DNC in Chicago, RFK Jr. withdraws campaign : NPR

We review the eventful week in politics — the Democratic National Convention, the Trump campaign’s counterprogramming, and RFK Jr. suspending his campaign.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Good morning, today, from the studios of WBEZ in Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan. We were in town to cover the Democratic National Convention this week. The balloons and confetti have fallen for both parties. Now the last stretch of campaigning begins in a race that is contentious and very close. Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us.

RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.

SIMON: I was in the hall. Vice President Harris recalled how she used to introduce herself in courtrooms as a prosecutor – Kamala Harris for the people. How did she introduce herself to millions of Americans this week as the Democratic candidate for president?

ELVING: In the end, she was the star of the show, but it was quite a show on all four nights, and it had many stars. Ultimately, though, the idea was to present Harris not only as the anti-Trump, both personally and politically, but also as a dynamic and vibrant personality – one that we have not seen. When she spoke, she kept the emphasis on themes and values with some policy talk, but far less than journalists and Republicans would like. Part of that was defensive, and part of it may have been in the interest of maintaining a show of party unity.

SIMON: Ron, you and I have covered many conventions. Given the atmosphere and confusion a few weeks ago, I was struck by how unified Democrats appear to be.

ELVING: It reminded me of the Clinton conventions in the ’90s and the Obama conventions a decade later, all about the unity and the shared goal of winning in November. And it enabled this, the incumbent party, to flip the script and present their candidates as the fresh new faces of the alternative to more of the same, casting Trump as a man of the past.

Now, Scott, I’ve been to the conventions since – I’ve been watching since the 1960s, and I’ve been to 18 of them as a reporter. It’s rare to see this kind of almost giddy good feeling, especially for the Tim Walz rollout on Wednesday night. He was such a total unknown, and here he was an overnight folksy phenomenon – a bit like Barack Obama giving the keynote in 2004, when no one had heard of him, or Sarah Palin introducing herself as John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

SIMON: Let me ask you about the split screen Thursday night. Fox News had live footage coverage from the DNC on one half and former President Trump phoning in for an interview on the other. How did Trump and his campaign handle counterprogramming this week?

ELVING: You know, we didn’t used to see this kind of thing, but over the last few decades, both parties have started to contest the media spotlight during and right after a convention for the other party. But trolling the other nominee’s acceptance speech in real time on TV is new and a move truly worthy of Trump. But he was – it was, well, dueling platforms all week long. And at times it got quite personal.

But I was also struck by another story I saw on Fox News, a group of high-level Republican lawyers Friday, who worked for Ronald Reagan or one of the two Bush presidents, signed a letter endorsing Harris and saying that the candidate of their own party, Donald Trump, had disqualified himself with his disregard for the law and for the peaceful transfer of power.

SIMON: Ron, what kind of effect could Robert F. Kennedy’s announcement that he’s suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump be?

ELVING: On the national numbers, it might not mean much. But as we always say, in the very closest of the swing states, even the tiniest of margins could make the difference. So it matters that RFK Jr. has finally embraced the role he may have been playing for longer than he realized. He’s a spoiler, and now he’s a straight-up ally for Trump. And of course, it didn’t take long for Kennedy’s brothers and sisters to release their letter, denouncing him for what they called a betrayal of their father’s values. And Trump said nice things about RFK Jr. without getting too specific about all his vaccine conspiracy theories or the personal revelations that have driven Kennedy’s polling numbers down from the teens to the mid to low single digits.

SIMON: NPR’s Ron Elving, thanks so much for being with us.

ELVING: Thank you, Scott.

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