A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Vice President Kamala Harris makes her first official campaign stop as the likely Democratic nominee with a trip to Milwaukee today.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Harris is technically not yet the Democratic nominee, but party leaders have quickly rallied around her. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid has been reporting on Harris and she's with us now to fill us in on the latest. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So this is all happening so fast, and as everybody has noted, there is no modern precedent for all this. What's Harris saying about it?
KHALID: Well, late last night, she issued a statement saying that she is proud to have secured the support to become the party's nominee. We, in fact, got word that she has reached that delegate count. I will say, in just the last 24 - 36 hours, she's been trying to quickly rally Democrats behind her. She visited her campaign headquarters in Delaware yesterday. And I should point out that this had been the Biden-Harris campaign headquarters until the president dropped out of the race this past weekend. Harris told the campaign team there that she is going to work hard to unite both the party and the nation.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win.
KHALID: And in her remarks there, she also outlined a broad agenda for what she would do in the White House, including fighting for reproductive rights and lifting up the middle class. And then, Michel, she went on and she spoke about her background as an attorney general and a prosecutor.
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HARRIS: In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds.
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KHALID: And, you know, what she's trying to do here is really set up a contrast between her role as a prosecutor and Trump as a felon. I will say, I imagine it's something we're going to hear more of.
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HARRIS: Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.
MARTIN: So this is obviously a big moment for Harris. What's going on with President Biden?
KHALID: Well, we've gotten word that President Biden intends to return to the White House later today after isolating with COVID. He called into the room where Harris was speaking with campaign staff, and he said that dropping out was the right thing to do. He also encouraged his former team to embrace Harris.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all.
KHALID: And, you know, Michel, I was there in the room covering this visit that Harris made to Delaware. I will say that the mood was really party-like. It was not a funeral. You know, there was some emotion. It appeared that Harris' eyes were glistening as she spoke. The staff, though, seemed incredibly enthusiastic. Beyonce was playing. People were chanting Harris' name. And I noticed there were some already newly minted Harris for president signs around the campaign office. I will say, it is also worth pointing out that Harris repeatedly in her remarks there but also earlier paid tribute to the work Biden has done as president. She said that he has accomplished more in one term than many do with two terms.
MARTIN: So Harris obviously has Biden's support. What about other Democrats? It does seem like a number of sort of prominent Democrats are moving in her direction as well.
KHALID: That is indeed what it looks like. You know, no serious challenger has stepped forward to challenge her. And, you know, as we mentioned, as of late last night, she now has enough delegates backing her to become the nominee. The campaign said that between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, it also raised a record amount of money, more than $100 million.
But look, you know, I was at the RNC last week. There is tremendous enthusiasm behind Trump and Republicans were incredibly also confident about their odds. I will say that I think that the way Harris is trying to frame this is that this upcoming election is a choice between two different visions for the future of this nation - one focused on the future, one focused on the past. And that's an argument that she, as someone who's nearly two decades younger than Trump, a Black and Asian woman, can try to make in a very directly personal way.
MARTIN: So, Asma, as everybody's scrambling to adjust to the race without President Biden, the Democratic National Committee is, too. What's the latest on the process for delegates to actually cast their votes for a new nominee?
KHALID: The DNC expects to hold a virtual roll call with delegates in the next few weeks. The Associated Press says Harris has picked up enough support from delegates to officially become the nominee. Now, that support is not binding. Someone else could theoretically throw their name in, or delegates could change their mind up until that roll call vote takes place. But I will say, securing the nomination is just one part of the process for Harris. There's a lot for her to do in this very short, condensed campaign stretch. She needs to vet and pick a vice president and build up a campaign operation.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Asma Khalid. Asma, thank you.
KHALID: Good to talk to you.
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MARTÍNEZ: As President Biden and many other top Democrats are throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Republicans are warning there may be some obstacles in the way of a smooth transition from Biden to Harris as a presidential nominee.
MARTIN: Here is House Speaker Mike Johnson on CNN on Sunday morning.
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MIKE JOHNSON: I think they've got legal hurdles in some of these states. And it'll be litigated, I would expect, on the ground there. And they'll have to sort through that.
MARTÍNEZ: That was before Biden announced he would not seek the nomination and Harris garnered the support of enough delegates to replace Biden as the nominee. But the idea of legal challenges has not completely disappeared. Democrats are trying to fend off those challenges by moving forward with a plan to hold a virtual nomination vote early next month. NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon joins us now. So first, let's start off with this idea the Democrats cannot swap out a candidate at this point. Is that a risk for Harris?
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: In short, it's not. Since Biden announced his plans over the weekend, Republicans seem to be backing away somewhat from this idea that there will be a serious legal challenge to the new Democratic nominee. I spoke to Zack Smith with the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, which has been raising this possibility for several weeks now.
ZACK SMITH: By having him drop out before the convention, giving someone else to officially receive the party's nomination, that may have been an attempt by those on the Democratic side to head off some of these potential legal challenges.
MCCAMMON: Election experts I've been talking to seem to agree that at this point in the race, with Biden dropping out voluntarily before the convention, Democrats are free to pick a new nominee. And they tell me any legal challenges would probably be resolved by the courts quickly.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, Democrats say they're moving forward with a virtual vote in early August. What's the goal there?
MCCAMMON: Right. Last night, DNC chairman Jaime Harrison told reporters that delegates will select a nominee through an electronic roll call vote by August 7. Now, this was already in the works because of some concerns that Democrats were holding their convention too late to comply with ballot deadlines in some states. Democratic Party officials say this has become even more important now with Biden dropping out. And as of last night, the Associated Press, as we heard, is reporting that Harris has secured the support of enough delegates to become the party's nominee.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So even if there's no issue with selecting a nominee or getting that person, Harris or another Democrat, on state ballots, we've been also talking about the fact that there could be some campaign funding challenges for Democrats with replacing Biden. So, Sarah, what are you hearing about that?
MCCAMMON: Well, the argument from some Republicans is that Harris cannot use Biden's campaign funds. Charlie Spies is a former counsel to the Republican National Committee and to the chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
CHARLIE SPIES: There's not a lot of precedent here. But I think they've got a legal problem by having Harris use the Biden committee as her campaign committee.
MCCAMMON: Other experts, though, argue that because Biden and Harris share the campaign committee, there should not be a problem. The head of the FEC told NPR that this is a complicated situation and challenges are likely.
MARTÍNEZ: Are likely. OK, got it. So how might those challenges play out?
MCCAMMON: So I asked Rick Hasen about this. He's an expert on election law and a professor at UCLA Law School.
RICK HASEN: I can tell you that the Federal Election Commission moves very slowly. We're still getting resolution of some issues from the 2016 campaign. And so I don't expect that there would be any quick-term resolution of these issues before the election.
MCCAMMON: Which means Harris can probably spend the money, and if there's a problem, pay the fines later.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. We had questions, NPR's Sarah McCammon had answers. Thank you, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: Thanks, A.
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MARTIN: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was on Capitol Hill yesterday.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, for nearly five hours, she faced questions from House lawmakers demanding answers about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas watched yesterday's hearing and he's with us now to tell us about it. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: You know, the Secret Service has been under a very uncomfortable spotlight since the shooting at that Trump rally in Butler, Pa. You know, a bystander was killed and, of course, we all know, the former president was wounded. So what did the director have to say about what happened there?
LUCAS: Well, Cheatle called the assassination attempt on the 13th of July the most significant operational failure for the Secret Service in decades. And she also said this.
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KIMBERLY CHEATLE: The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13, we failed. As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.
LUCAS: She also said that she will move heaven and Earth to make sure that nothing like July 13 happens again, and that the Secret Service is cooperating with the multiple ongoing investigations underway and conducting its own review of what went wrong.
MARTIN: Have we learned anything new about what happened?
LUCAS: In this hearing, lawmakers certainly didn't think so. This was nearly five hours. It was contentious much of the time. Here's how the committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, summed it up at the end.
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JAMES COMER: The American people have questions. They deserve answers. Congress deserves answers. You were subpoenaed today to provide answers, and ma'am, you did not do that.
LUCAS: One of the main questions coming into this hearing was how the gunman was able to get up on a roof that gave him a clear line of sight on Trump at the rally. And Republicans and Democrats, one after another, pressed her for an answer on that. And time and again, she gave a version of this answer.
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CHEATLE: We are nine days out from this event and I would like to know those answers as well, which is why we are going through these investigations, to be able to determine that fully.
LUCAS: That was her answer on the big basic questions. She did confirm some small details, but again, nothing that would change our understanding of what happened and what went wrong.
MARTIN: OK, but what sort of details did she confirm?
LUCAS: Well, she said the shooter had been flagged as a suspicious individual before Trump went onstage. She said law enforcement officers at the rally were trying to track him down. But she also said it's not rare for someone to be flagged as suspicious at an event like this, and she differentiated between suspicious and being identified as a threat. She also said that the Secret Service did not know that the shooter had a gun before Trump went out to speak, and if they had known, Trump wouldn't have been allowed out on that stage. But again, as I said, these are smaller things. And on the big questions, there was a lot of frustration from lawmakers that she wasn't providing the answers they wanted.
MARTIN: OK, so even given the performative nature of a lot of congressional hearings that we've all seen, both Republicans and Democrats have expressed frustration about this. So is Cheatle going to remain in charge of the Secret Service, given that this is kind of a bipartisan outrage here?
LUCAS: That's a really good question. She said at the hearing that she believes she's the best person for the job and she's going to stay put, but pressure is definitely growing for her to step down. There were already calls, as you noted, for her to resign before this hearing. Then during the hearing, several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle - that includes the committee's top Republican and the top Democrat - told her point-blank that they think she's lost the public's confidence and she needs to go. And then last night, a motion was filed in the House to impeach Cheatle. It's a motion that forces a vote within 48 hours. So the pressure on her to step aside is only growing.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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