Whirlwind week for presidential politics: FOX 7 Focus

AUSTIN, Texas - To say this has been a whirlwind week in presidential politics might just be an understatement. 

President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for the White House, nearly three weeks after an Austin-area congressman led the calls for the president to step back. 

Since then, it is looking more and more like Vice President Kamala Harris will become the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. 

Scott Braddock, editor of QuorumReport.com, joins FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak to discuss the latest developments in the 2024 presidential race in this FOX 7 Focus. 

JOHN KRINJAK: So obviously we had, boy it it feels like longer. But on July 2nd we had Congressman Lloyd Doggett from Austin say "I respectfully call on the president to withdraw". Talk to us about how that moment brought us to last Sunday. 

SCOTT BRADDOCK: Not a lot of conversations start with Lloyd Doggett and with George Clooney, but he was among the big Democrats saying that Biden needed to step out of the race. I think when it came to Congressman Doggett, he was taking some calculated risks, of course, but he was reacting to what he was hearing from voters. They were mortified by the debate performance of President Biden. And if you think about the decision that Biden had to make, it's interesting that what he was really doing was not really addressing whether he can run this race, whether he's up to the challenge, he's trying to unite the party. He's trying to get the Democrats to stop debating that and come together and instead get behind the eventual nominee here, which looks like it's going to be Kamala Harris.

READ MORE

• These top Democrats are endorsing Harris in presidential race
• Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris for president
• Could Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Here’s what the polls say

JOHN KRINJAK: Yeah. And to that point, we heard Doggett say he would like to see an open convention. He thought that would be the best way for the Democrats to get the best nominee. But obviously, the president went in the other direction. You know, like two minutes after he pulled out, he said, I endorse Kamala Harris. Do you think that was the right move for him?

SCOTT BRADDOCK: There's a lot of debate about whether Joe Biden, you know, is still up to the day to day of being president. That's still going to continue. You're going to hear that from Republicans, right? But I think when it comes to big picture politics, the old man still got it. And Biden really timed it in a way that it can be controlled. He doesn't want to see some more chaos from his party. He wants them to get behind VP Harris, which is really the only, logistically the only move that the Democrats really have. The first 24 hours after it was announced that Biden was supporting her as he was getting out of the race, almost $90 million came in around that time. That sounds like a lot of money. It is. It's kind of unbelievable.

JOHN KRINJAK: I mean, the donations and then, voter registration, I think, just skyrocketed. Does that translate to momentum in the fall when we're talking about the general election?

SCOTT BRADDOCK: This might be a situation where, because it's going to be truncated and only about 100 days for all this to unfold, maybe these folks can kind of continue to stay really engaged. We'll see. Of course, we haven't really seen the Republicans go to town on Vice President Harris just yet. If you look at the polling, she has basically pulled even with President Trump in some of the polling. The Wall Street Journal had a poll like that.

JOHN KRINJAK: Obviously, here in Texas, we're very aware of the border situation. How much of a vulnerability do you think Harris has on the border? You know, whether or not she was the "border czar", that was something that she was sort of deputized with. Do you think that's a good thing for Trump to go after?

SCOTT BRADDOCK: Well, it's going to be a sustained attack from Republicans. You saw Governor Abbott saying that same thing earlier this week that she was the borders are and didn't get the job done. And that's going to be a standard attack from Republicans. I think that whether that's really going to land with folks come the fall, it depends on what the numbers look like on the border right now. They're down actually for the time being.

READ MORE

• 2024 Election: When will Kamala Harris announce her running mate?
• Here's who Texans want to be Kamala Harris' running mate
• Kamala Harris’ VP: A look at the front-runners for running mate

JOHN KRINJAK: Obviously, this is kind of an unprecedented way that the election is unfolding. So we don't know the timeline for this. But obviously we expect Kamala Harris to pick a VP. Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, Mark Kelly, senator from Arizona, seem to be names that we're hearing a lot. Does it make sense to look at a Texan, potentially, for that position? Texas? Not really a swing state, but it's a big state. And a state that has, has had an impact in the past.

SCOTT BRADDOCK: A couple things. One, a person doesn't have to be from a particular state to help the presidential candidate win in that state, right. You know that William McRaven, the former University of Texas chancellor, was said to be in the mix as far as one of the possible VP picks for Harris. But he immediately said, no, I'm not interested in that. But, you know, I'm being, it's sort of old school thinking to think that the person has to be a politician. It could be some out of the box pick, like someone like Mark Cuban. You know, the billionaire from Dallas who has been attacking Trump now and then on different things could be something that could excite folks. I do think it's interesting that the two you mentioned, Shapiro and Mark Kelly, both white guys, from these swing states, and both are seen as moderate Democrats. And so that would be something I think that can really balance out the ticket. If the main attack on Harris is going to be that she's a San Francisco liberal.

JOHN KRINJAK: All right. Scott Braddock at QuorumReport.com. Scott, as always, thanks for being here. Appreciate your insight.

SCOTT BRADDOCK: My pleasure. Thank you.