Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 1: Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to
Speaker 1: the Daily OS. It is Friday, the second of August.
Speaker 1: I'm billy, I'm Zara. We are now less than one
Speaker 1: hundred days out from the US election in November, and
Speaker 1: it is nearly time for Kamala Harris to pick her
Speaker 1: vice presidential candidate. We are expecting an announcement any day now,
Speaker 1: and so today we wanted to go through who some
Speaker 1: of the top contenders are. What exactly is Harris looking
Speaker 1: for and what kind of difference to her campaign is
Speaker 1: she hoping a vice presidential pick could make. In today's
Speaker 1: deep Dive, we are going to tell you what you
Speaker 1: need to know. But first, Sarah, what is making headlines today?
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi has reiterated calls for a de
Speaker 2: escalation of conflict in the Middle East, as tensions between
Speaker 2: Israel and her Bo and Israel and Humas continued to
Speaker 2: mount following a series of recent attacks in the region.
Speaker 2: Albanesi said the government wants to see a ceasefire in
Speaker 2: Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Hummas. On
Speaker 2: the seventh of October, speaking at an event in Sydney
Speaker 2: on Thursday, the PM also said he wants to see
Speaker 2: quote a plan for peace and security in the Middle
Speaker 2: East where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace
Speaker 2: and security with prosperity. Albanesi reiterated calls from Foreign Affairs
Speaker 2: Minister Penny Wong for Australians not to travel to Lebanon
Speaker 2: and for those in Lebanon to return home as soon
Speaker 2: as possible.
Speaker 1: Two Victorian men have been charged over an illegal betting
Speaker 1: scandal tied to the Australian of the Year awards. According
Speaker 1: to police, a federal public servant shared confidential information about
Speaker 1: the twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen award winners
Speaker 1: with an outside source. A thirty eight year old man
Speaker 1: placed bets on the ceremonies before receiving a thirteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars payout. A thirty nine year old man has been
Speaker 1: charged with abusing his role in public office, while the
Speaker 1: other man has been charged over encouraging criminal acts. Each
Speaker 1: face five years imprisonment.
Speaker 2: Violent far right protests have erupted in England's Northwest after
Speaker 2: a stabbing attack on a children's dance class. A seventeen
Speaker 2: year old boy has been charged with murder and attempted
Speaker 2: murder after three children were killed and several others were injured.
Speaker 2: A mosque in Southport has been targeted during this escalating violence,
Speaker 2: which authorities have blamed on misinformation surrounding the attacker's identity.
Speaker 2: Local police believe the unrest has been led by supporters
Speaker 2: of the English Defense League, a far right Islamophobic group.
Speaker 1: In today's good news, Australian babies with pean art allergies
Speaker 1: will be included in a world first treatment initiative. The
Speaker 1: program aims to safely build patient's tolerance by gradually exposing
Speaker 1: them to small traces of peaan arts. Over two years.
Speaker 1: About three in every one hundred Australian children are a
Speaker 1: lerge to peanuts. The new government funded treatment will be
Speaker 1: available in ten children's hospitals across Australia. Professor Kirsten Perrot
Speaker 1: from the National Allergy Center of Excellence says the program
Speaker 1: will help quote change the trajectory of peanut allergies so
Speaker 1: that quote more children can go to school without the
Speaker 1: risk of a life threatening reaction.
Speaker 2: So Billy I wanted to start quite broad my first
Speaker 2: question what will Kamala Harris be looking for in her
Speaker 2: vice president.
Speaker 1: I think there are two main things that experts are
Speaker 1: saying Harris will really want for her vice presidential pick,
Speaker 1: And obviously she knows a lot about this because she
Speaker 1: is currently the vices. She has a unique So the
Speaker 1: first will be for her vice presidential pick to be
Speaker 1: from a battleground state or also known as a swing state.
Speaker 1: And that is basically just any state in the US
Speaker 1: that could be won by either the Democratic or the
Speaker 1: Republican candidate each election. So if we look at history,
Speaker 1: you know it's either been Democrat or Republican. It hasn't
Speaker 1: been safe. And there are states that we call safe states.
Speaker 1: For example, California is known as a safe state. They
Speaker 1: are a pretty solid Democratic.
Speaker 2: State where Harris is from.
Speaker 1: Yes, so at the national level they for a long
Speaker 1: time now have voted Democrat. But then there are also
Speaker 1: swing states where each election it really could go either way,
Speaker 1: either Republican or Democratic. So some of the key ones
Speaker 1: this year are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania is a really
Speaker 1: key one, and Wisconsin. And so those are some of
Speaker 1: the states where Harris and Trump will be doing a
Speaker 1: lot of campaigning in the lead up to the election.
Speaker 1: So that's the first thing that she will be looking
Speaker 1: for someone who is popular in one of those key
Speaker 1: swing states. The second thing that I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of reporting on is that Harris might be looking for
Speaker 1: a vice president who can quote unquote balance is the
Speaker 1: word that a lot of reporting has been using to
Speaker 1: balance the voting paper. We know, if Kamala Harris becomes president,
Speaker 1: she would be the first Black American woman and the
Speaker 1: first South Asian American to be elected president. And what
Speaker 1: a lot of commentators are saying is that to possibly
Speaker 1: appeal to more conservative voters. You know, there obviously has
Speaker 1: always been a big topic that we have never had
Speaker 1: a female president in the US, and a lot of
Speaker 1: commentators have said that the US wasn't ready for a
Speaker 1: woman in twenty sixteen. So again, what a lot of
Speaker 1: commentators are saying now is that to appeal to more
Speaker 1: conservative voters, Kamala Harris will possibly pick a white man
Speaker 1: to again quote unquote balance that ticket. Another way that
Speaker 1: it can be interpreted is that there has been a
Speaker 1: lot of criticism from Trump, in particular calling Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: a radical and saying that she is way too left
Speaker 1: for the country. Obviously she disagrees with that, but she
Speaker 1: might consider picking a vice presidential candidate who is more
Speaker 1: moderate than her to appeal to swing voters, you know,
Speaker 1: people who aren't tied to a party and aren't yet
Speaker 1: sure which way they will vote.
Speaker 2: Back to the fact that she was Joe Biden's vice president,
Speaker 2: still is Joe Biden's vice president. It's almost what she
Speaker 2: did for him. Yeah, he was a white man who
Speaker 2: was deemed to be this kind of moderate Democrat, and
Speaker 2: he brought on Kamala Harris, who was a black woman
Speaker 2: who appealed to again, that left voter base. And it's
Speaker 2: interesting now that she's doing exactly the same thing exactly
Speaker 2: for her VP. So on that topic, who are the
Speaker 2: strong contenders that might be in the running for VP here?
Speaker 1: So I'd say that there are three main top contenders
Speaker 1: that are being thrown around, and all of them are
Speaker 1: no surprise men.
Speaker 2: So let's go through each of those.
Speaker 1: So the first one is Mark Kelly, who is an
Speaker 1: Arizona Senator. And remember Arizona is one of those key
Speaker 1: swing states that I mentioned before Tick there, yes, and
Speaker 1: so they were actually one of the key states that
Speaker 1: helped Biden win in twenty twenty. Now, a few things
Speaker 1: to know about Mark Kelly. Fun fact, he's actually a
Speaker 1: former astronaut for Nasal. He's been too space.
Speaker 2: Well there you go, but it's not fun fact.
Speaker 1: But I'll get to the politics. So he is particularly
Speaker 1: strong on campaigning for stricter gun control, and that comes
Speaker 1: after his wife, who is a fellow politician but who
Speaker 1: is now retired. Her name is Gabby Giffords. She survived
Speaker 1: an assassination attempt in twenty eleven. Now he is seen
Speaker 1: as a moderate, which, as we said before, is possibly
Speaker 1: what she could be looking for. He has a bit
Speaker 1: of a reputation for working across the aisle on policies,
Speaker 1: so working with Republicans on some policies. He's also particularly
Speaker 1: strong on immigration. He believes that Democrats should adopt a
Speaker 1: tougher stance on border issues, which we know is one
Speaker 1: of the key issues in this election that Trump has
Speaker 1: been really attacking Democrats on. He's especially strong on this
Speaker 1: because Arizona has a border with Mexico.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's Mark Kelly. Who else are we looking
Speaker 2: at here?
Speaker 1: The next one is Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz. He has
Speaker 1: been the governor of Minnesota since twenty nineteen. Now, Minnesota
Speaker 1: isn't really considered a swing state. In fact, the last
Speaker 1: Republican who win Minnesota was Richard Nixon in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1: But importantly, it is somewhat considered to still be competitive
Speaker 1: and somewhat of a swing state because Trump is saying
Speaker 1: that he plans, In fact, he says that he promises
Speaker 1: to win Minnesota, and he has still been visiting the
Speaker 1: state for campaign, so there's definitely still some competition there.
Speaker 1: And one other thing to note about Waltz is that
Speaker 1: he has gained a lot of attention recently after he
Speaker 1: called Trump and JD. Vance quote unquote weird.
Speaker 2: These are weird people on the other side. They want
Speaker 2: to take books away, they want to be in your
Speaker 2: exam room.
Speaker 1: That's what it comes down to it.
Speaker 2: Don't you get sugar coating this.
Speaker 1: These are weird ideas.
Speaker 2: I love politics.
Speaker 1: Now, you might have heard this around because it's kind
Speaker 1: of this new strategy that a lot of Democrats are
Speaker 1: adopting of calling Trump and Vance weird, and it's really
Speaker 1: created this shift in how the Democrats are talking about them.
Speaker 1: So just to give you an example of this shift,
Speaker 1: So in twenty sixteen, Hillary Clinton, who was then the
Speaker 1: Democratic candidate, she used the word to play horrible a
Speaker 1: lot to describe Trump. Obviously, we know that that didn't work,
Speaker 1: and so there's this shift to now just calling them
Speaker 1: simply weird.
Speaker 2: It is almost Trumpian, like that's what Donald Trump does.
Speaker 2: He calls them one word and like fixates on that.
Speaker 2: And now the Democrats are using that in their own campaigning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're really using it a lot. A number
Speaker 1: of high profile Democrats have been adopting the language, including
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris. One other thing to note about Wolves is
Speaker 1: that he was the governor of Minnesota at the time
Speaker 1: of the murder of George Floyd by police in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and Wolls has been criticized quite a bit for his
Speaker 1: response to the protests that occurred after that murder, and
Speaker 1: there has been criticism that he didn't do enough to
Speaker 1: prevent the damage that followed.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting, and so we've got these two men
Speaker 2: so far. Who is the third contender.
Speaker 1: The third is the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. Now,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is one of the really, really important swing states.
Speaker 1: It is an absolute must win. When election day rolls around,
Speaker 1: you'll be hearing about Pennsylvania a lot. So Josh Shapiro.
Speaker 1: He rose to prominence when he beat his Republican opponent
Speaker 1: by a significant margin in twenty twenty two in the
Speaker 1: race for governor. I saw this so much when I
Speaker 1: was researching this. He's often praised for overseeing a quick
Speaker 1: repair of a bridge that collapsed last year, and just
Speaker 1: generally he has really quite relatively strong approval ratings in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: which again is a must win for Harris this election.
Speaker 1: If Harris does pick Shapiro and then they go on
Speaker 1: to win in November, he would be the first Jewish
Speaker 1: vice president of the US. And I'll also add that
Speaker 1: he has voiced strong support for Israel in the war
Speaker 1: in Gaza.
Speaker 2: Are there any other names being mentioned or is it
Speaker 2: just the three that you've spoken about?
Speaker 1: No, there are so many other options. Also, this week
Speaker 1: we've had two high profile candidates dropping out. There are
Speaker 1: so many names going around in this podcast, so I
Speaker 1: won't go through them, but just two others to quickly
Speaker 1: mention as Kentucky governor and I Bishiah. Now Kentucky is
Speaker 1: actually a pretty safe Republican state, so the fact that
Speaker 1: he's a Democratic governor has always been seen as quite
Speaker 1: impressive and potentially something that Kamala Harris might be attracted to.
Speaker 1: And then there's also Pete Boudagitch, who is currently the
Speaker 1: Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration, so he has
Speaker 1: worked with Kamala Harris in that role. He's quite often
Speaker 1: seen as one of the most effective communicators from the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: He has been everywhere, like they have really wheeled him
Speaker 2: out in the last couple of days and he's been everywhere.
Speaker 1: Ye, he's really doing the media rounds at the moment.
Speaker 1: If he is picked, he would be the first openly
Speaker 1: gay person to be nominated for vice president. Like I said,
Speaker 1: there's a whole list of other potential ones. I would
Speaker 1: say those are the five of the current front runners,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure, no matter what, we will likely be
Speaker 1: hearing those names come up as future Democratic presidential candidates
Speaker 1: in either twenty twenty eight or twenty thirty two.
Speaker 2: I think that this is always a really interesting process.
Speaker 2: As you said, it identifies who the up and coming
Speaker 2: stars are and from here it's hard to tell, so
Speaker 2: it's good to kind of get that straight from the sows.
Speaker 2: When are we expecting to hear from Harris about who
Speaker 2: she'll pick.
Speaker 1: We know it will be in the next few days.
Speaker 1: So Harris's campaign has told media outlets that her first
Speaker 1: rally with whoever the new vice presidential nominee will be
Speaker 1: will be next Tuesday. So she's planning to go to
Speaker 1: a rally with the vice presidential pick on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: So it'll be quite soon, Okay, And just quickly before
Speaker 2: we go, Billy, the last time we did an episode
Speaker 2: on the US was just when Biden had dropped out.
Speaker 2: So much has happened since then. A day is like
Speaker 2: a year in US politics. Can you give us a
Speaker 2: sense of what else has happened with Kamala Harris's campaign
Speaker 2: since that last episode we did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think at the time of that episode being recorded,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even certain yet if Kamala Harris would definitely
Speaker 1: be the Democratic nominee. Now it definitely is certain. She
Speaker 1: has definitely gained enough support and there's been this significant
Speaker 1: shift in you know, the Democratic Party really uniting and
Speaker 1: getting around her. She has actually raised two hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars in the week since she became the Democratic presidential candidate,
Speaker 1: and that is more than Biden raised in the first
Speaker 1: three months of the year, So you compare one week
Speaker 1: to three months, that really gives you an idea of
Speaker 1: just this shift that we've seen. And she's also signed
Speaker 1: up one hundred and seventy thousand new volunteers for her campaign,
Speaker 1: so that's been quite positive for her. The campaign has, though,
Speaker 1: as we have likely expected, it has become quite ugly. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: Trump questioned Kamala Harris's racial identity while speaking at a
Speaker 1: convention for black journalists. He basically said that she has
Speaker 1: only become a black person recently.
Speaker 3: She was always of Indian heritage and she was only
Speaker 3: promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until
Speaker 3: a number of years ago when she happened to turn black,
Speaker 3: and now she wants to be known as black. So
Speaker 3: I don't know is she Indian or.
Speaker 2: Is she black?
Speaker 1: She has always.
Speaker 3: Black college either one, but she obviously doesn't.
Speaker 1: Just to be clear, Harris's mother was born in India
Speaker 1: and her father was born in Jamaica, and her official
Speaker 1: White House profile says she's the first Black American and
Speaker 1: the first South Asian American to be elected to the
Speaker 1: position of vice president.
Speaker 2: And just on the topic of Donald Trump, what's the
Speaker 2: latest with him?
Speaker 1: So Trump has continued his campaigning. He's obviously ramped up
Speaker 1: his attacks on Kamala Harris since she became the Democratic candidate,
Speaker 1: and as we just heard, he has started questioning her
Speaker 1: racial identity, which has been making a lot of headlines.
Speaker 1: The polls, though, they show that Trump is still ahead
Speaker 1: in this race. So the latest New York Times poll
Speaker 1: shows that Trump leads Harris by one point, although she
Speaker 1: has tightened the gap with Trump compared to when Biden
Speaker 1: was the Democratic nominee, but Trump is still ahead.
Speaker 2: Certainly one that we will be keeping a keen eye
Speaker 2: on and can't wait to see who Kamala Harris pixes
Speaker 2: her VP as we go through another twist and turn
Speaker 2: of this election cycle. Now, before we go, we just
Speaker 2: wanted to shout out all the wonderful episodes that we
Speaker 2: have covered this week on the Daily OS. So it's
Speaker 2: been quite an array of topics here. We've had a
Speaker 2: deep dive into tourism, but most importantly over tourism. Then
Speaker 2: we had the latest on Hezbollah and Israel. We had
Speaker 2: another episode on Rex the Airline that has gone into
Speaker 2: voluntary administration. This week and yesterday we covered off on
Speaker 2: the government's response to the Disability Royal Commission, with Harry
Speaker 2: answering whether anything will change for Australians with disabilities. We
Speaker 2: will throw all of those links in today's show notes.
Speaker 2: Thank you for supporting the Daily Oas. We hope you
Speaker 2: have a great weekend and we'll be back again on Monday.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: bungelung Caalgotin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.