- Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are trying to say, "We have a much bigger tent, and if we unite, we can then begin to solve the big problems that are facing us."

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "GZERO World."

I'm Ian Bremmer and this week all eyes were on Kamala Harris who made history in Chicago becoming the first woman of color to accept the Democratic presidential nomination.

A month has passed since President Biden passed the baton to his Vice President, and in the ensuing weeks, and most of this week in Chicago, the focus has been all on Kamala and her new running mate, Tim Walz.

So Dems have made it official.

They have their nominee, and just as importantly, they have reason to hope again.

After staring down the brink of an all-but-insured defeat against Donald Trump as recently as late July, the tables have turned faster than a brisk Lake Michigan wind.

And while the energy in the United Center was like nothing the party had seen since Obama led the ticket, or since he spoke on Tuesday night, Kamala Harris will be the first to point out that she is still very much the underdog in this race.

With polls essentially tied at the end of August, could a convention bump carry to victory over Donald Trump?

Joining me now from Chicago to discuss all this and more, former Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards, the first black woman elected to Congress in the state's history, and Presidential Historian, Douglas Brinkley.

But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

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- [Announcer] Additional funding provided by Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and... (upbeat music) (slide swooshing) (upbeat music) - There's a phrase President Biden likes to repeat.

- Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.

- Until recently, that alternative was his 2024 rival former President Donald Trump, but roughly a month has passed since Biden dropped out of the race.

Vice President Harris picked up the mantle, so it's time we look to her as that alternative.

How would a Harris-Walz administration differ from a Biden-Harris White House?

There's plenty of overlap, of course.

Vice President Harris has sat in on most of President Biden's high-level meetings.

She takes part in the President's daily briefing.

She's led many foreign delegations herself, but there's also more daylight between the two than you might think, so let's talk about their differences when it comes to foreign policy.

Biden is the most experienced foreign policy president of our generation, and he's old school.

As a senator, he spent decades on the Foreign Relations Committee and he took on a variety of diplomatic responsibilities as Vice President in the Obama administration.

Biden came of age during the Cold War and he sees global actors in black and white terms between democracies and autocracies.

He also buys into the great man ethos that if you sit down with another great leader and you work a personal relationship together, you can get things done.

Kamala Harris came of age in a post-Cold War world.

She emphasizes a rule of law approach to international norms and standards that stems from her prosecutorial background.

Biden would say Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing evil things in Ukraine.

Kamala Harris leans more into the sovereignty for Ukraine needs to be upheld framework.

Policies are aligned.

The reasons behind the policies are a little different.

On China, the two are closely together on national security concerns and containing Beijing.

Harris has taken a particular interest in building up other regional relationships, including her regular meetings with President Marcos of the Philippines.

The pivot to Asia concept is strong under Harris, somewhat less so under Biden, not at all under Trump.

And then we come to the stickiest of wickets, Israel, Palestine, and it has been awkward for Harris to try to talk about that region while supporting her boss's deference to far right Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu.

If elected, I think Kamala Harris would be much less patient with Israel's ongoing invasion of Gaza and focus more on the abuse of human rights of the Palestinians.

Yes, she would continue to recognize that Israel is the most important defense partner of the United States, but she would keep that relationship on a shorter leash and that would be a marked change for US-Israel policy, but also a change that's more similar to where America's allies are with Israel going forward.

Plenty has already been said about Kamala Harris' vulnerabilities when it comes to immigration, especially given that Biden cast her with managing the Southern border.

That was partly because immigration was never Biden's strong suit, but also it was the hot potato that no one really wanted to touch.

No doubt, Republicans will hang that over her head until November.

When it comes to polling, surveys have consistently shown Trump beating Biden on the question of who would a stronger leader.

A recent AP survey found that Harris now ties Trump on that metric with four in 10 Americans saying that they would trust either candidate to handle a crisis or stand up to an adversary.

Just one more sign this is a very different race from when Biden dropped out a month ago.

While Harris and Biden have plenty of overlap, voters are already seeing Kamala as her own woman.

But back to the events of the week, the DNC Convention in Chicago.

Here to talk about Harris's nomination and all things DNC, former Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley.

Donna Edwards, Douglas Brinkley, welcome to "GZERO World."

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And Douglas, I wanna start with you as the presidential historian and to place this Democratic National Convention in what's already been a pretty dramatic and different 2024 year in broader historical context.

- I think it's extremely important because you know, if you just cut to March and April, the Democrats were worried that they were doomed.

They thought they had Joe Biden as their nominee.

He was having about a 36% approval rating.

Other presidents that are one-termers, like Jimmy Carter losing in 1980, he was about 36%.

Or George Herbert Walker Bush in 1992, sitting president lost with about 36%.

So there was concern in the Democratic Party and then the debate happened where Joe Biden just wasn't there that day and obviously Donald Trump cleaned his clock, and from that moment on there was the jitters, and in the end, by getting Biden to do the right thing and to do something that's quite unusual, giving up power, handing it over to Kamala Harris, there created this new energy in the Democratic Party and that is what one feels in Chicago throughout the convention.

The United Arena's just bringing everybody together.

Even if you're a lifelong Republican and you're in the building, they're trying to create a big tent, and so far Harris has done this remarkable job of not making many gaffs and working her tail off picking the right person to be her VP, Governor Walz in Minnesota, and so the energy level is very high, but it's still a neck-to-neck presidential raise, but at least there's this feeling of momentum among Democrats.

- Donna, talk about how you felt in the United Center so far.

How is it different from what you might have thought or anticipated over the last few weeks?

- Well, I think the energy level has really been over the top and you know, for Democrats, the question is whether they're going to be able to sustain this and I think as we've heard really throughout the convention, all of the speakers have really pointed to Kamala Harris's leadership, her experience and the energy that the Harris-Walz ticket really brings to Democrats who had been, quite frankly, a little down in the tooth a bit as the election season has worn on.

And so I think that what you can feel in the spirit, and I think this word joy is really an important one because it is true that Americans are just exhausted of the chaos and the disruption over the last several years and this campaign is bringing not just the energy, but the joy, and you can really feel it in that convention hall.

- You said the Democrats felt down in the tooth, of course, in part because they were a little long in the tooth when it came to Joe Biden and just how old he was and how well he could potentially stand up for another four years.

He did not leave easily.

He did not leave voluntarily until the very last moment.

Donna, he's there.

He gave a speech at the beginning.

Has that been mostly forgotten?

Is everyone now together?

Can we close the chapter on that?

I mean, is that what this joy is?

- Well, look, I think that on reflection, looking at Joe Biden and the way that he really did come to terms with his own presidency and the ending, he actually ended with a lot of grace, and he did, you know, such a solid favor, I think, to his Vice President Kamala Harris by endorsing her right away and I think that the unity really began with that handoff and that transition, and you know, even as the convention has gone on for several days, people are still, Democrats are still referencing the grace and the dignity and the leadership of Joe Biden and I think it really spoke to his comments at the opening of the convention where he said, he quoted a song.

- America, America, I gave my best to you.

(crowd cheering) - And he said that he gave his best and I think that Democrats are feeling that and it makes it easy to go from that place where there was a lot of dissension into unity.

- Now Douglas, how much impact do conventions typically have in an election, and what are the reasons why this might or might not be different?

- Well, conventions really matter, especially since 1932 when Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Chicago and that's when he gave his famous New Deal Speech, and ever since then, these conventions have become media extravaganza.

That's 'cause travel was easier.

By the 30s, you had opportunity to take a car, airplane, train, and so these conventions would gather people and you know, they're big moments.

I mean, you think of John F. Kennedy, the youngest president ever elected in Los Angeles, unleashing the whole new frontier motif of his campaign.

One can go on and on, so they matter, but the big one for a spike, if that's what you're asking- - Yeah.

- Bill Clinton, in 1992, he killed it, so they really can matter and this election is going to be close.

We all know it's down to six, seven states, and so, you know, every vote counts and I think the Democrats this year in Chicago have done a great job of opening up the tent of what the Democratic Party is.

They're allowing in people.

In Chicago, I think the stories been speaker after speaker hitting home runs.

I mean, listening to Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, two former First Ladies, and Hillary Clinton, of course, Secretary of State also, but it was just stunning and amount of talent that the DNC's been able to present on the stage.

- And they're all together, also a big historic moment here, and you've made a fair amount of history, Donna, you're the first black woman to represent Maryland in America's Congress.

We now see the first woman of color being nominated for the presidency from either party.

There'd been a lot of criticism, right?

A lot of people inside the Democratic Party saying, "Oh, Vice President Harris is a drag on the ticket.

She wouldn't win.

We wouldn't elect a black woman."

That certainly has gone away in Chicago over the last few days.

Talk about the history and what it means for you to be in this room.

- Well, you know, Ian, I haven't heard any of that talk in Chicago, that is for sure.

I think that Kamala Harris has actually done a rather masterful job of building on her experience as a former prosecutor, as a United States Senator, as Vice President, as she has began to sort of really blossom in this role as the nominee for the Democratic Party, and you can see one speaker after another throughout the convention pointing to her history, to the breadth of the Democratic tent and it feels great, I have to say, I mean, as a black woman, as a woman of color, it's very inspiring because we keep saying every year that black women are the base of the Democratic Party, the strongest vote that they can possibly give and here you have this black woman of Indian descent who is at her pinnacle and you can see it flourish throughout the convention, and what's been amazing to me is that you have Democrats who are showing both the history that we have from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama speaking, and Joe Biden, and then the future, so many governors who are present at the convention.

Democrats have a lot of history and a great bench that Kamala Harris can build on.

- Douglas.

- Yeah, you know, I think the real power brokers in the Democratic Party are Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, in different ways, but they are the ones that are really looking at this as how do we win?

I thought President Obama used to say to a lot of his aides, "You don't have to tell them I'm the first black nominee.

They're gonna notice that.

They're gonna know that.

I gotta tell them what it is I'm gonna do for them."

And you're gonna see Kamala Harris, the convention, everybody else is going to mention this, talk about it, but out of there, she doesn't need to.

We know that she's going would be the historic first female president of the United States.

We know about her Indo and Black heritage.

What we wanna know is how are you going to help me?

And so the more they can stay on an economic message and answer those questions, it's important, and it is the big tent, but I noticed some issues that faded.

Climate change was such a big talking point for Democrats and it seems to have faded from the convention now.

Bernie Sanders evoked it in a powerful way.

But you know, they're starting to trim it down to that economic message, how we'll make life better for you.

Potential pitfall for Kamala Harris is how do you talk about Gaza, and in Chicago, when people were thinking this is 1968, it is not.

The city's beautiful, there are people in outdoor cafes, there's harmony in the convention, and yes, they're protests, but they're in a kind of sequestered area.

They're expressing their ideas.

There've been a few arrests, but nevertheless, that issue's the tinderbox one because things change in the Middle East daily and Vice President Harris has to be careful how she talks about that particular issue.

- Another thing that I've noticed, Douglas, that has faded from view is the democracy is in peril if you don't vote for me.

This was of course a very big, and, you know, I would say priority focus of Biden over the past months.

It has not been what most of the convention speeches have been about.

Do you think that is a intentioned and appropriate tilt?

Is it a winning tilt, in your view?

- Well, I find that it's a much better approach to go.

In politics, you sell optimism.

Optimism is your oxygen.

You wanna look at presidents who've been successful, like Theodore Roosevelt or FDR, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan.

People that are enshrined in our national memory.

They all were selling optimism.

We can be better, the future's coming.

I always felt it was a mistake that Biden was basically running on, "If you don't elect me, you are getting the other guy, Donald Trump, that's your choice."

Well, that's doesn't get kids excited to put Biden signs in the lawn, you know, or to go bumper sticking or door to door.

Immediately, Kamala Harris has taken on other words like freedom and reclaiming freedom.

Kamala Harris is the ideal messenger.

- Donna, I want to be the person that says, "Yes, we can.

Yes, optimism is the way we should play an election," and yet most Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction and it's not just the United States.

Most elections around the world have been anti-incumbency elections.

How dangerous is it to simply lean into the continuity, this has been a great four years, we're gonna keep it going?

- Well, I think that Kamala Harris has just displayed her deftness at both identifying and empathizing with where people are, you know, the struggles that they feel when they go to the grocery store or the gas station or are paying for their student's tuition.

But I think that she also recognizes that Americans want to look forward.

I mean, I think that's why you get the message of both freedom that's all-encompassing, freedom that covers everything from reproductive rights to the rule of law and I think Kamala Harris is leaning into that and this notion that we're going forward not backward.

I think people really respond to the idea that we're looking ahead, we're looking ahead to make our children's lives better than our own.

And when she says that, then it is putting the past to bed.

And it may be that in this election year, people wanna lean into that, putting the past to bed and moving forward and I think Kamala Harris and Tim Walz with his exuberance both really speak to that.

And look, at the end of the day, we all know that this is going to be a really close election, which is why I think you heard speaker after speaker doing a call to action, saying it's not enough just for us to feel good.

Michelle Obama said this.

Go out and do the work and make the phone calls and don't wait to be asked because everybody has to turn out, which is why I think this convention was both looking inward at the Democratic base and energizing the Democratic base, but also looking outward and bringing in Republicans and independents to the convention, which is really pretty much unheard of except in this convention and I think in that sense, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are trying to say, "We have a much bigger tent and if we unite, we can then begin to solve the big problems that are facing us."

- So Douglas, let me ask you, coming out of this, what are you most worried about?

- Well, I think first see what the bounce is out of the convention, how many people are watching.

I really agree with what was just said.

I think some of this convention is going to bring independents to the Democratic Party and some Republicans.

Barack Obama gave a masterclass, like a grassroots organizer on how to bring people in.

He wasn't shaming anybody, saying, "Come on in.

We have more in common than we, let's go back to some older values in America that grandparents may have had."

And then the problem's going to be the debate.

and that's gonna be Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump.

And who knows what's gonna happen.

Donald Trump is erratic, but that creates hard to know what, there's nothing off limits with him so you're not sure what he might go, and without fact checking with Trump, you're suddenly having to answer something that's not true and it's easy to get confused so I think that's the next the big point.

Then we'll see how the VP debate goes, see if there's another debate.

It's all about money, donors, fundraising.

What I think the Democrats have going for them is an enthusiasm and they've gotta hold onto it.

There's some people in the Democratic party that will say, "Lose the sugar high, get real now."

I say I wouldn't lose the sugar high.

Race with as much adrenaline as you can to that finish line 'cause it's going to be neck to neck.

- Donna, what worries you the most in the next few months?

- Well, I do get concerned as we're moving into this part of the campaign season that's gonna be about debates and day to day.

What worries me is that for Democrats, I think it is important to maintain that enthusiasm.

On an election day where, depending on where you are, you could have rain, snow, sleet and hail, that it's going to be important to have voters who are enthusiastic about going to the polls, who no matter what, are gonna stand in lines, even if those lines are long, who are gonna cast those ballots, those early ballots that need to be counted and Democrats actually have a lot to build on because that enthusiasm has transformed into money.

There have been record amounts of money raised by Kamala Harris since she got into the race.

The question is, how is that going to be deployed?

Is it gonna be deployed on the ground where it can make the most difference, or just on the airwaves?

I think that that kind of strategy is going to be really important as we get to the end.

And one of the things that's actually been quite impressive that is different about the Harris campaign versus the Biden campaign is that the Harris campaign is responding in real time every single time that Donald Trump does or says something outrageous to check him.

I suspect that that's going to happen in the debates, but I agree with Douglas that Donald Trump is so erratic and unpredictable and that he will say outrageous things and I think Kamala Harris has to be in a position to fact check him in real time and not depend on the debate moderators to do that.

And for Donald Trump, I think the danger is that he continues to say things about Harris, whether it's about her looks or her personality or her laugh, or all of these sort of personal qualities that I think are incredibly offensive, and if he doesn't change that track, then I think he's going to lose even more independent and Republican voters.

- Donna Edwards, Douglas Brinkley, thanks so much for joining today on "GZERO."

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

(electro beat music) - That's our show this week.

Come back next week if you like what you've seen, or even if you don't, but you're thinking, "Hey, I'd love to have my own convention in Chicago," why don't you take a moment to check us out at GZEROmedia.com.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Funding for "GZERO World" is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis.

- [Announcer] Every day, all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint and scale their supply chains with a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform.

addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.

Learn more at Prologis.com - And by... - Cox Enterprises is proud to support "GZERO."

We're working to improve lives in the areas of communications, automotive, clean tech, sustainable agriculture, and more.

Learn more at Cox.career/news.

- [Announcer] Additional funding provided by Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and... (upbeat music) (gentle music)