Primary Topic
This episode explores Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign following President Biden's endorsement and her chances against Donald Trump.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- Harris has effectively secured Democratic support and is poised to receive the nomination.
- She faces challenges regarding her public image and political history, particularly her prosecutorial record.
- The episode discusses the dynamics of her campaign in light of Biden's non-participation and Trump's ongoing influence.
- It highlights the strategic shifts within both Democratic and Republican campaigns in response to the evolving political landscape.
- Harris's capabilities as a debater and public figure are seen as pivotal to her campaign's success.
Episode Chapters
1: Campaign Dynamics
Brad Milke discusses Kamala Harris's swift actions to secure endorsements and rally support following Biden's endorsement.
Brad Milke: "Harris went to work... securing on the record endorsements from most Democrats on Capitol Hill."
2: Public Perception
Discussion on Harris's public image, including the viral 'coconut tree' meme, and how it reflects her personality and political strategy.
Brittany Shepard: "Kamala Harris has reawoken the khive... those lines have gone insane on TikTok."
3: Political Challenges
Analyzes Harris's political challenges, especially concerning her past as a prosecutor and her stance on key issues like immigration and abortion.
Brittany Shepard: "Many Democrats were wary of her former record as a prosecutor, saying that she was too tough on members of her own community."
4: Trump's Campaign Strategy
Details how Donald Trump's campaign plans to adapt to Harris's nomination and the strategic challenges they face.
John Santucci: "We've had three and a half plus years of going after one guy, and now we have to flip it."
Actionable Advice
- Engage Politically: Stay informed and participate in local and national elections to influence future policies.
- Research Candidates: Understand the backgrounds and platforms of political candidates to make informed voting decisions.
- Advocate for Issues: Support causes you care about through advocacy groups or community organizing.
- Critical Consumption: Critically analyze political news and propaganda to form your own opinions.
- Community Involvement: Engage in community discussions to foster a better understanding of diverse political views.
About This Episode
As Vice President Kamala Harris locks down endorsements from the vast majority of elected Democrats, questions linger about whether she’ll fare better than her 2020 run. Former President Donald Trump adjusts his campaign with a new opponent in mind. And Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faces bipartisan calls to resign.
People
Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Brittany Shepard, John Santucci, Brad Milke
Companies
ABC News
Books
None
Guest Name(s):
None
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
Brad Milke
It's Tuesday, July 23. She's never won a presidential primary. So can she win in November? We start here.
Kamala Harris
It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win.
Brad Milke
Vice President Kamala Harris has boxed out political challengers, but questions linger about whether she can beat Donald Trump.
Brittany Shepard
There are a lot of vulnerabilities about.
Brad Milke
Her resume as the former prosecutor rises to the top of the ticket. We'll examine the case for and against Harris. Her campaign's not the only one getting a reboot.
John Santucci
Three and a half plus years of going after one guy, and now we have to flip it.
Brad Milke
How Trump world plans to combat a brand new opponent and the director of the secret service gets served.
Pierre Thomas
Your agency got outsmart. In and out maneuvered by a 20 year old.
Brad Milke
A contentious hearing results in members of both parties calling for her resignation.
From ABC News, this is start here. I'm Brad Milke.
When President Biden made the historic decision to drop out of the race for the White House this weekend, you could have imagined that triggering an absolute free for all for who would take his place.
Joe Biden
I'm hoping you'll give every bit of your heart and soul that you gave to me to Kamala.
Brad Milke
And yet, Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have locked this down.
Kamala Harris
We have doors to knock on.
We have people to talk to, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win.
Brad Milke
So right after President Biden endorsed her on Sunday, Harris went to work.
If politics is about the business of people, well, Harris, sitting at home in sweats and sneakers this weekend, worked the phones for more than 10 hours. On Sunday night, sources say she called more than 100 people, party leaders, members of Congress, labor unions, civil rights organizations. She didn't get off the phone except when she was ordering food for the staff. By yesterday, she had secured on the record endorsements from most Democrats on Capitol Hill. And crucially, just about every Democrat who is rumored to be a potential challenger. From Governor Gretchen Whitmer of battleground Michigan.
Kamala Harris
Today, I am fired up to endorse Kamala Harris to Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Brad Milke
I pledged my support to her. The rest of that conversation, you know, I said, would stay between us. Act Blue, the democratic fundraising group, announced $81 million in donations, its largest one day haul in its history. Democratic voters seemed to be breathing a sigh of relief.
Kamala Harris
I think she would make a great president. I know she's been busy these last four years.
Pierre Thomas
I think she, you know, she reminds me of like an auntie, like at.
Brad Milke
The cookout or something.
Brittany Shepard
I think that there's so many young people that are totally great with having a woman president.
Brad Milke
As of this morning, so many delegates have pledged their support that she's virtually assured of receiving the nomination on the first ballot if they all keep their word at the convention. That's an if. And yet, for all the exhilaration, the question I've gotten from friends, from family, from listeners of this podcast is a more basic one. Can she win? We're gonna break down the politics today. Let's start with ABC's political reporter Brittany Shepard. Britney, it does seem like democrats are all rallying around the vice president at this point. So can we just do, like, a reintroduction? What should the people, what should our listeners know or remember about Kamala Harris?
Brittany Shepard
Sure, Brad. Let's go all the way back. So Kamala Harris was born to indian and jamaican immigrants all the way over on that other coast in Oakland, California. And then she got to DC by going to the HBCU here, Howard University.
And her resume is peppered with a ton of firsts. She was the nation's first indian american senator, California's first female and south asian ag.
Kamala Harris
And while the rest of the country was being outfoxed by the neocons and burned by the tea party here in California, we sent a different message.
Brittany Shepard
And as you can remember, she ran last cycle and had that big viral moment from that first debate where she looked at Joe Biden in the face and insinuated that really, he was surprised. An institutionalized system of racism that affected her on NBC.
Brad Milke
Harris did not let up.
Kamala Harris
You were wrong to oppose busing in America. Then do you agree?
Joe Biden
I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education.
Brittany Shepard
Remember, she pointed at him and said, that little girl was me, and instantly accusing him of supporting policies around busing and segregation. Labeled herself as a stalwart of the new generation of Democrats compared to him, a member of the old guard. Kind of ironic now at the moment that we're at. And of course, she was the first woman to become vice president.
Kamala Harris
I will be the first, but I will not be the last.
Brittany Shepard
So just a slew of glass ceilings broken in this bio. And it's interesting to see how all of that history meets the moment that we're at right now.
Brad Milke
Yeah, well, and this is what's crazy, is in the last 48 hours, I feel like we are seeing memes galore, like social media videos, like a vibe that is totally different from everything I had gotten from Biden's reelect for example, can you explain why I'm seeing coconuts everywhere all of a sudden? Can we just tackle that mystery?
Brittany Shepard
Well, it's because, Brad, you exist in the context of everything that comes before you. You know, Kamala Harris has reawoken the khive. That's her group of stans, like the beehive or the BTS army, to really mobilize on her behalf. It's come essentially out of nowhere.
Kamala Harris
Like you were saying, everything is in context.
Brittany Shepard
So last year, she was at a swearing in ceremony, and during her remarks, she said her mother used to tell her something along the lines of, I.
Kamala Harris
Don'T know what's wrong with you young people.
You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Brittany Shepard
Basically. Like, were you just born yesterday? Right? And then she goes, well, no, you exist of the context of everything that's become before you in the way that Kamala Harris usually delivers these lines. A little bit of a laugh, a little bit of some snark, and those lines have gone insane.
If you go on TikTok X, you're just gonna be inundated with Kamala Harris coconut tree memes.
Kamala Harris
You think you just fell out of a coconut tree. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Brittany Shepard
They're being remixed into songs, into Kesha songs.
John Santucci
Dance.
Brittany Shepard
And it's funny, right, Brad? Because I think initially, these things were going viral as a bit of a dig or an insult to Harris. These were on the timeline well before she was the choice of Joe Biden to succeed him. They were meant to be like, yeah, look at that wacky aunt that you bring to thanksgiving if you're somebody who likes her or ribbing her with a little bit of love. But we saw a ton of this on the timeline from Republicans and even Democrats who are critical of her being, like, kind of, look at that wacky lady. I'm sure you've seen Donald Trump's already trying to test out her nickname, Kamala.
Donald Trump
I call her laughing Kamala. You ever watch her laugh? She's crazy.
Brittany Shepard
But it speaks as that. And it's so interesting to how organically the k hive and something about where Democrats are at now have completely flipped those attack lines on its head.
Brad Milke
Well, and this is the thing, Britney.
Cause we say that there's all this excitement around her in the Democratic Party at the moment, and yet she lost the primary four years ago. Right. And I'm not even sure it's a given that she would have won an open primary this spring. Right? Biden himself was reportedly unsure about whether she could beat Trump in any scenario. Why is like, at this point, what do people in the Beltway see as her strengths and weaknesses as a candidate?
Brittany Shepard
Well, I think that she meets the party in a really fascinating place. Right. Because Democrats in DC really want to tout the Biden Harris administration as one of the most progressive on its record, on its face. But it was so mired in Biden having to play defense on his age, on his performance in the debate and so on. Right? And so they see a tremendous opportunity in rebranding, refreshing what it means to be a Democrat now, especially when it comes to mission critical democratic policies like abortion.
Joe Biden
The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states.
Brittany Shepard
It should have been a slam dunk for Democrats. But, Brad, you heard what Joe Biden said on that debate on CNN. He just wasn't able to stick the landing.
Joe Biden
Look, there's so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered and he went to the funeral, the idea that she was murdered by an immigrant.
Brittany Shepard
But Kamala Harris is universally praised as somebody who can pick up the mantle of abortion rights in America.
Kamala Harris
The government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.
Brittany Shepard
And she's been effective messenger on abortion, traveling the country as vice president, running the stump. And so they know that she's been tested and vetted on that issue. And frankly, now Democrats can just talk about age in a way they just really did not want to, Brad, before, because look at their guy, just as old as the other guy, in fact, if not older than, however, you know, she's never won a presidential election. Right. Brad, you were just saying she was in that primary. She dropped up for the Iowa caucuses. There were a lot of vulnerabilities about her resume, especially when it comes to her prosecutorial record. I mean, we've heard Democrats in the last couple days say, look, she can bring the case to Donald Trump. She could prosecute him.
Kamala Harris
So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.
Brittany Shepard
But many Democrats were wary of her fault, former record as a prosecutor, saying that she was tough on members of her own community, that she was too rigid, she wasn't progressive enough when she was ag of California. And then folks who are progressive within the own party are saying she's a cop. She doesn't have her own interest in mind. Right. And I think that that's gonna be a real issue for her on top of her being labeled as the border czar by Republicans. She was handed this really thick portfolio by Joe Biden. The issues she had to tackle when she first came into office, including the Northern Triangle, immigration coming up from the south. And listen, Republicans have been on top of the drumpy that immigration is a huge issue in America, tying it to crime.
Donald Trump
It's a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities.
Brittany Shepard
How do you attempt to message against sexism, against racism that has already been thrown her way? How do you message against some very serious policy vulnerabilities? They're gonna be pulling. They're gonna be putting her out on the stump as much as possible. We already heard from her yesterday, and.
Kamala Harris
It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win.
Brittany Shepard
We're gonna be seeing a lot more of Kamala Harris, the potential leader, the potential messenger, and probably a lot more of Joe Biden, you know, sitting pretty in the White House and letting Harris lead in the way that he hopes she can. Joe Biden believes she's up to the moment, but my question is, do democrats? I just don't know.
Brad Milke
Yeah, I gotta imagine this is the whole concern is the more voters saw her in 2020, the worse her numbers got. She came in like a thunderbolt, and yet she's not the president right now. We'll see if she becomes one, though. Brittany Shepard, thank you so much.
Brittany Shepard
Of course.
Brad Milke
Next up on start here. Every campaign has a playbook, but none have one quite like Donald Trump's. What he's planning to do after the break.
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Now, we've been talking about the Democrats because they've had to change their entire campaign. But when you think about it, they're not the only ones. Former President Donald Trump has been reacting to all this in real time. So how does this affect his approach to the race for the White House? ABC's executive editorial producer John Santucci has covered the former president extensively for the last eight years. If there's anyone who knows how Trump campaigns operate, it's him. John. I mean, how are Trump and his team reacting to a potential Kamala Harris nomination?
John Santucci
You know, listen, I think the public face of it is that, you know, they're taking it on. They're leaning in there. You know, they're telling folks that, you know, we're basically going to do everything we can to tie Kamala Harris to Joe Biden because they've all been part of the same team.
Brad Milke
Kamala Harris said something to the effect that, that I have no loyalty to this country.
Well, I don't know, Kamala. I did serve in the United States Marine Corps and build a business. What the hell have you done other.
John Santucci
Than collect the check privately? Brad? Look, as many sources have said to me, we've had three and a half plus years of going after one guy, and now we have to flip it. Now, I will tell you from my sources, they have built a Jic book just in case this should happen. So it's pulling that off the shelf now, dusting it off and actually getting into it sort of interesting.
Donald Trump
This guy goes and he gets the votes, they want to take it away. That's democracy. They talk about democracy.
John Santucci
But I think that here's a problem that every iteration of Donald Trump's campaigns have faced, and you mentioned covering him for eight years. We've had three different cycles now of Donald Trump being the republican nominee. And the reality is, is that though the 2024 cycle, at least from my vantage point, the campaign itself is much more sophisticated than campaign one, going back to 2015 and 16, the candidate is still the same. The candidate is the guy that we saw Thursday night at the republican convention, right, where everybody was given a speech before he gave it. And it was very much, you know, unity and hope and pulling everybody together. That was not the speech that ultimately Americans heard.
Donald Trump
If you took the ten worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the ten worst added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done.
John Santucci
That's Donald Trump. And Donald Trump believes at the end of the day, he is his own best messenger, his own communicator. He believes he is the campaign manager. Brad, that nobody this cycle in Donald Trump's campaign, this is a fact, has the title of campaign manager.
Brad Milke
Oh, my gosh.
John Santucci
That's because the people that run this campaign have said to me privately, look, the reality is we saw what happened to people in the past that had that title. So we didn't give it to anybody this time around. And I think that really speaks volumes to the Trump campaign of 2024. So can they get the campaign focus? Can they get the candidate discipline? Many people have tried before and failed. So that is going to be the challenge right now. And one that I can tell you they're really trying to figure out.
Brad Milke
But what, what in their minds is that? This is going to sound like a dumb question, but what is the difference between Biden and Harris, in their opinion? Is it just age? Like their whole campaign wasn't just Biden is old. Or was it? Maybe that, maybe that was it.
John Santucci
No, that definitely was it. I mean, listen, they were, you know, literally finding a way to swim to the, to a win come November because they felt so confident. And it's part of the reason why Donald Trump was basically hanging out in Florida all summer. You know, sit back and wait, if you will. But the problem here is twofold for them. One, as I mentioned, Kamala Harris is someone they have not run against for the last three and a half years. So they quickly have to pivot there to think about the debate, Brad. Right. The debate was an unmitigated disaster for Joe Biden. It's the reason that he is now stepping aside. Kamala Harris is a better debater. She is a former prosecutor. The Trump team knows that. And if you get somebody that can get in Donald Trump's face effectively, that is something that is definitely going to be a point of concern for them.
Brad Milke
Hey, if they could go back knowing it would have been Harris, would any, like, can you point to any things that might have been different? Like, I don't know, would JD Vance still be Trump's running mate? Like, are there decisions here that they're like, well, shoot that. That was for the anti Biden campaign.
John Santucci
Are you asking me to play Cher if I could turn back time? Look, I think that here, here's the reality for team Trump right now. It is what it is. Now, having said that, JD Vance was somebody they picked for two reasons in particular. One, Donald Trump said it himself. He basically wants somebody to set up shop in Pennsylvania.
Brad Milke
Are we ready to re elect President Donald J. Trump again?
John Santucci
JD Vance is still going to do that. And they still need Pennsylvania and the Rust belt to be successful in November 2. They wanted somebody that would be the attack dog. Look at the last week of JD Vance. Look at the morning after the assassination attempt. He was already out there. Even before Brad being declared the vp pick by Donald Trump, he was already out there on the attack.
Brad Milke
She signed up for every single one of Joe Biden's failures, and she lied about his mental capacity to serve as.
John Santucci
President all weekend since Joe Biden announced he's out forcefully attacking Kamala Harris, that is what they wanted. So, no, I actually don't think on this one they would flip the switch or turn back time. I think that this was the guy that Trump wanted. I think that after the assassination attempt, he almost felt emboldened, right, that he could do this because he was riding this political high. And now this is the team getting into November.
Brittany Shepard
Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline.
John Santucci
And Bradley, actually, the more effective things team Trump has done in the last couple of days, they very quickly had an ad out attacking Kamala Harris. And for the super PAC in particular, they spun a quick 32nd ad. They actually very quickly, Brad pulled down a Joe Biden ad. They've already done a $5 million ad buy on this week in Battleground states. They got the Kamala Harris ad instead.
Brad Milke
Well, and you've seen the attempt to tie Kamala Harris to Joe Biden. That totally makes sense. You've also seen some Republicans, including Trump, say, hey, we spent all this money. This isn't fair. We spent all this money attacking Joe Biden. And now, like, there's changing in us. And I think that's the difference from, like, so many normal presidential campaigns. Your job campaigning is to campaign for yourself, to show America this is who you are. Both of these candidates were known so well that this really became the anti Biden, the anti Trump campaign. Now, what do you do when the table's turned? You actually have to make a case for yourself. John Santucci, thank you so much.
John Santucci
Thank you, Bradley.
Brad Milke
Now, while all eyes this week are going to be on Vice President Harris, don't forget we are less than two weeks removed from a former american president and the current republican nominee being shot in an assassination attempt. Well, since that moment, the director of the US Secret Service, Kim Cheadle, has been on the defensive when she showed up at the Republican National Convention to meet with Trump. She said little as elected Republicans basically chased her down the halls.
So yesterday, when she arrived to speak before the House Oversight committee, you knew this had the potential to be fiery. In her opening statement, she took personal responsibility for what unfolded.
Kimberly Cheatle
The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.
Brad Milke
But members still had a lot more questions for her, and all the answers in the world might not be enough to keep her on the job. Let's go to ABC's chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas, who is in the room during this hearing. Pierre, first off, what was it like in there?
Pierre Thomas
I would use the word brutal. The Secret service director faced perhaps the most consequential several hours of her professional career, and she was pummeled with questions by both Democrats and Republicans.
Brad Milke
Why was the building placed outside of the perimeter when clearly it was close enough for someone to launch an attack?
Kimberly Cheatle
So again, sir, we are looking into all of the details of how the advanced was comprised. Have you provided all audio and video recordings in your possession to this committee, as we asked on July 15? Yes or no? I would have to get back to you. That is a no.
Kamala Harris
You're full of today.
Kimberly Cheatle
You're just being completely dishonest.
Pierre Thomas
And there were bipartisan calls for her to resign.
Brad Milke
This is a joke. And director, you're in charge, and that's why you need to go. Mister Chairman, I yield back.
Pierre Thomas
The dominant theme is that they just did not feel like she came with enough specific answers to questions that they felt like the american people wanted to hear the answers to. She claimed that she was limited in what she was going to say, in part because of ongoing investigations, and that she did not want to speak with authority until more of her investigation was actually completed. Members of Congress weren't buying it.
Brad Milke
Well, and Pierre, you actually had, like, this exclusive interview with her last week. You were the first broadcast reporter to talk to her about any of this, and where she said, like, you know, the buck stops with me. She also made news by describing why there weren't any agents on that particular roof. One of the reasons she gave you was, well, the roof was sloped. And it sounded like she was saying, you know, it'd be dangerous for our agents to be there.
Kimberly Cheatle
You know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.
Brad Milke
That created a whole lot of backlash. They even referenced your reporting during this hearing. Right? I mean, what are the things they really want answers to.
Pierre Thomas
Still, they did indeed look, the dominant question that everyone wants a clear cut, definable answer to is, why was the top of that building, which had a direct line of sight to former President Trump, not covered? Why was there not personnel up there? Why was there not personnel on the ground to ensure that no one would be able to get up there? Director Cheadle, in your leadership, your agency got outsmart, in and out maneuvered by a 20 year old. How can we have any confidence that you could stop trained professionals from a nefarious nation state? They don't have a clear answer to that question. And they wanted to know who was responsible for that building, not to be included in terms of the interior security perimeter. They wanted answers to that. They wanted answers as to who were the personnel that, you know, approved the security package for that day. She did not provide those answers to their satisfaction.
Brad Milke
Is Director Cheadle going to resign? Pierre, did you get a sense in.
Pierre Thomas
This hearing, she repeatedly said that she had no plans to resign, that she wanted to stay on and focus on the remedy to the situation, to make sure it could never happen again.
Kimberly Cheatle
I assure you, when I have a full and complete report of exactly what happened, there will be accountability and we will make changes.
Pierre Thomas
She kept saying that over and over again, that she thinks she can be part of the solution. Members of Congress want her to be held in account and to either resign, or they say, they push for the president to fire her.
Brad Milke
Wow. And in the meantime, supposing she stays on here? Like, is the us secret Service changing anything when it comes to Trump or Biden or I guess, now Vice President Harris?
Pierre Thomas
Well, they've already augmented former President Trump's security, adding additional tactical units, SWAT units to his team. She said she's also ordered a review and upgrades to security. For example, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in town. There's some additional major security events coming up where she said they've adjusted as needed to those upcoming events. So she maintains its changes have already been made, that she's not waiting for the final report on the failures and miscues. But suffice it to say, it was a challenging hearing.
Brad Milke
Really interesting. All right, Pierre Thomas, in that hearing, thank you so much.
Pierre Thomas
Pleasure.
Brad Milke
Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, what if you could watch the movie twisters with a real life tornado expert sitting next to you? Well, buckle up. We've got one. One last thing is next.
And one last thing.
It's the biggest movie in America, and it's been blowing away audiences to the tune of $80 million.
John Santucci
It's alright to be scared.
Fears the reason you do it.
Brad Milke
Twisters, the reboot of the 1996 box office smash about tornado chasers debuted this weekend to the delight of our producers, Jen and Vika. But they also left the theater with some questions, so we called up the one person we knew would have answers.
Ginger Zee
So I have some intimate experience with this because I dated the guy. The storm chaser that Glenn Powell's character is based on.
Brad Milke
Yeah. ABC's chief meteorologist Jinger Z has lived this movie. In fact, she remembers the original as the reason she got into storm chasing.
Ginger Zee
I was 16 and I had loved weather my whole life. I just didn't know what I wanted to do that movie. And her character showed it to me and so I said, where can I do that?
Brad Milke
So we asked her some of the questions that have been perplexing audiences. Now, there are some spoilers here for people who are absolutely thrilled by tornado mechanics. You might want to skip to the end. Otherwise, continue listening if you dare.
Ginger Zee
Did they do a good job getting.
Brittany Shepard
The science right on this one?
Ginger Zee
They did a much better job than the first one. There were a couple of phrases or words that they chose, even right off the top, like one of the first lines, they say, oh, the Doppler doesnt show storms until the afternoon. Thats not it. Its the computer models.
Brad Milke
She says its unlikely youd wake up first thing in the morning and encounter an f five. Usually those appear later in the day as the air gets warmer. Little stuff like that. The big issues, though, come when the characters start trotting out their new life saving plans. Like when Daisy Edgar Jones wants to get chemicals sucked up into the tornado that could cause the storm to evaporate. You think you can disrupt a tornado?
Ginger Zee
In theory, that is not possible right now. Would extra rain and kind of cooling a component of a mesocyclone or the supercell that makes a tornado potentially rain itself out? Maybe. Are we even close to that? No, not even close.
Brad Milke
And this is a hallmark of movies that revolve around science, right? Always pushing just a bit further than were capable of. Like in 1996, Helen Hunt puts a ton of tiny sensors in the path of a tornado. They get sucked up and they record data. Totally possible now, but back then it was derided as farcical. There was no such thing as computers that small, even if you had chemicals that could counteract a tornado. Now, some chemists believe it would take 20,000 gallons of the stuff to have an effect. A few barrels and bottle rockets with cloud seeding material aint gonna cut it. Which brings us to a great moment in the movie when these storm chasers have to park their car directly in the path of the twister without the truck getting lifted off the ground. Not to worry, says Glen Powell. Weve got huge screw shaped anchors that will twist into the earth and hold us there. Ginger says, no joke. The dude I used to date came up with something like this.
Ginger Zee
He had hydraulic pumps in one of his dominators that would stamp himself into the ground. Is it hard to do? Absolutely, because you have to position yourself and get in the right place.
Brad Milke
However, she says it would not work in every type of tornado, especially not the ones with the ferocity depicted here. Still, she says at the end of the day, she was impressed with twisters, just like Helen Hunt inspired her to go to school to chase tornadoes and eventually bring those tornadoes into Americans living rooms. She hopes this will get even more little girls into meteorology and stem. She just had one other quibble.
Ginger Zee
I love the fact that this is about a woman and a scientist, and they ended it purposefully without a kiss because they wanted her story to be about the chase and about the science.
I have one little beef and that's, yeah, I'm a woman in stem and I still want to kiss. We're complex. We can have all of it.
Brad Milke
And Ginger did not have a comment on our question about, about why Oklahoma accents are just going in and out of this movie. But wild story from Jinger is like she was literally one of these storm chasers. She got onto ABC News when she told them, hey, I know how to chase these things like you guys don't. I will get a tornado on air that you guys will have on World News Tonight. She did that within a year of being hired. Like no science fiction. Here. She delivers more on all these stories@abcnews.com or the ABC News app. I'm Brad Milke. See you tomorrow.