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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Well, the race to define Kamala Harris is on by her campaign, by her supporters, and by her detractors. Have you heard or seen the memes yet that say Kamala Harris is brat or have you seen the coconut tree meme? The campaign couldn't have scripted anything more powerful to come out of the gate, for many young voters especially, than the music superstar Charli XCX did herself without being asked.

If you don't know her album Brat was already the pop music soundtrack of this summer. It had a color associated with it too, which is green. As soon as Biden ended his campaign the other day and endorsed Harris, Charli XCX declared on social media that Kamala Harris is brat. Little video memes started showing up on TikTok and Instagram and elsewhere with Harris tinted green and the phrase, "Kamala is brat," or others like it.

Then there's the coconut tree meme. If you haven't seen this yet, you probably will. Harris with coconuts or little coconut trees in little videos people are making on the web. Here's what that refers to. In May of last year, Harris as vice president was speaking at an event for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, long title, but that was the event. For some reason, people remembered this little story that she told in that speech about something her mother used to say.

Vice President Kamala Harris: Everything is in context. My mother used to-- she would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, "I don't know what's wrong with you, young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?" [laughs] "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

Brian Lehrer: Vice President Harris in May of last year. For her fans, Kamala is brat, Kamala is coconut tree. For her detractors, there are other words. Just since her campaign began this week, Donald Trump has called her dumb, insignificant, incompetent, and a radical-left lunatic. I'm sure I'm leaving some out. He's trying to give her the nickname of Lyin', L-Y-I-N, Lyin' Kamala Harris or, actually, "Kamala" Harris because he's trying to make his mocking mispronunciation of her name, a meme of its own. He calls her Kamala on purpose. Maybe she should call him Donald. Then there's this that vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said about Harris on Fox News back in 2021. This is now being resurfaced by Harris supporters to attack Vance as, at very least, sexist. Here's that clip. Keywords, cat lady.

J.D. Vance: Running this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too. It's just a basic fact. If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. How does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?

Brian Lehrer: J.D. Vance on Tucker Carlson Show in 2021 on Fox. Interesting that he included one childless man in there as a childless cat lady. It was Pete Buttigieg, who's gay. Vance has that corner of the culture war going, I guess. Vance has come out publicly in favor of it being legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, for a little context there. For the record, since that show in 2021 when Vance spoke, Buttigieg and his husband started raising twins. They are now two years old. For the record as well, Vice President Harris married her husband, Doug Emhoff, 10 years ago, way before that video clip, when Emhoff's children were teenagers.

Yes, she married into a household with two teenagers. How brave is that for anybody? I guess they get along because they've said nice things about her. Stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, this week, reposted, "What? Charli XCX calling Harris brat?" on Instagram Stories, so we've come full circle. With us now to talk about that and more is Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA Today who also covers foreign policy and the 2024 presidential race. Francesca, always good of you to give us some time on your busy, multilayered beat. Welcome back to WNYC.

Francesca Chambers: Thanks so much. I've been covering Vice President Kamala Harris since she ran for president in 2019 and throughout her vice presidency, so it's really good to be with you to talk about that as well.

Brian Lehrer: Great. I'm glad you've got all that background. Whether Harris wins or loses eventually, her campaign is breaking out of the gate with more cultural buzz than I think a lot of people expected. Does it look like that to you?

Francesca Chambers: She's been focused on the cultural issues writ large since about a year ago when even as vice president, it was expected that in this campaign that she was going to focus on issues such as gun violence prevention as well as abortion rights. Even in her first advertisement today when she latches on to those issues and starts talking about freedom, that's the theme of the first ad that they dropped today, those all really relate back to what we expected her to focus on. It's not a complete shift from what the Biden-Harris campaign was going to be campaigning on, but certainly, we see the issues that she has led on in the administration coming front and center now.

Brian Lehrer: Right, but had buzz around Harris been growing in grassroots circles even before Biden's debate performance began the talk of passing the torch or is something like Charli XCX saying Harris is brat or the coconut tree reference going around as a meme, is that totally brand new?

Francesca Chambers: We've seen this for a few weeks already. A focus on Harris had increased as the conversation turned to the age of the two presidential candidates at the time. The focus on their vice presidential picks heated up. That was also, of course, because we were waiting to see who Donald Trump would pick as his running mate. That also extends to Kamala Harris's record as well.

It comes with pros and cons, but her campaign did get out there today with that ad and start, as you noted, trying to define her in this race before they allowed the other side to do that for them. Then you've seen her allies tried to do the same thing. Allied groups are also releasing ads that focus on issues such as abortion rights as they try to get in front of Donald Trump's campaign.

Brian Lehrer: I get the brat thing. If the pop star of the moment adopts you as representative of their brand, that's going to take off, but what do you make of the coconut tree meme? Any thoughts on why that line from that Harris speech about her mom and coming from somewhere, not just falling off a coconut tree has taken off?

Francesca Chambers: Well, Republicans jumped on it and tried to frame it as Kamala Harris making comments that what they've described for a long time as things that were word salads. Some Republicans have described her as incompetent in her role as vice president. I think what you're seeing is Democrats reclaiming that meme and trying to put it back in context.

At the same time, the Harris campaign itself has leaned into these memes that you're describing online. They, on Sunday night, had reposted Kamala HQ on the Twitter account. Sorry, X, it's called X now. If you look at it itself, you mentioned the lime green, they put Kamala HQ on it. Then in the description, it says, "Providing context." They're both a play on the coconut tree conversation as well as the Charli XCX.

Brian Lehrer: In a way, the coconut tree comment itself is classic, let's say, liberal or progressive or a Democratic Party versus Republican or conservative to say that where you are in life is defined a lot by your context. You have to start off with that rather than everybody comes from nowhere like you just fell out of a coconut tree and your individual initiative is all that's going to define where you wind up in life.

Francesca Chambers: It's a somewhat existential comment that Kamala Harris had made when she was at that event. I think that when you move forward now into how that's going to play into the campaign, these memes have helped create enthusiasm among young people at the very start of her announcing her candidacy. In some ways, her campaign hasn't had to push some of these issues early on because you have had this groundswell of the younger people online, of the Democratic activists.

It wasn't even the Harris campaign that I believe was initially drawing attention to the comments that J.D. Vance had previously made about her. That's all been part of the grassroots movement, the so-called KHive that has been bringing attention to those things. They've allowed other people in the administration or allies of hers such as Pete Buttigieg, who was on television last night talking about the particular comment. Even Kerstin Emhoff, Doug Emhoff's ex-wife, defended the vice president as well when it comes to that. They've let other people take on those things. They've started to reorient her around, focusing on the issues.

Brian Lehrer: When your ex-wife is doing something in support of your new wife, then you must be doing something right, to the credit of Doug Emhoff, in your life. Do you find that the Trump campaign is surprised by the instant energy that the Harris campaign seems to have? Her reputation may not have predicted this kind of reception, again, at least in young and Democratic circles.

Francesca Chambers: Well, the former president has expressed frustration on his social media channel about the fact that they had the Republican National Convention. He expected to get a bounce coming out of that, and then Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. Kamala Harris is in. He endorses her. Suddenly, you have this united Democratic Party that's rallying around the vice president as their nominee.

That is not where Republicans expected to be. They were relishing in the fact that there was all this controversy involving Joe Biden and whether he should drop out, whether he would drop out of the race. Now, it's a reset realistically for this campaign moving forward. One key question now is, will there be debates? What will they look like? There have been some that have been thrown out there. There's been nothing that's been committed to now.

There's also questions about who she'll choose as her running mate, which could also create some additional enthusiasm for the ticket. Of course, there will be the Democratic National Convention. She'll have an opportunity to explain her vision and roll out more about the vice presidential candidate that she'll be naming at some point we expect in the next two weeks there or two. There's a lot to look forward to if you're Democrat in the next couple of weeks in this race.

Brian Lehrer: Any indication that Trump will find it not to his advantage to pursue every sexist and racist implication that he can come up with that, in 2024, that might actually work politically against him?

Francesca Chambers: So far, what we have seen Donald Trump say about her in interviews is he's attacked her as dumb. As you mentioned, he attacked her as a liar. That attack comes from the fact that he alleges that she was engaged in some sort of a coverup about President Joe Biden and his health. So far, those are generally what we've seen. The way that the Harris campaign has responded to that, or perhaps not even the Harris campaign itself, but the vice president's husband said to him, "Is that all you've got?" and pushed back on those things.

The vice president, when she was at her first campaign speech when she went to Delaware and she spoke to campaign staffers, she started to prosecute the case against Donald Trump and compare her record as a prosecutor and as a former state attorney general to his and made quite clear that she will be focusing on the convictions that he's had, the criminal convictions, as well as the civil cases against him.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, we don't know how the popularity and the viral spread of these memes is going to translate to votes ultimately in November, so we shouldn't overplay them in that respect. The New York mayor, Eric Adams, when he was running in 2021 and there were a lot of social media attacks against him, he famously said, "Elections are decided by people on social security, not on social media." NPR had a story this morning from Arizona about how some of the older people there are not necessarily buying into Harris right away among the swing voters. There's a lot yet to be seen obviously, right?

Francesca Chambers: It's a new turn on the idea that signs don't vote and social media posts also don't vote. That being said, younger people had already been more enthused about Vice President Harris. Just looking back and polling, she had better numbers among young people than President Biden. It does offer her an opportunity to try and turn that into votes for the ticket.

You might remember that President Biden was struggling in some ways with younger people over his positions on Israel's conduct in the war against Hamas. Anecdotally, I've talked to some young people who now think that she has some distance from those positions. They're more willing to entertain either voting for her if they weren't planning to or just generally speaking more enthusiastic about her in this campaign. You talk about the swing states when it comes to Black voters in polling prior to this.

We had seen that she did better among African Americans than President Biden was and was improving upon his numbers. Of course, just in the polling we have seen that has taken place since he endorsed her, he dropped out of the race, she's the likely nominee for the Democratic Party that more Democrats are supportive of her. They're more enthusiastic about voting for her than they had been about President Biden in the latter days of his campaign.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, your comments and questions welcome for White House correspondent from USA Today, Francesca Chambers, who also covers foreign policy, and the 2024 presidential campaign. 212-433-WNYC. Call or text. Anyone sharing these brat or coconut memes or want to interpret them further for those who are not in those viral loops? Anyone on Biden's speech, we'll play a clip, or Netanyahu's speech, we'll play a clip, his speech before Congress yesterday, J.D. Vance and his cat ladies, or anything else?

212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Listener writes, "Many of us use the expression, 'Did you just fall off the back of a tomato truck?' saying there's not much difference. That kind of thing goes around." Another one writes, "Kamala Harris has been appearing on college campuses for months. The brat and coconut tree memes show those appearances are paying dividends." Think that's accurate, Francesca?

Francesca Chambers: During her college campus tour last year, she appeared on 12 college campuses. That was focused around the cultural issues that we were discussing before. That did put her in front of younger people. I know that she was doing photo lines behind the scenes as well. She's met with young people in her office in Washington, DC, too, so she's certainly been able to get more exposure, I think, to younger people, especially compared to the beginning of the administration when, because of the pandemic, she wasn't really able to travel as much.

That's when we heard more from voters, including Democrats who had voted for the Biden-Harris ticket, that they didn't really know what she was working on in the administration. They didn't really know much about her. Already, she had been out there as part of that tour. She was also on an abortion rights tour, getting in front of voters as well. We've seen in the last few months that she had already picked up her schedule in terms of campaigning. I would expect that we'll see her out there pretty frequently and just a myriad of events over the next couple of weeks even before the Democratic National Convention.

Brian Lehrer: Another listener texts, "Don't debate Trump. He will be rude. He will lie. Possibly, he'll do what he did to Hillary." Do you think that there's any real debate within the Harris camp over whether they want to debate Trump? My guess would be that they would be very eager to debate Trump. It's the Trump camp that has a more serious question, whether to try to duck it, but I don't know.

Francesca Chambers: In her Wilmington speech to the campaign staff, she suggested that she wanted to go toe to toe with Trump without specifically talking about a debate. When she started to lay out her record as a prosecutor compared to the things that he's been accused of, we have not seen any confirmation of a debate. Indeed, her campaign hasn't commented on it either, whether or not they plan to debate him. We know that there had been the previous VP debate that they had agreed to.

Even just before Biden was dropping out of the race, they agreed to a third debate or third date for such a debate. There was, of course, the ABC News debate that was supposed to take place between Biden and Trump that both campaigns had agreed to. Again, this goes back to the reset. It's very unclear now what might take place. Fox News has put forward a specific date in September for them to debate, but the Harris campaign hasn't accepted it yet, so it's just not clear yet whether a debate will take place.

Brian Lehrer: Hudson in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hey, Hudson.

Hudson: Hi, so I am a member of Gen Z. I'm 18 years old. Why is an 18-year-old listening to Brian Lehrer? It's so funny listening to the reporting from older people about the brat stuff and the memes and everything just because I think there's a misunderstanding. I think there's probably a lot of people who are taking it very literally or thinking that people are calling Kamala Harris an actual brat or something like that. The Gen Z sense of humor and point of view with all of this and everything is all very ironic and campy and tongue-in-cheek. I think the significance of it is that the memes and stuff used to be really making fun of Kamala. Now, they've shifted to laughing with her instead of making her the butt of the joke.

Brian Lehrer: Exactly.

Hudson: With the coconut tree stuff and everything. I was surprised at that and that was something I was worried about if she was going to be at the top of the ticket. Now, people are really embracing her with that campy, ironic sense of humor. I think that's the significance of it. That has nothing to do with Charlie XCX specifically or the color green or the coconut tree specifically. It's like the Gen Z sense of humor is now collecting around her.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. You'd probably agree with this text that came in. Listener writes, "The coconut meme was started as a racist, condescending side-swipe. Us taking it over," this person writes, "is absolutely ahead on owning them," yes?

Hudson: Yes, because Kamala Harris has her isms and the laughs and stuff. On TikTok, there's so many things taking clips of her and really making fun of her. Now, people are loving that and collecting around that in a loving way.

Brian Lehrer: Another listener writes that Harris owning the coconut meme is like-- Now, this text that disappeared from my screen, so I'll summarize it. The person was saying that Harris owning the coconut meme or her supporters owning the coconut meme is like AOC owning The Breakfast Club meme when that was originally used as an attack against her. You're familiar with that one, Hudson?

Hudson: Oh, I'm not familiar with that one. Also, if anyone has seen Veep, it's literally the same exact thing happens in that show. The similarities are very similar to Selina Meyer and Kamala Harris, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Hudson, thanks. Thanks a lot. Call us again. Interesting call, Francesca. He talks about her laugh and that there's humor in this because there is some irony in the appropriation of what was original attacks. One thing we certainly did not see with the Biden campaign, which Trump can claim with his supporters, is decent amount of humor.

Francesca Chambers: He made the point that I was touching on before about reclaiming the narrative around Vice President Harris and her trying to get to that before Republicans can really settle in and define her first more than they already had done so over her years as vice president. In terms of like the brat, I think even if you look at the ad that came out today where she uses the Beyoncé song, Freedom, I think that there is this narrative of her breaking free and her hurting her own course here and not being the number two anymore, her being number one at the top of the ticket, and how that is going to be different than when she was in the position where she was having to speak on behalf of President Joe Biden.

She couldn't always take her own positions. There are issues where she's differed from him. We know that going back to her 2019 presidential campaign. When you are the vice president, your job is to support the vision of the President of the United States. They handle the things that they need to do because they can't get to them or because they're tied up with something else, those sorts of things. Now, this will be the first opportunity we've seen in this role for her as vice president to see how she would actually handle some of these issues, how she would lead the country if she was elected.

Brian Lehrer: We'll get into some of those particular issue differences between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and how they might express, including potentially in her meeting today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when we continue with USA Today White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers. More of your calls and texts right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC with USA Today White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers, who's also covering the 2024 presidential race and also covers foreign policy. Last night, President Biden gave his televised address on ending his campaign. Here are a few key seconds.

President Joe Biden: I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy that includes personal ambition. I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.

Brian Lehrer: Francesca, you could see him even in the prepared remarks struggling a little last night. Who's saying what or has the campaign story so thoroughly moved on so quickly to Harris-Trump that that speech was hardly noticed by the American people or hardly makes news?

Francesca Chambers: What was the first that we had heard from him other than the letter that he had put out about why he was dropping out of the race? It was really very significant for him to say that he was going to pass the torch. Even if we knew that that's what was taking place, to hear him say that, and then, of course, re-endorse Kamala Harris's presidential bid and talk about her in the way that he did, to give her his full-throated support, those things were all things that really stood out to me.

The fact that he defined it as saying that he felt that he could not put his own personal ambition ahead of these key things. If you remember, that was one of the key and chief complaints of some of his critics heading into his decision was they felt that he could no longer politically, he couldn't beat Donald Trump. They felt that the writing was on the wall, and that while he had done a great job as president, his supporters say that it was about winning. For them, it was about democracy. To hear Biden say that last night and acknowledge that they essentially were right, I do think, was significant.

Brian Lehrer: One next set of questions will be how different, if at all, Harris's positions are on any issues from what Biden's have been. Politico made a list this week of things in their past statements, Harris and Biden, that indicate some differences. Here are a few. Biden is proposing to codify Roe v. Wade abortion protections into federal law. The article says Harris has supported going beyond Roe giving the Justice Department more oversight over state abortion laws.

On Israel and Gaza, she has been in line with Biden's positions on the war there as Politico puts it but has spoken in more sympathetic terms about Palestinians caught in the crossfire. They say she supports government regulations in artificial intelligence. Biden has said industry should adopt voluntary standards. Anything you would add as a top-line difference? We're going to get into the Israel-Gaza question a little bit with you next, but any other issues you would put on a list there for people to keep their eyes on?

Francesca Chambers: Well, I think that's a good starting list. One thing, because we haven't seen her campaign under just her own ticket since that 2019 presidential campaign when she dropped out before the first contests were even held, it's not totally clear what positions she might take on some of these issues now and how they might differ from what the Biden administration has done, but the reproductive freedom part in particular also stood out to me the other day.

She had said when she was in Delaware that when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms as president of the United States, "I will sign it into law." She also said that she would be fighting for reproductive freedom. Certainly, it did seem like she would go perhaps further because she did not say that we want to codify Roe v. Wade when she said that. She specifically talked about a law to restore reproductive freedoms. That will be one thing that will be interesting to hear her outline what her vision for such a law would be.

Brian Lehrer: Let me take a call from Debbie in Jersey who was moved by the President's speech last night, I think. Debbie, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Debbie: Yes, thanks, Brian. Like so many people, I really, really was hoping that he would make the right decision. Seeing that he did and watching him give that very poignant speech, which was, I thought, very eloquent and well-written, and even seeing him stumble over the words a little bit, I got a lump in my throat watching him and realized history is being made. It was reminiscent of King George's in The King's Speech. I really admire him more than ever for what he did.

I'd also like to say that having Kamala as the possible first female president is thrilling. When you talk about history being made, I remember [laughs] that scene with the suffragette singing in Mary Poppins. I'm just so thrilled. She wasn't my first choice as vice president all those years ago, but seeing her now and hearing her now, I would love to see her in a debate with Trump. I would love to see her cross-examine him like the prosecutor she is. I think this is going to save us from entering into another Gilead situation. None of us want to become a handmaid in that tale, so I'm thrilled.

Brian Lehrer: Debbie, thank you very much. Just another example, Francesca, I think, of Harris so far. Again, this doesn't mean she's going to win the election, but so far exceeding expectations, which I think were set based on people's perception of her in the 2019-2020 Democratic presidential primary election cycle when she barely got out of the gate before she had to drop out because she didn't have any support.

Francesca Chambers: Well, she also was running out of money because her campaign burned through their war chest at that time. When she dropped out, she said that money was a big reason for it, that she couldn't bankroll her own campaign and continue to pay for it. She inherits now a very large war chest that the previous Biden-Harris campaign had built up, that they have already refiled with the FEC to hand over her.

Then on top of that, if you just look at how much money that she has raised in the last few days since she became the nominee, the last time I checked, candidly, this was about 24 hours ago, they had said she raised $126 million just in the first couple of days. I'm sure it's significantly more than that now. She'll be able to put ads on the air, reach more people. By Biden staying in the presidency, it frees her up to go out and campaign without also having to run the country because there had been some talk by some people whether he would step down as president too.

Not that he said that, but there had been a question about that. He will continue to run the country. He laid out what he would be doing over the next six months while she goes out there and campaigns. As far as women are concerned, like the last caller, Democrats believe that this could excite women in the country to vote for her, especially if she contrasts where she stands on the issue of abortion rights compared to what Republicans might try to do if they were to take the majority.

She said in her speech the other day that they could potentially try to sign a national abortion law. That's what she's going to be rallying around. For suburban women, in particular, in the swing states, this could be an issue that makes a difference. In these states like that where the margin is going to be so close, it was always going to be so close no matter who was at the top of the ticket on either side. That could be a difference-maker.

Brian Lehrer: One more call of the many that are coming in with one version or another of a similar sentiment. Chris in Merrick, you're on WNYC. Hi, Chris.

Chris: Hi, Brian. I'm actually a student at Hofstra and I know your colleague [unintelligible 00:33:43].

Brian Lehrer: Great.

Chris: I just wanted to comment about how Biden stepping down has reinvigorated my vote a little bit more. Because for the longest time, it felt like he's just gotten too old. Even during the primaries, we saw in Michigan, there was a significant, almost 20% of Democratic voters. They were like an uncommitted vote, which means they wanted anyone. They wanted anyone else but him.

Brian Lehrer: Right. It was a protest vote against his positions on Israel-Gaza. Were you in that camp of young voters who were undecided as to whether you would even bother to turn out, and now you're more excited? I don't want to put words in your mouth.

Chris: No, yes, that fits me pretty well. I'm still on the fence. I want to see more about what Kamala's policies are going to be, but I do feel like already the Democratic Party is maybe even just listening at least a little bit to some of the things I have to say. That's getting me more enthusiastic to vote.

Brian Lehrer: Chris, keep calling us. Thank you very much. Francesca, on Israel and Gaza, Harris has been in line with Biden's positions on the war there but has spoken in more sympathetic terms about Palestinians caught in the crossfire. Again, to quote from the Politico comparison of them on that. Of course, another thing yesterday was Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu giving his speech to Congress.

He dug in on the need for total victory over Hamas, denied that Israel was attacking civilians on purpose, blamed Hamas for civilian deaths for embedding among civilians, and made an argument that Israel's war is protecting the United States because the US is the real ultimate target of Iran and its proxies. Some Democrats in Congress boycotted the speech. Harris was not there as sometimes the vice president would be as the presider over the Senate, but we note that J.D. Vance wasn't there either.

They both had pre-scheduled campaign events and they both stuck to those campaign events. Neither of them attended. We're not going to solve the Middle East today as I often say, but Netanyahu did thank President Biden for his support as well as former President Trump. I see that today, he will meet with both Trump and Harris. Any word on what Harris is expected to tell him and how it might be the same or different from what Biden has been saying.

Francesca Chambers: I expect that she'll continue to take the same tact that she has so far, which you outlined pretty well there before. I would also note that an aide to Harris has explicitly stressed that the reason that she wasn't there yesterday when Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech was because she was speaking at the historically African-American sorority conference yesterday.

By the way, that sorority was founded at her alma mater of Howard University. Then today, she's about to speak very soon actually at the American Federation of Teachers convention. That, I think, was added more last minute. They were one of the first groups to come out and endorse her, the first union, I believe, to endorse her on Sunday. That's a key group of people who she also needs to coalesce around her, but she will be back in Washington after that.

She will sit down with Benjamin Netanyahu, as will President Biden. As we talk about ways that she might take different positions than President Biden, it's also important to note that she's still the vice president of the United States. Biden sets foreign policy in the United States. She has to walk a careful line between outlining what her vision would be without making it look like she's undermining President Biden in any way.

Brian Lehrer: Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent, who also covers the presidential race and foreign policy for USA Today. Thanks for giving us a lot of time this morning with so much going on. We really appreciate it. Back to your three beats.

Francesca Chambers: [laughs] Thank you so much.

 

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