Taylor Wilson:

So on that note, you write that there are more MAGA and less MAGA people, even within Trump's family. It's clear he's really giving speaking opportunities and chances on the campaign trail to the more MAGA side, as you've outlined. So what is next for the members of his family that don't fall as strongly on the MAGA scale, and who are some of these family members? Are we talking about Ivanka in this case?

Zac Anderson:

Yeah, I think mostly Ivanka and Jared. Some other Trump family members that we haven't talked about are his wife, Melania, his youngest son, Barron. Their political views are not as well-documented, but they are obviously prominent members of his family. Melania has also been more in the background. She's going to make an appearance here at the convention. Barron has just started to dip his toes in a little bit. He was at a Trump rally in Miami last week. But it's not clear, he's still pretty young. It's not clear that he's really going to have much of a role.

So what we're really seeing is Eric and Donald Trump Jr especially take on a stronger position within Trump world. And Don Jr was very influential in who his father selected as a running mate; JD Vance, the senator from Ohio. He really advocated strongly for him. Don Jr is considered maybe the most MAGA, the most hardcore of the Trump family members. He really fits in strongly with that group, and the idea that he could advocate for somebody like Vance, who's kind of a kindred spirit, also very well liked by the MAGA faithful is interesting.

He said at a recent event that he was fighting off other forces who were trying to push other figures. Then he has actually said that if his father's re-elected, he won't necessarily push certain people for his administration, but he will try to keep out people that he doesn't like. So he'll act as like a gatekeeper, and that could obviously be an extremely important position, if he's keeping people that he doesn't like out of the White House.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, it could be a massive role. Zac Anderson covers Donald Trump and Republicans for USA Today. Thank you, Zac.

Zac Anderson:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

A retirement surge is here. A record 4.1 million Americans are set to turn 65 this year and each year through 2027, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income's Retirement Income Institute. Although not all of those folks will retire, the surge of freshly minted 65-year-olds, known as Peak 65, will likely mean record retirements as well. The wave of retirees is expected to keep job openings elevated and force employers to raise pay to attract candidates from a more slowly growing labor force. There were 8.1 million job vacancies in May, Labor Department figures show, down from a record 12.2 million in March of 2022, but above the pre-pandemic average of about 7 million. For a closer look at which industries will be hit by the retirement surge the highest, check out a link in today's show notes.

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President Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office tonight about what comes next now that he has ended his bid for a second term. You can follow along with usatoday.com.

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And we're excited for the 2024 Olympic Games to kick off this week. And today, you can hear from a member of Team USA, BMX racer Cam Wood. The 22-year-old is America's top hopeful in the sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Tune in after 4:00 PM Eastern Time on this feed as Cam joins my co-host, Dana Taylor, to talk about his journey and his goals for this year's games.

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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black women mobilize for Harris but brace for backlash | The Excerpt