Harris Campaign Latest, GOP Legal Challenges, Secret Service Testimony

Vice President Kamala Harris is closer to locking down the presidential nomination.

It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win.

She's got delegate support, but what are the voters saying?

AMIR MARTINEZ That's Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.

And Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle was on Capitol Hill yesterday answering questions about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed.

Can she withstand growing calls for her to step down? Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and election day, we are not going back. A campaign season unfolding faster.

Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion.

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They're all over the internet and bumping out of people's cars. They're the songs of the summer, and this year includes the domination of Charlie XCX and Brat Summer.

She's really tapping into this moment where we are all chronically online, but also chronically outside.

We are talking about the songs of the summer and why they're so catchy and inescapable. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Vice President Kamala Harris makes her first official campaign stop as a likely Democratic nominee with a trip to Milwaukee today.

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.

Good morning.

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?

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, what 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.

So this is obviously a big moment for Harris. What's going on with President Biden?

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.

The name has changed the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all.

And you know, Michelle, 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's eyes were glistening as she spoke.

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.

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.

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?

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.

That is NPR's Asma Khalid Asma, thank you.

Good to talk to you.

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.

Here is House Speaker Mike Johnson on CNN on Sunday morning.

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.

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.

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 Zach Smith with the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which has been raising this possibility for several weeks now.

By having him drop out before the convention, getting 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.

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.

OK, now, Democrats say they're moving forward with a virtual vote in early August. What's the goal there?

Right last night, DNC chairman Jamie Harrison told reporters that delegates will select a nominee through an electronic roll call vote by August 7th. 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Are likely OK, got it. So how might those challenges play out?

So I asked Rick Hasson about this. He's an expert on election law and a professor at UCLA Law School.

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 there would be any quick term resolution of these issues before the election.

Which means Harris can probably spend the money and if there's a problem, pay the fines later.

All right, we had questions. NPR's Sarah McCammon had answers. Thank you, Sarah.

Thanks, say.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle was on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Yeah. For nearly five hours, she faced questions from House lawmakers demanding answers about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas watched yesterday's hearing and he's with us now to tell us about it. Good morning Ryan, good morning, you know. The Secret Service has been under a very uncomfortable spotlight since the shooting at that Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Well, Cheadle 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.

The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.

She also said that she will move heaven and earth to make sure that nothing like July 13th happens again. And that the Secret Service is cooperating with the multiple ongoing investigations underway and conducting its own review of what went wrong.

Have we learned anything new about what happened?

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, the American people have questions.

Congress deserves answers.

You were subpoenaed today to provide answers, and, ma'am, you did not do that. 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.

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.

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.

What sort of details did she confirm?

Well, she said the shooter had been flagged as a suspicious individual before Trump went on stage. 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.

Okay, 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 Cheadle going to remain in charge of the Secret Service, given that this is kind of a bipartisan outrage here?

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.

That is NPR's Ryan Lucas, Ryan, thank you.

Thank you.

And that's up first for Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm Michelle Martin.

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