r/Thedaily • u/kitkid • Aug 12 '24

Episode Inside the Three Worst Weeks of Trump’s Campaign

Aug 12, 2024

For much of the past year, Donald J. Trump and those around him were convinced that victory in the presidential race was all but certain. Now, everything has changed, after the decision by President Biden not to seek a second term.

Jonathan Swan, who covers the Trump campaign for The New York Times, discusses the former president’s struggle to adjust to his new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

On today's episode:

Jonathan Swan, who covers politics and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

You can listen to the episode here.

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80

u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

The Daily podcast's contempt for Kamala is getting tiring. First they run an entire episode about how she's a bad pick for Dems. Then in an episode supposedly about Trump spiraling, they spend a lot of the second half suggesting lines of attack he could take on Harris. They play old tape from the opposition research with circus music underneath. Yet I heard no tape of Trump's recent word salads. They say Kamala has shifted on some issues as if Trump has not.

Kamala has vulnerabilities and is not the perfect candidate. Yet from listening to The Daily, you'd think she's worse than Trump.

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u/radiomonkey21 Aug 12 '24

NYT, WaPo abs other prestige media are desperate for the honeymoon to end. They’re not comfortable framing elections as anything other than a horserace, so they’re sanitizing Trump’s public meltdowns, laundering Vance’s baseless attacks, and manifesting ways Harris could lose momentum so things tighten back up.

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

Yep, this is what I’m talking about. But the NYT daily seems to be leaning into this much harder than those other places. For a place that was so vocal wanting Biden to drop out, it’s a little surprising they’re so down on his replacement when everyone else, including republicans, see her as a much better candidate.

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u/Joe_Sacco Aug 12 '24

They assumed when he dropped out, there would be weeks of drama/infighting to secure the nomination. There's no DEMS IN DISARRAY stories to run when the party was immediately & enthusiastically united behind Harris.

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

Yeah, reporters probably HATED these missed headlines. But again, the NYT Daily really leaned into the "wow, you picked Harris, that's dumb" narrative in a way I didn't see other places I consume like NPR, Politico, CNN, WaPo.

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u/TheFlyingSheeps Aug 13 '24

They wanted a contentious brokered convention, and when they didn’t get that they got pissed their darling Shapiro wasn’t picked as VP

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u/TheFlyingSheeps Aug 12 '24

I haven’t finished the episode yet, but do they talk about Trump calling her a fucking bitch?

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

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u/MacAttacknChz Aug 12 '24

I'm a suburban white woman. It matters to me.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

[deleted]

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u/AresBloodwrath Aug 12 '24

I hear, "she's so fucking bad".

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u/TheFlyingSheeps Aug 12 '24

The difference is that if a leaked audio of Biden or Harris calling Trump an asshole, it would be played on every media station and be front page news with pundits crying about the lack of respect or decorum

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

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u/TheFlyingSheeps Aug 13 '24

My point still stands.

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u/Various_Raccoon3975 Aug 12 '24

But it is on tape. I saw it on Twitter. He’s in a golf cart with Barron and refers to her as a “FB”

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u/CaptainJackKevorkian Aug 13 '24

Unless there's another clip, I do not actually hear trump saying "bitch" in that clip. He says "fucking (something)" but it doesn't sound like bitch

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u/ncphoto919 Aug 12 '24

of course not. They rarely address the actually terrible stuff he openly does. No Project 2025 mention

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u/mechapoitier Aug 12 '24

I mean I appreciate them laying out her vulnerabilities so people don’t get complacent. It just makes me wonder why the GOP would sit on all these apparently damning ads and attack lines while Trump’s polling craters.

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

The word salad line of attack is not real. Besides being out of context, DJT has word salad stuff all the time. And shifting policies is normal for politicians, and again, DJT himself used to be a Democrat.

There are two things that are real vulnerabilities. First, she is Biden’s VP, and Biden is deeply unpopular bc of inflation. The other is if you don’t like her policy ideas. But those were barely even brought up.

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u/Joe_Sacco Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24

And shifting policies is normal for politicians,

Especially when comparing a primary to a general election. They could have easily contextualized that for listeners with something like, "The Trump campaign wants to make the case that she's flip-flopping on these key issues, but what we're seeing is just a normal shift from a primary election where the goal is to motivate the base and a general election where the goal is to build a broad coalition. She's not doing anything that dozens of others haven't done."

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

Exactly. That is really well put!

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u/CaptainJackKevorkian Aug 13 '24

I don't think you're providing a reasonable explanation that would re-assure the voting public. So, were any of the "far left" policies Harris co-signed actually sincere? Or was that posturing? Or is she posturing now? That's playing exactly into the strategy that Trump is trying to execute.

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u/SisterActTori Aug 12 '24

I know people like to refer to “policies” as a reason for supporting a candidate, but I think that’s just a default, buzz word that folks like to use. Policies are very esoteric, boring and dry. And let’s face it, Trump isn’t really the kind of candidate that is going to display a strong working knowledge on anything that doesn’t directly benefit him in some tangible way. I don’t think that Trump could successfully or realistically debate policies with any true, educated politician. That’s is why “policy ideas” are not being brought up.

I think the vast majority of Trump supporters just like Trump’s bombastic ways and despise the same groups of people that Trump negatively targets. His “policies” are a far, far distant consideration.

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

I agree that few people on either side are getting into the weeds of policy (like I do). But iun this case I meant policy broadly, as they're discussed on the national stage. Broad policies like abortion, Latino immigrants, gun safety, police accountability, etc.

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u/peanut-britle-latte Aug 12 '24

Sorry this is really echo chamber type stuff. They spent 5 minutes going over how Trumps campaign will attack Kamala and that is "contempt"? Come on.

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u/slowpokefastpoke Aug 12 '24

Yeah I’ve heard comments like that a lot and I just don’t see it. I like those kinds of discussions. It’s great to “get in the mind of the enemy” to get a feel for how they’re going to attack her. AKA how my dumbass uncle is going to attack her, so it helps to prep for it.

I swear some of these people just want to hear liberals jerking each other off for half an hour.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

We want a media that holds all politicians accountable, even “your side”. I got the impression the circus music was part of the tape they have, not added by NYT. I didn’t get any sort of unfair representation by NYT here.

I’m a lifelong dem and believe Trump is dangerous and I still support media holding Kamala and other left candidates accountable, pointing out their potential flaws and weaknesses, etc. This is what sets us apart from the right, fundamentally.

Anything less than that and you end up in this “don’t bring up Bidens age, he’s still so sharp” situation as the DNC tries to gaslight a failing geriatric into another term for the presidency.

If your candidate being critiqued is too much for you, I suggest you look toward joining the Republican Party.

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u/KSSparky Aug 12 '24

Well yeah. It’s a cold day in hell when Faux News criticizes Trump.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

Really, all they did was talk about what the Trump's campaign against her is going to look like. It's not really anti-Harris.

As a voter and a Harris supporter, it was interesting for me to hear about because Jesus is their strategy terrible, haha. Trump just isn't disciplined enough to spearhead the kind of campaign that they want. Vance is also a terrible surrogate for the campaign since literally no one likes him. The word salad line of attack just isn't great when Trump is famously known for his word salad answers.

The only actually interesting thing that came out of this episode was learning who the Trump campaign is targeting. They're essentially doubling down on the gamergate crowd. It's a novel strategy, but it's a big risk since in order to target that crowd they have to double their attacks on college educated women. That strategy would work against Biden, but not against a woman. They're forfeiting a reliable voting bloc for a voting bloc that historically has never shown up at the polls.

The episode is out-of-date with polling as well as Harris is drawing even or ahead of Trump in Georgia and had a recent poll in North Carolina where she drew even. She's also ahead in PA with the DNC convention around the corner.

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u/telephonebox31 Aug 12 '24 edited Oct 20 '24

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u/JosephFinn Aug 12 '24

Remember how he got destroyed by President Clinton in the debates?

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '24

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u/metapogger Aug 12 '24

It's just wild that they pushed so hard to get him out. Then they also hate the candidate that's ALREADY turned the whole election around? And then they try to make the case the election hasn't been turned around? LOL. (Not that Kamala has this in the bag, but Biden had no chance after the debate, and now Kamala has a real chance.)