Morning Report — Can Harris build momentum?

Vice President Harris has been shoring up Democratic support in the two days since President Biden announced he will not seek reelection and endorsed her for the Democratic ticket, paving a path toward locking down the nomination.

Harris has worked to secure endorsements from Democratic leaders, rake in fundraising support, and attempt to prove to her party that she can beat former President Trump in November, writes The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. In a Monday meeting with campaign staff in Delaware, Harris noted that before her time in Washington, D.C., she worked as a prosecutor in California, where she “took on perpetrators of all kinds.” 

“Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type. And in this campaign I will proudly — I will proudly — put my record against his.”

Today, she will head to Wisconsin for her first rally since securing enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president late Monday.

Scores of major Democratic figures, including the Clintons, lawmakers and governors have backed Harris since Biden exited the race. Additionally, Harris’s newly minted presidential campaign has seen a massive surge in small-dollar donations and big-name donors coalescing around her. 

Harris and the Democratic Party netted more than $81 million in the 24-hour period since Biden’s announcement. The massive haul represents the largest 24-hour sum reported by either side in the 2024 campaign. Harris’s campaign said it was the largest single-day total in U.S. history.

The Hill: “I’m not going anywhere. I will always have your back.” Biden called into campaign headquarters to offer his support for Harris.

THE SUDDEN SHOW OF UNITY underscores how little time Democrats feel they have heading into November after spending the last month grappling with internal divisions over Biden, writes The Hill’s Julia Manchester. It also demonstrates that the party took notice of the Republican National Convention held last week in Milwaukee, where Republicans sought to smooth over their differences and reaffirm Trump’s hold on the party.

Now, Democrats appear on the same page.

“I think Chicago is going to be amazing,” said Jamal Simmons, Harris’s former communications director, referring to the Democrats’ upcoming August convention. “The level of unity will be off the charts. Judging by the reaction in the last two days, Democrats are as excited as I’ve seen them since 2008.” 

Here’s who has endorsed Harris so far, from members of Congress to governors and former lawmakers. The nearly 4,000 delegates who pledged to support Biden at the Democratic National Convention in August are now free to make their endorsements; late Monday, Harris exceeded the 1,976 required to clinch the nomination, teeing up an early August virtual nominating process.

But Harris’s journey won’t be without roadblocks. Polling shows her leading Biden in favorability among key demographics, according to an internal poll run by the Biden-Harris campaign earlier this month. Nationally, the polling suggests she’s launching her campaign right around where Biden left off, trailing Trump by a similar, narrow margin.

THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN is grappling with a new reality, going from a state of sheer confidence to a state of uncertainty, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports. Republicans made little secret of the fact that they hoped Biden would stay in the race, viewing him as a weakened candidate who polls showed trailing. Top Trump campaign officials have argued putting Harris atop the ticket would do little to change the race, but some Republicans have acknowledged the shake-up will provide a boost to Democrats and make the race in November more competitive.

Can Harris beat Trump? In the Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage lays out the case for and against the vice president, who would be the country’s first female president, and only its second president of color.

And then there’s the question of her vice-presidential pick. Democrats are urging Harris to look to the battleground states and the party’s plethora of governors for her potential running mate, writes The Hill’s Al Weaver. 

“That is the first presidential decision that Vice President Harris has, so she’s got a lot of good choices ahead of her,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters at the Capitol, rattling off a number of governors — Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, among others — along with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) as possible choices. “We’ve got an abundance of riches now and one of the things this unlocks is a demonstration that the Democratic Party has a next generation of leaders that are ready to step up.”

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LEADING THE DAY

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As Capitol Hill Democrats rally around Harris, some notable voices are missing, writes The Hill’s Mychael Schnell. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed Harris Monday, as did Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the highest ranking Senate Democrat thus far.

But Democratic leadership — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — have yet to throw their hats in the ring with Harris. Schumer said Monday that he and Jeffries will meet with the vice president “soon.” In a joint statement, they praised Harris as “off to a great start” in her bid but stopped short of endorsing.

“She is rapidly picking up support from grassroots delegates from one end of the country to the other,” they said Monday. “We look forward to meeting in person with Vice President Harris shortly as we collectively work to unify the Democratic Party and the country.”

Vulnerable front-line House Democrats, meanwhile, are evaluating what the switch away from Biden could mean for their own races. The outliers are raising questions about the path forward — for Harris and for Democrats down the ticket — as the party enters uncharted waters, with next month’s convention looming large.

In the Senate, vulnerable Democrats are scrambling to fend off new GOP attacks, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. While Biden’s biggest vulnerability was his age, the silver lining of those flaws is that they did not translate to Democratic senators down ballot, according to polls. But now incumbents, including Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), are being pressed on Harris’s most controversial policy statements, stretching back to the 2020 Democratic primary. 

“What she has is a now three-and-a-half-year record as vice president in which she can talk about helping to bring down crime, murder rates plummeting, border crossings dropping like a stone, an economy that is the envy of the free world,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. “That’s the case she can make. That’s the case she’ll have to make.”

GEN Z SUPPORT: Harris’s candidacy could give Democrats a jolt of energy from young voters, The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports. While some young voters had been prepared to grit their teeth and vote for Biden in an effort to fend off a second term for Trump, the possibility of a younger woman of color at the top of the ticket could reenergize the critical bloc. A Harris bid is a chance “to reset” and “to more authentically rally around” the Democratic bid, said Kaivan Shroff, a Democratic strategist and a Generation Z Biden delegate. 

“I think that this decision will drum up more enthusiasm in November,” said Victoria Hammett, deputy executive director of Gen-Z for Change. “The general consensus right now from Generation Z is that young voters are really excited that them coming together to use their voices had an impact.” 

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ZOOM IN

CONGRESS

SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR Kimberly Cheatle faced a barrage of questions Monday as she testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the assassination attempt on Trump. But Cheartle offered few answers, infuriating lawmakers who increased their calls for her resignation. Cheatle took fire from all sides, with Democrats joining Republicans in both their frustration with the director and disbelief over her inability to explain the events that led to Thomas Matthew Crooks shooting Trump from a rooftop only 150 yards away, an incident that left one rally attendee dead and two others critically injured. During her testimony, Cheatle said she has “a timeline that does not have specifics” of the shooting, prompting audible laughter within the hearing room.

“I have to say, I don’t think any of our concerns have been addressed today. And what little we’ve learned has not inspired much confidence,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.).

Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) called it “literally the worst performance I’ve ever seen” in a congressional hearing, adding, “You have brought more shame to your agency than I think that the assassination attempt has at this point.”

Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin (Md.) were among the Congress members who urged Cheatle to step aside after she testified. Raskin said both parties were united in their “bafflement” over the stunning operational failures that led to the shooting (The Hill and The Washington Post).

SENATE ETHICS COMMITTEE leaders on Monday notified convicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) that panel members have voted to “initiate an adjudicatory review of his alleged violations of Senate Rules,” setting the stage for a possible future vote to expel or censure him. A majority of the Senate Democratic Conference, including Schumer, has called on Menendez to resign following his conviction on 16 counts ranging from bribery and extortion to obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent.

Two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote for an expulsion resolution to force Menendez out of the chamber. Only a majority would be needed to pass a censure resolution (The Hill).

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ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

AS HE SET OFF for a preplanned visit to Washington Monday — which will culminate in a Wednesday address to Congress — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Biden for his decades of support for Israel. Netanyahu was careful to emphasize that he was focused on shoring up bipartisan support for his country as it continues its war in Gaza and faces growing security threats from Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen. A meeting with Biden is tentatively planned for today if the president has recovered from COVID-19 (The Wall Street Journal and Reuters).

“I will tell my friends on both sides of the aisle that regardless who the American people choose as their next president, Israel remains America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East,” he told reporters before taking off. “In this time of war and uncertainty it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together today, tomorrow and always.”

UKRAINE STRUCK A DEAL to restructure about $20 billion of debt, boosting Kyiv’s drive to use private capital to finance its war effort against Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government said Monday that it won support from investors to reduce the face value of the debt by more than a third. Ukraine sought debt relief as part of its conditions for continuing bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund, which said it had endorsed Monday’s deal alongside backing from the U.S., U.K. and other allies (Financial Times).

The New York Times: Biden’s stance on Ukraine was shaped by a deep commitment to America’s role in NATO. Some European leaders fear he may be among the last of his kind.

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THE CLOSER

And finally … 👩🏻‍🚀 On this day in 1999, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a U.S. space shuttle.

A test pilot, mathematician and Air Force colonel, Collins was selected as an astronaut in 1990. In February 1995, Collins became the first woman pilot of a U.S. space shuttle, serving on the orbiter Discovery. With hundreds of hours in space to her credit, Collins became the first woman to command a shuttle mission in July 1999, taking Columbia into Earth orbit to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. 

“To discover new worlds,” NASA Administrator Dan Goldin told reporters when Collins was announced as commander, “we must break down old barriers.”

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