Democratic drama is something else.
We saw the Democratic elite shove Joe Biden to the side after his debacle at the first debate against former President Donald Trump. They thought they could just push him out of the way and swap him out with Kamala Harris despite her dismal approval level, failures, and the fact that not a single person voted for her in the primaries because she wasn’t even on the ballot as a presidential candidate. Now she’s the official “nominee.” Talk about a real threat to democracy.
Now we’re in the drama of the selection for her running mate, and they already screwed that up royally by someone releasing a video indicating that it might be Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro before Harris made the announcement. But there have since been reports that was just the local Philly mayor showing support for him being the choice. There have also been reports that Harris is meeting with the various potentials this weekend, which would seem to indicate she hasn’t made her choice yet.
We’ve seen a variety of stories dropping on Shapiro, including about making a settlement over sexual harassment accusations against one of his aides. There are also reports that progressives aren’t happy with the idea among other reasons because of his position in regard to Israel and Gaza. They were also unhappy about him being an IDF volunteer (although he claims he worked on a farm and did not engage in military action) and an article he wrote in college.
In the 1993 article, Shapiro wrote that “Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” because “they do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States.”
You know that would drive many on the left crazy.
But now there’s a new fascinating report that a big name who has cause to know things about Pennsylvania isn’t very happy with the thought of Shapiro and is warning the Harris people about him.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is concerned about the possibility that Vice President Kamala Harris might choose his state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, as her running mate, and his advisers have privately relayed those worries to Harris’ team, according to three people familiar with the conversations.
Fetterman’s advisers suggested to Harris’ team that the senator believes that Shapiro is excessively focused on his own personal ambitions. His reservations about Shapiro reflect a long-running rivalry between the two ambitious Democrats, who have risen on parallel tracks in a politically crucial state.
Politico’s report suggests a scramble going on behind the scenes over the question of Shapiro — “furious efforts by both supporters and critics of Shapiro to influence” Harris, with “other candidates’ backers and opponents” joining in the lobbying.
Fetterman’s advisers offered his “unvarnished assessment” of Shapiro “that is not about policy differences or other public baggage.”
A Fetterman spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The fact that Fetterman’s people are not responding sounds like they’re not disputing it, at least not at this point.
That’s juicy that the “sources” are going to that length. Fetterman is also very pro-Israel and not a progressive, so it shows that the issues with Shapiro are wider than just the anti-Israel progressives. And Fetterman carries some weight in Pennsylvania so he would have cause to know.
Is Harris going to throw all the stories and what Fetterman is reportedly saying to her under the bus because she thinks picking Shapiro will help her get Pennsylvania? And if she does pick him, will that hurt her elsewhere in places like Michigan?