[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. I'll tell you again that we are expecting the first public remarks by Vice President Kamala Harris since President Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her and everybody else has been endorsing her in the Democratic Party. If that begins in the next few minutes during our show, we are going to take it live. In the meantime, we'll end the show by simply opening up the phones for a few more minutes for anything that you are thinking or feeling about President Biden dropping out and what has happened since.

Kamala Harris is the already almost presumed nominee, 212-433-WNYC. All right, now I'm told-- I don't have a video monitor on this. I'm told she's walking up to the podium and this is a pre-scheduled event. My producer Mary is giving me some behind-the-scenes here, at what kind of event?

Mary: [unintelligible 00:01:11].

Brian Lehrer: This is NCAA, that's college sports event that she was going to be speaking at anyway, and let's go live to Vice President-- Oh, okay. They're going to introduce her for a second. I'm going to vamp here because you don't need to hear the NCAA officials introducing Kamala Harris, but it looks like we're probably not going to have time for any calls. We were curious and obviously, we're going to continue to cover this in the coming days.

Of course, sometimes introductions of prominent people take 10 minutes themselves. I don't think that's going to happen in this case, but Democrats especially if you want to get in line just in case, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? 212-433-WNYC. Republicans you can call too, independents you can call too, your reactions to Biden ending his political career, your reactions to how quickly Democrats are coalescing around the Vice President, your picks for her running mate assuming she will be the nominee, your tributes too or reviews of Biden as President or as a politician throughout his long career.

How many of you know that he at one time was the youngest US Senator? He became a senator at 29 years old, so he was still in his 20s when he became a member of the Senate and now he has become our oldest President. Talk about a long career, talk about somebody who has seen things and it was one of his great strengths for many people, the fact that he had seen so much, the fact that he knew how to deal with members of Congress so well, the fact that he had seen the arc of history on so many issues that he has had to deal with.

Although that of course can be a drawback too. You can get set in your ways. That's always the balance between youth and age. Age has the experience of wisdom, but age also has the sometimes limited value of seeing things in the way you saw it in years that might've been the most formative to your worldview or to what you think works whereas people who are younger can bring fresher ideas with newer eyes or maybe are more in touch with the actual contemporary realities in the world that maybe somebody who's 60 or 70 or 80 and if they've become financially comfortable enough, especially may not be as viscerally as personally in touch with.

Joe Biden has experienced all those things from being a US Senator at age 29 and now live to Kamala Harris.

Kamala Harris: Thank you for all you do to support these extraordinary student-athletes and it is good to be here with so many leaders including of course members of Congress, members of our administration, and our extraordinary athletes. Our President Joe Biden wanted to be here today. He's feeling much better and recovering fast and he looks forward to getting back on the road.

I wanted to say a few words about our President. Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already-- yes, you may clap.

[applause]

In one term he has already surpassed the legacy of most Presidents who have served two terms in office. I first came to know President Biden through his son Beau. We worked together as Attorneys General in our states. Back then Beau would often tell me stories about his dad. He would talk about the kind of father and the kind of man that Joe Biden is. The qualities that Beau revered in his father are the same qualities that I have seen every day in our President.

His honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart, and his deep love of our country. I am firsthand witness that every day our President Joe Biden fights for the American people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation.

[applause]

With that, on behalf of our President and Dr. Biden, I am honored to welcome all of you to the White House to celebrate the achievements of these great athletes. Every one of them is a national champion, a national champion. In America, tens of millions of people play a sport as a child and the best of the best grow up to become national champions. Here today we have seven undefeated teams, 11 repeat champions, and 21st-time winners.

[applause]

Some of you have represented our nation on the international stage and World Cups and World Championships, and later this month, six of you will represent our nation at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

[applause]

As members of Team USA, you are ambassadors for our nation, and with pride, we will cheer you on and we look forward to congratulating you when you bring home the gold.

[applause]

To all of our athletes, I know it was not easy to make it to this moment. Each of you has faced challenges and obstacles and you have endured, you have fought back and fought through. By doing so you demonstrated that true greatness requires more than skill. It requires grit and determination. You all know what it means to commit and to persevere. You know what it means to count on teammates.

During the course of a long season, sports teams become a family. You rely on each other. You develop relationships that will last a lifetime and you make the people around you better in every way. When you play, you inspire people across our nation. You remind all of us what can be achieved with hard work and ambition. Of course, none of you made it here alone, today you are surrounded by the people who stood by you every step of this journey.

The folks who support you on and off the field, your friends, your family members, your coaches, your trainers, and teachers who for years have cheered you on. Today, again, let us give them a round of applause.

[applause]

In conclusion, I say to our athletes, congratulations again on all you have accomplished, and good luck on all that is to come. Wherever you all go from here, you will always-- and know this, you will always be champions and we will always be so proud of you. Now it is my honor to welcome to the stage Jordynn Dudley who plays on the Florida State University Women's Soccer Team and our U20--

Brian Lehrer: We will take it back here. Vice President Kamala Harris addressing an NCAA student-athletes event. Not much of a campaign speech there in her first appearance since President Biden ended his campaign and endorsed her and everybody else started endorsing her in the Democratic Party but there she is, Vice President Kamala Harris.

We're going to take a break and then for our last just five minutes or so, we'll take your quick responses to the questions we've been asking all morning without any guests this time, just you, Democrats especially your reaction to President Biden's career and his announcement of ending his campaign, your reactions to how quickly Democrats are coalescing around Vice President Harris, and your picks for her running mate if she is the nominee 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, right after this.

Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now in our last five minutes because that's all we have after the Vice President spoke. Your reactions to her apparent elevation to nominee and everything else related. Ricky in Gramercy Park I think has a reaction to hearing Harris speak just now even though it wasn't really a campaign speech. Ricky, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Ricky: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. I'm just so excited about this announcement. I was just saying I'm so grateful to President Biden's service that he made the decision that he did. You want to see the fight in your President, your Commander in Chief all the way to the end but it was time to, like he said, to pass the baton on. It was just great to hear the Vice President Kamala Harris speak right now with so much energy and excitement.

My wife and I were just talking recently August is far away for the DNC so it was very interesting what they're going to do. Just coming out and naming her it's exciting. We've donated to the party like many others have and I think it's going to be an exciting and engaging civic election.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Yes, I'm sure a lot of people were watching that speech or listening to it just now the way you were. It didn't matter that she wasn't talking campaign issues that it was a ceremonial thing for student-athletes. You were listening to hear if she sounded like a President and for you, she sounded like a President. The contrast with the way Biden has been able to speak or his limited ability to speak recently, what a contrast.

There you go. That's a good first call to get. Dan in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Not quite as thrilled I don't think. Dan, hi there.

Dan: Hi. Yes, I've worked for Andrea Stewart Cousins, Gifford Miller, John Kerry. I've been a lifelong Democrat. I'm livid. I am livid that the process, the fair process that was set out in the primary was completely perverted. Here I am talking to my teenage kids about fairness and fairness in the process, and they said, "Dad, where's the fairness in that?" Where's the fairness in 14.5 million voters votes being disenfranchised 288,000 here in New York.

This is what I'm doing, Brian. I'm not giving one penny to the Democrat party. I have called all my elected officials. I really like Kamala Harris, in fact, I know her family. Wonderful people and--

Brian Lehrer: Dan, let me ask you a quick follow-up and I want to try to get one other call in before we run out of time. Do you think that Biden was still the best to beat Trump, and if not, didn't he do the logical thing?

Dan: No. He was pushed out, shoved out over ageism and this is going to be really terrible in the future. This will set a precedent and you wait till 2028 or 2032 when we don't like the polls after a bounce from the RNC that we're going to say, "Let's get rid of this person." It's [inaudible 00:13:44] and I pretty much now quit my party as far as-- I will vote for Kamala or any Democrat, but I'm not for perverting and disenfranchising voters and it's the only thing I agreed with.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for expressing your view. I appreciate it. All right, one more. Liz in Westchester you're on WNYC. Hi, Liz.

Liz: Hi. How are you, Brian? Thank you for taking my call. I just want to say that very grateful to President Biden for his work, for his service to the country. I have to say last week I was feeling pretty depressed about the future. I am now energized, I'm so positive there's hope, and I really feel that that is a reflection of how a lot of people are feeling today, so go Kamala. That's all I can say.

Brian Lehrer: Liz, thank you very much for saying it. With all that we were doing today and taking the Vice President's speech there, that's all the time we have for these calls. Obviously, we're going to keep covering the campaigns and all the developments, and all the issues, it's primarily an issue-oriented show. You have to do some politics in a campaign but we're going to continue to focus like a laser beam on the many issues as well as doing the politics and horse race segments. Here we are, it is day one of the rest of this campaign.

That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen edits our national politics podcast. Our intern this summer is Sasha Lyndon Cohen. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. We had Shayna Sengstock at the audio controls. Stay tuned for Allison.

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