www.theatlantic.com Open in urlscan Pro
199.232.198.133  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET /search/

<form method="GET" action="/search/" class="SearchOverlay_searchForm___U0R_" data-action="search submit">
  <div class="SearchInput_root__6XLPB">
    <div class="VisuallyHidden_root__yoK4r"><label for="search-input-:R2srl2mm:">Search The Atlantic</label></div><button type="submit" title="Submit" class="SearchInput_searchButton__u0CP0"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 16"
        aria-hidden="true" width="20">
        <path d="M15.85 15.15l-5.27-5.28a6 6 0 10-.71.71l5.28 5.27a.48.48 0 00.7 0 .48.48 0 000-.7zM1 6a5 5 0 115 5 5 5 0 01-5-5z"></path>
      </svg></button><input type="search" name="q" id="search-input-:R2srl2mm:" class="SearchInput_searchInput__5hWhI SearchInput_hideClear__re5AE" placeholder="Search The Atlantic..." autocomplete="off" required="" value="">
  </div>
  <div class="QuickLinks_quickLinksContainer__F_iFd">
    <div class="QuickLinks_quickLinksHeading__ms7Ht">Quick Links</div>
    <ul class="QuickLinks_quickLinksList__e7x66">
      <li class="QuickLinks_quickLinkListItem__59_09">
        <a class="QuickLinks_quickLink__w_Fp0" href="/projects/dear-therapist/" data-action="click link - quick link" data-label="Dear Therapist" data-event-element="quick link" data-event-position="1"><img alt="Dear Therapist" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV QuickLinks_quickLinkImage__FTMBA" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/img/specialreports/lead/2020/10/14/Thumbnail.jpg" width="148" height="148"><div class="QuickLinks_quickLinkLabel__TYtIC">Dear Therapist</div></a>
      </li>
      <li class="QuickLinks_quickLinkListItem__59_09">
        <a class="QuickLinks_quickLink__w_Fp0" href="/free-daily-crossword-puzzle/" data-action="click link - quick link" data-label="Crossword Puzzle" data-event-element="quick link" data-event-position="2"><img alt="Crossword Puzzle" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV QuickLinks_quickLinkImage__FTMBA" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/files/nav-crossword.png" width="148" height="148"><div class="QuickLinks_quickLinkLabel__TYtIC">Crossword Puzzle</div></a>
      </li>
      <li class="QuickLinks_quickLinkListItem__59_09">
        <a class="QuickLinks_quickLink__w_Fp0" href="/archive/" data-action="click link - quick link" data-label="Magazine Archive" data-event-element="quick link" data-event-position="3"><img alt="Magazine Archive" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV QuickLinks_quickLinkImage__FTMBA" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/files/archive-thumbnail.png" width="148" height="148"><div class="QuickLinks_quickLinkLabel__TYtIC">Magazine Archive</div></a>
      </li>
      <li class="QuickLinks_quickLinkListItem__59_09">
        <a class="QuickLinks_quickLink__w_Fp0" href="https://accounts.theatlantic.com/accounts/subscription/" data-action="click link - quick link" data-label="Your Subscription" data-event-element="quick link" data-event-position="4"><img alt="Your Subscription" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV QuickLinks_quickLinkImage__FTMBA" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/files/YourSubscription_300x300.jpg" width="148" height="148"><div class="QuickLinks_quickLinkLabel__TYtIC">Your Subscription</div></a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div><button type="button" aria-label="Close Search" class="SearchOverlay_closeButton___zntA" data-action="close search" data-event-verb="closed" data-event-element="close icon"><svg viewBox="0 0 16 16" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
      class="SearchOverlay_closeIcon__DrMMb">
      <path d="M9.525 8l6.159 6.159a1.078 1.078 0 11-1.525 1.525L8 9.524l-6.159 6.16a1.076 1.076 0 01-1.525 0 1.078 1.078 0 010-1.525L6.476 8 .315 1.841A1.078 1.078 0 111.841.316L8 6.476l6.16-6.16a1.078 1.078 0 111.524 1.525L9.524 8z"
        fill-rule="evenodd"></path>
    </svg></button>
</form>

Text Content

WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY

We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as cookies
and process personal data, such as unique identifiers and standard information
sent by a device for personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement,
and audience insights, as well as to develop and improve products. With your
permission we and our partners may use precise geolocation data and
identification through device scanning. You may click to consent to our and our
partners’ processing as described above. Alternatively you may click to refuse
to consent or access more detailed information and change your preferences
before consenting. Please note that some processing of your personal data may
not require your consent, but you have a right to object to such processing.
Your preferences will apply to this website only. You can change your
preferences at any time by returning to this site or visit our privacy policy.
MORE OPTIONSI Do Not AcceptI Accept
Skip to content


SITE NAVIGATION

 * The Atlantic
 * PopularLatestNewsletters
   
   
   SECTIONS
   
    * Politics
    * Ideas
    * Fiction
    * Technology
    * Science
    * Photo
    * Business
    * Culture
    * Planet
    * Global
    * Books
    * Podcasts
    * Health
    * Education
    * Projects
    * Features
    * Family
    * Events
    * Washington Week
    * Progress
    * Newsletters
   
    * Explore The Atlantic Archive
    * Play The Atlantic crossword
   
   
   THE PRINT EDITION
   
   Latest IssuePast Issues
   
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   Give a Gift
 * Search The Atlantic
   Quick Links
    * Dear Therapist
    * Crossword Puzzle
    * Magazine Archive
    * Your Subscription
   
   
 * Popular
 * Latest
 * Newsletters


 * Sign In
 * Subscribe




Read our ongoing coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The Atlantic Daily


KAMALA HARRIS IS TRYING TO CHANGE THE NARRATIVE

A conversation with Elaina Plott Calabro about her profile of the vice president

By Lora Kelley

Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty
October 11, 2023, 6:30 PM ET
Share
Saved StoriesSave


This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through
the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the
best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Since taking office, Vice President Kamala Harris has struggled to communicate
her vision and the nature of her role to both the press and the public. As
President Joe Biden, the country’s oldest-ever president, eyes reelection,
questions about Harris’s readiness to step in as president if needed are urgent,
if also seemingly taboo among Democrats. My colleague Elaina Plott Calabro
profiled Harris for the November issue of The Atlantic, following her to Africa
and around the U.S.—and even, in a first for a reporter during this
administration, to the vice president’s residence. I called Elaina to discuss
Harris’s public persona, why she’s had trouble communicating her success, and
what she’s like outside Washington, D.C.





First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:



 * Understanding Hamas’s genocidal ideology
 * Nikki Haley is the new Ron DeSantis.
 * The new AI panic
 * The journalist and the fallen billionaire

Trouble Breaking Through

Lora Kelley: You write in your profile that, at earlier points in Harris’s
career, “communication wasn’t a matter of rhetoric. It was just laying out the
facts.” Now she’s in an arena where compelling rhetoric counts. Why has that
transition been difficult for her?



Elaina Plott Calabro: Earlier in her career, Kamala Harris was a prosecutor in
Alameda County and a district attorney in San Francisco. You are not looking to
your DA for sweeping, inspiring speeches in the way you might, say, your U.S.
senator. Communication as DA is so much more technical and fact-based. As Harris
has gotten further away from that level of politics and moved onto a national
stage, she’s found it more difficult to frame her communication in a way that
captures the tangible nature of her success.



It’s not just Harris who is having trouble breaking through to voters right now.
This is something that President Biden is struggling with as well. One prominent
Democratic pollster recently told me that they’re mystified about what it takes
to reach Americans at a communications level. In this post-2016 era, a lot of
politicians, not just Harris, are struggling with how to achieve visibility in a
time when Donald Trump can say one thing and it seems to dominate the airwaves
for days.





Lora: In what contexts does Harris thrive?



Elaina: When Harris can talk one-on-one with people, hear their concerns and
stress the ways in which her administration is working for them, and then bring
what she’s learned back to Washington, that’s where she feels most effective and
comes into her own as a politician. We’ve seen her do a lot more of that lately.


RECOMMENDED READING


 * THE MEANING OF LIFE IS SURPRISINGLY SIMPLE
   
   Arthur C. Brooks
   


 * WHY IS COLLEGE IN AMERICA SO EXPENSIVE?
   
   Amanda Ripley
   


 * FACEBOOK HAS A SUPERUSER-SUPREMACY PROBLEM
   
   Matthew Hindman, Nathaniel Lubin, and Trevor Davis
   



In one of the most telling conversations I had with her, she told me about a
commencement speech that she once gave at the law school at UC Berkeley. She
urged the students there to “embrace the mundane.” One reason that she doesn’t
have a public presentation that immediately captivates people is that she sees
her job as something that takes more than theatrics to do right. She takes
seriously—and prefers to spend her time on—the slower-burn, day-to-day work she
feels is needed to actually effect change.



Lora: You observed that Harris tends to play especially well outside of
Washington. Why is that?



Elaina: In Washington, we tend to have a pretty static idea of what it means for
a vice president to be successful. It’s obviously a very nebulous role, but if
you look back at old headlines from past administrations, news outlets would
often frame vice presidents as sort of the liaison to Capitol Hill for the White
House.



Kamala Harris was never going to be Joe Biden’s anchor to Washington. President
Biden started his first Senate term before she was even 10 years old. So her
first several months on the job, she was also trying to figure out what role she
could play. Once she was able to start getting out into the rest of the country,
she came into her own. On the trail, she connects very visibly with regular
people. She’s very warm and personable. When she’s actually on the ground with
voters, she comes across as an entirely different politician from the existing
caricature of her as someone unsure of herself who speaks in word-salad
locutions.





Lora: You wrote that “perceptions of Harris appear to be frozen in 2021.” Do you
think there’s anything she can or will do to change the way that people perceive
her ahead of 2024?



Elaina: Kamala Harris had not been on the national stage for that long when she
entered the White House. The Lester Holt interview she did in 2021 was very
defining for her simply because it was one of the first major yardsticks by
which people could measure her. The narrative that came out of that interview,
in which she was viewed as unprepared and flippant, became really hard for her
to get out from under. As one of her former aides told me, narrative is a very
difficult thing to change.



Her willingness to talk with me, and to invite me to the residence, was
emblematic of a desire on the part of her team to get her out there and engage
more with the press as the campaign gets under way. They’re putting her in a
position where more Americans are seeing her, and trying to create moments that
can define the shape of her vice presidency, two and a half years after the one
moment that has otherwise largely defined it.





Related:



 * The Kamala Harris problem
 * The woman who led Kamala Harris to this moment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Today’s News

 1. In a landmark move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National
    Unity leader Benny Gantz have agreed to establish an emergency wartime
    government.
 2. Republicans have narrowly nominated Representative Steve Scalise as speaker
    of the House; a full vote on the House floor has been delayed.
 3. Hurricane Lidia made landfall in Mexico as a Category 4 storm yesterday
    evening.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dispatches

 * The Weekly Planet: The Mississippi is losing its fight with the ocean, Nancy
   Walecki writes. A combination of drought and sea-level rise has sent a wedge
   of salt water moving up the river.



Explore all of our newsletters here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evening Read


Getty / The Atlantic

Cancel Amazon Prime

(From 2021)

By Ellen Cushing

> Today is Prime Day. Imagine trying to explain that to an alien or to a time
> traveler from the 20th century. “Amazon turned 20 and on the eve of its
> birthday, the company introduced Prime Day, a global shopping event,” reads
> Amazon’s formal telling of the ritual’s 2015 origins. “Our only goal? Offer a
> volume of deals greater than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members.” The
> holiday was invented by a corporation in honor of itself, to enrich itself. It
> has existed for six years and is observed by tens of millions of people
> worldwide. I hope you are spending it with your loved ones.
> 
> Prime Day is a singular and strange artifact, but then again, so is Prime,
> Amazon’s $119-a-year membership service, which buys subscribers free one-day
> shipping, plus access to streaming media, discounts at the Amazon subsidiary
> Whole Foods, and a host of other perks. Prime is Amazon’s greatest and most
> terrifying invention: a product whose value proposition is to help you buy
> more products.

Read the full article.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More From The Atlantic

 * Photos: Winners of the 2023 Epson International Pano Awards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Culture Break

Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

Read. A new biography of the Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed considers the
stark duality of the man and his music.



Listen. “Be absolutely quiet. Not a word.” In the latest episode of Radio
Atlantic, host Hanna Rosin talks with the Israeli journalist Amir Tibon about
his family’s encounter with Hamas.



Play our daily crossword.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here.

Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter.

When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission.
Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.





This is your last free article.
This is your last free article.Already a subscriber?Sign in


NEVER MISS A STORY FROM THE ATLANTIC.

GET UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE ATLANTIC.

Subscribe Now