Following President Joe Biden’s decision to step away from reelection in 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris has been busy at work to cement herself as the new figure of the Democratic party.
This election season, Harris and her team have been maintaining a breviloquent list of interviews while simultaneously keeping the longevity of her pep rallies and campaign events at a minimum. While some equated her lack of public press presence with current President Biden’s supposed “fear of being questioned in news conferences,” Harris’ team hastily stifled these rumors, emphasizing that in the midst of such an unforeseen and cataclysmic run, she has been working diligently off-the-record to ensure that both her and her party are guaranteed a stable position in the polls this November.
Subsequently, this is one rationale as to why some were surprised to see her appear on TikToker Alex Cooper’s podcast, Call Her Daddy, this past Sunday.
As its name insinuates, Call Her Daddy is by no means a political podcast. Cooper, who founded the broadcast in 2018 alongside her former roommate, describes her podcast as “raunchy”—among other terms—and states her overall distaste for politics in general on several occasions in her episodes. Most of her content is comprised of themes far out of the diplomatic sphere, concentrating on quasi-unconventional and bold motifs whose genuinity has earned the podcast both a predominantly female audience and a dominion among many competing shows in both similar and divergent genres.
As opposed to much of Cooper’s past episodes, the installment featuring Harris rightfully took a more earnest approach, making sure to hit on viewpoints essential to Harris’ campaign, such as her opposition to the repeal of Roe v. Wade, abortion rights, and her stress on voicing the opinions and experience of women.
Unfortunately, her approach on these topics, most likely a result of the puerile setting she was in, came across as slightly callow at times, as a portion of her answers were accompanied by Gen-Z buzzwords and internet slang. This was seen explicitly when Harris told viewers, “I urge all the Daddy Gang: don’t say ‘no,’ just don’t hear it,” a statement she issued to express her belief that, in today’s current condition, it becomes increasingly important to not let other people define oneself.
A portion of the “Daddy Gang,” Cooper’s self-proclaimed name for her adoring fans, seemed to revel in this quote.
The surrounding media, on the other hand, thought otherwise.
Harris was almost instantaneously slammed across pervasive platforms online, with influential press such as the New York Post calling the entire interview “a joke.” Outside of the papers, others were eager to share their opinion of the matter, arguing that while it was nice to see the candidate in a more lighthearted view, her intention of reaching a younger audience came across an abandonment of national awareness in the name of internet advertisement.
The most recurring thought, however, was the fact that amidst the filming of this interview, category four Hurricane Helene was leaving its devastating effects on the state of Florida, with a currently confirmed death toll of at least 230 people (a number which continues to rise) that Harris refrained from addressing throughout the entire course of the broadcast. Now facing an onslaught of criticism, Harris currently sits in a position subject to many claiming that her endeavors to appeal to younger voters may have just cost her a crucial aspect of respect.
This condemnation, however, would not be completely just if not extended to both nominated parties, as her political adversary has exercised arduously similar measures.
Former President Donald Trump featured on YouTuber Logan Paul’s podcast, IMPAULSIVE, in June and on comedian Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend, in August—an effort to extend his campaign to members of a newer generation equivalent to that of Harris. Both Harris and Trump discussed components of what their presidency would bring to America, and both shared their fair share of somewhat cringy aims at empathizing with Gen Z.
Much to the defacement of the figure that Harris upholds, her media blitz—which, in addition to Call Her Daddy, featured appearances on The View, 60 Minutes, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—fell on such unfortunate timing that it cultivated considerably more negativity than any of Trump’s recent social media involvement.
Nevertheless, Harris spent little time addressing the tragedy that many Floridians are currently enduring in the wake of such a horrific natural disaster. What was once perhaps merely an unlucky scheduling coincidence escalated when she finally did make note of the situation, as many accused both her and Donald Trump of “politicizing the storm” and turning the devastation into an effort to further their political agendas surrounding the presidential race while using the Hurricane to fuel an attack of their opposing candidate’s character.
Taking into account both Harris’ and Trump’s response to one of the nation’s most concerning current issues, there seems to be an underlying disturbia masked by the objective to widen their voting demographic: whilst both candidates are advertising themselves in an indecorous manner, the people of the nation desire not a “trendy” podcast appearance, but for their concern to be tended to. As contenders to be the leaders of the nation in only a few months, the emphasis and acknowledgment of pressing safety issues that burden United States citizens should, without fail, be at the forefront of every political conversation.
