Presidential Election of 2024

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      in Music

      Charli XCX and Other Musicians Show Support for Kamala Harris on Social Media

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      Charli XCX, John Legend and other musicians posted messages supporting the vice president’s nomination, while fans remixed an old speech into pop hits on TikTok.Within hours of President Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election and would instead endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, social media exploded with support from the pop music world.As concerns about Mr. Biden’s electability have accelerated in recent months, Ms. Harris, who is 59, with a big, diverse family, seems to have energized digitally engaged voters in a way that Mr. Biden did not.Fans quickly started posting remixes on TikTok that incorporated audio from Ms. Harris’s speeches, along with her laugh, into songs by Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Chappell Roan, Mitski and Kim Petras.The snippet most often used is from a speech Ms. Harris gave in May 2023. She was addressing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics and recalled an adage from her mother: “She would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’”After pausing to laugh, Ms. Harris continued: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” (The combination of a coconut emoji and a palm tree emoji has become shorthand to refer to Ms. Harris’s campaign.)Charli XCX, in a nod to her latest album, “Brat” — and its signature green album cover that has become a Gen Z emblem of the summer — set the tone (literally) Sunday night by posting: “kamala IS brat.” On X, formerly Twitter, the official Harris campaign account updated its header to match the color and typography of the album.The pop singer Kesha used the “coconut” quotation to open a pair of posts on TikTok, in which she takes a beat after the word “tree” before breaking into dance.Katy Perry, whose song “Roar” featured prominently in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, posted a montage of videos of Ms. Harris soundtracked by a remix that integrated the “coconut” quotation and clips of Ms. Harris laughing into Ms. Perry’s new single “Woman’s World.” “It’s a woman’s world, and you’re lucky to be living in it,” Ms. Perry sings.On Sunday, Cardi B reposted a selfie video recorded on June 30, in which she says, in an extended and profane message, that Ms. Harris should have been the Democratic nominee all along. “Been told y’all Kamala should’ve been the 2024 candidate,” she wrote in the caption. “Y’all be trying to play the Bronx education, baby this what I do!!!”And Tina Knowles, mother of Beyoncé and Solange, posted a photo of her and Ms. Harris with a caption that began: “New, youthful, sharp, energy!!!!”Other artists have thrown their weight behind Ms. Harris, who will face former President Donald J. Trump if she is the nominee. Janelle Monáe posted to her Instagram story a simple “I’m in,” and John Legend, who praised Mr. Biden at length, said of Ms. Harris, “She’s ready for this fight.” More

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      in Television

      Biden’s Exit From the Election Confirms TV is Still a Big Political Arena

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      President Biden’s decision to bow out after a disastrous debate confirms that in a TikTok era, TV is still the biggest political arena.As soon as TV sets landed in American living rooms, media critics worried that television would dominate politics, and the medium wasted no time proving them right. Richard M. Nixon lost in 1960 to the glamorous John F. Kennedy after a shaky, sweaty debate that played better for him on the radio. After Ronald Reagan zingered his way to a second term in 1984, Neil Postman wrote that in the TV era, “debates were conceived as boxing matches.”But not until now had a president KO’ed himself in one round.On Sunday, President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 campaign, ending an astounding disintegration that began with Mr. Biden’s discombobulated debate against Donald J. Trump late in June. Mr. Biden released his decision on X, formerly Twitter, but the moment recalled when Lyndon B. Johnson made a similar announcement on TV in 1968, or perhaps when Mr. Nixon resigned the presidency 50 years ago.This collapse, however, was not the result of an overseas war. There was no break-in and coverup. There was simply a horrendous TV outing — less than two hours that changed history.Yes, Mr. Biden, at 81, suffered doubts about his age, vigor and acuity before the debate. Yes, his mini campaign afterward to redeem himself with speeches, interviews and a news conference did not help either. Mr. Biden had a hand in his fate. So did Father Time.Still, it took a single, horrifying prime-time failure to crystallize the problem. As he and his allies argued, 14 million people voted for him in the primary. But 51.3 million people saw his faculties fail him on live TV, and that’s before it was clipped and ricocheted and repeated.Certainly the relentless digital-media cycle played a part too; maybe a pre-Twitter president could have ridden this out. But in a TikTok era, it still takes TV to concentrate that many eyes simultaneously on the one, unignorable, everybody-saw-it moment that starts the avalanche.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Television

      Donald Trump Promised a Softer Image. He Delivered Hulkamania.

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      The last night of the Republican National Convention featured glimpses of a more sober tone — and a whole lot of testosterone.Who is Donald J. Trump?After over four decades of tabloid celebrity, reality-TV stardom and presidential politics, you would think this would be a settled question. But after his near assassination in Pennsylvania, the Republican National Convention teased that the former president was going to unveil a softer, changed version of himself. He would recast his acceptance speech to emphasize “unity,” a word that, in four days of TV coverage, was endlessly parroted and rarely defined.Mr. Trump turned himself into his own surprise guest. Would the final night of the convention portray him as a bellicose, combative alpha male, or as a sensitive late convert to empathy and self-reflection?The answer was: Yes, and yes. The night began with a pageant of hypermasculinity, with musclemen and ripped garments. It led to Mr. Trump’s taking the stage with a new, somber voice as he recounted his brush with death. Then, over the course of a digressive hour-and-a-half speech, he somehow changed back before our eyes.First came The Man Show. The introductory hours of the night featured a rotation of admirers, heavily male, who cited Mr. Trump’s close call and defiant survival as testimony to his macho fighting spirit.This is what male identity politics looks like. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality — who has embraced the alt-right angst over testosterone levels — spoke off the cuff, suggesting that the shooting established Mr. Trump as a leader on a biological level. “A leader is the bravest man,” Mr. Carlson said. “This is a law of nature.” Kid Rock retooled his rap-metal anthem “American Bad Ass,” exhorting the delegates to throw up their fists and “Say fight! Fight! Say Trump! Trump!” Dana White, the beefy chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, introduced Mr. Trump.But the splashiest spectacle brought Hulkamania to Milwaukee. Terry G. Bollea, the handlebar-mustached wrestler who performs as Hulk Hogan, took the stage in character to praise “my hero, that gladiator,” working himself into a rage over the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life and ripping open his shirt to expose a “TRUMP-VANCE” tank top.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      J.D. Vance Becomes Trump’s New Apprentice

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      In his prime-time debut, the senator and “Hillbilly Elegy” author showed what he has to offer his running mate.Speaking Wednesday at the Republican National Convention, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio became the latest, and potentially most consequential, of Donald J. Trump’s apprentices to accept the position in prime time.For years as the host of “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump picked out protégés from boardrooms full of young supplicants. There was a delicate art to getting the nod. Offend him and you might be dismissed; appear too thirsty and you could get the boot as well. The key was to be yourself but also be him, to be a mirror but a flattering one, to be an echo auto-tuned to please the boss’s ear.Mr. Vance spent much of his two years in the Senate auditioning for the promotion to vice-presidential nominee, cultivating a relationship, apologizing for his Never-Trumper apostasy and recently blaming Biden campaign rhetoric for leading “directly” to the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump.Accepting the nomination on Wednesday night, he cast himself as a loyal fighter, an ideological heir and a grateful son of the working class with roots in Appalachia and the Rust Belt.With Merle Haggard’s “America First” as his walk-on music, he began his speech praising Mr. Trump: “He didn’t need politics,” Mr. Vance said, “but the country needed him.” Mr. Trump looked on smiling in split-screen, as if watching a winner at a season finale.When it came to introducing himself, Mr. Vance had a head start and a challenge. He was telling a story he had already told, in the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” and so had Ron Howard, in the 2020 film adaptation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      What to Know About ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ Film Based on JD Vance’s Memoir

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      The 2020 film generally follows the book about the Republican vice presidential nominee’s formative years. But there are significant differences.Before J.D. Vance became the Republican vice-presidential nominee or even ventured into politics, he was best known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir about growing up in the Rust Belt and Appalachia. Published in 2016, the book became a surprise best seller, offering one kind of answer to those searching for an explanation for Donald Trump’s presidential victory and trying to understand the experience of impoverished white Americans.The success of Vance’s book led to a movie adaptation with Imagine Entertainment winning the film rights in 2017. Netflix eventually spent a reported $45 million to finance the movie, which had a limited theatrical release in November 2020 before moving to streaming soon after. Unlike the book, the film received scathing reviews from critics.Here’s what to know about the movie:Who made “Hillbilly Elegy”? Who stars in it?Directed by Ron Howard with Vance getting an executive producer credit, the film stars Gabriel Basso as Vance. Glenn Close plays his grandmother, Mamaw, a loud, gruff but caring matriarch, and Amy Adams is his mother, Bev, who grapples with mental health issues and substance abuse. The cast includes Freida Pinto as Vance’s wife, Usha.Parts of the film were shot in Middletown, Ohio, where Vance grew up, as well as in Georgia, because of the state’s generous tax incentives.What is “Hillbilly Elegy” about?The film mostly follows Vance’s memoir. It begins with a younger Vance (played by Owen Asztalos) biking along a dirt path, while an older Vance narrates his love for the hill country of Jackson, Ky. Alternating between past and present, the film toggles between Vance’s unstable childhood growing up with Mamaw and a mother struggling with addiction and his adult years as a student at Yale Law School. While competing for a prestigious summer internship, Vance receives a call from his sister, Lindsay (Haley Bennett), who asks him to return home to care for his mother, who has been hospitalized after overdosing on heroin.Glenn Close with Bennett and Owen Asztalos as a young Vance in “Hillbilly Elegy. Lacey Terrell/NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      Trump Returns to RNC With a Different Look, but Some Things Were Familiar

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      The first night of the Republican National Convention sought to strike a new note. But some of the lyrics were familiar.Donald J. Trump, a former reality-TV star, has always been conscious of his set dressing as a presidential candidate. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, he made a pro-wrestling-style walk-on in front of blinding lights. In 2020, he used the White House itself as the backdrop for his acceptance speech.But on the first night of the 2024 convention, Mr. Trump — in a way that he could not have anticipated before Saturday — was his own biggest prop.Just as the major networks’ prime-time coverage began, Mr. Trump entered the V.I.P. box in Milwaukee with a large white bandage on his injured right ear, the result of a close call on Saturday with a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania. A reminder of mortality, a badge of survival — it was a blank rectangle on which the crowd could read what it wished, and that made it the most potent placard in the hall.Mr. Trump’s rallies and appearances have always been about firing up big feelings: rage, fear, grievance, defiance. This, as Mr. Trump walked out to the sounds of Lee Greenwood performing “God Bless the U.S.A.,” was something a little different.The mood of the moment was emotional and warm. Much of the night felt like a merger of political rally and gospel service, full of exhortations for divine protection, not simply for the country but also for the party’s returning leader.And Mr. Trump, who has said in interviews that he does not cry, looked as close to misty as I can remember in decades of seeing him onscreen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      Biden’s News Conference Answered Many Questions. But Not the Big One.

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      For once, a presidential Q. and A. was must-see TV. But it didn’t put an end to the summer’s biggest drama.Follow the latest Biden news and election updates.There were many questions at President Biden’s nearly hourlong news conference on Thursday night — questions about Gaza, Ukraine, the campaign, his health, his record.But at its heart there was only one question: Could he do it?That is, could Mr. Biden, who stunned viewers and his party and George Clooney with a doddering performance at the first presidential debate two weeks ago, stand and deliver? Could he be coherent? Could he dispel the talk of age and frailty and decline? Could he beat the doubters who want him to step down from the ticket? Could he look like a winner?On a national TV stage, Mr. Biden answered the individual questions, often comfortably, sometimes defensively, with depth and engagement and flashes of passion. As for the uber-question, the answer was incomplete. He was not the uncomfortable, lost presence of the debate, but he didn’t erase the memory of that version of himself either. He came across as the president he wants to be, but not necessarily the candidate his critics have said he needs to be.Presidential news conferences are rarely must-see TV. But the stakes — heightened by reports that some Democrats were waiting for it before weighing in on whether Mr. Biden should remain the nominee — gave this one the air of a test, if not a last stand.The telecast had the daredevil feel of a live walk through a minefield. The first false step came before the news conference proper, at remarks after the afternoon’s NATO meeting, when Mr. Biden introduced President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine: “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.”The president caught himself and recovered. “I’m better,” Mr. Zelensky joked; “You’re a hell of a lot better,” Mr. Biden said. The audience laughed. Anybody can mix up a name once.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Television

      This Debate, We Could Hear Biden Speak. There His Troubles Began.

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      The CNN presidential debate kept the volume down, for a change. That didn’t make it more intelligible.With the plans for the 2024 presidential debates, President Biden’s campaign appeared to get much of what it wanted. It got its preferred timeline, with Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta far earlier on the calendar than usual. It got the live audience removed. It got, above all, an agreement to mute the microphone on the candidate who wasn’t speaking, to avoid the cross-talk that made his first 2020 debate with Donald J. Trump a cacophonous mess.After Thursday night, Mr. Biden — and his party — might have wanted the cross-talk back.The changes that CNN instituted staved off the shouting matches and the competitive cheering that have marked past debates. But they could not prevent Mr. Biden from starting his rushed opening remarks in a papery rasp that, before the debate was over, his campaign was stressing to reporters was the result of a cold. It did not keep him from getting lost in the corn maze of his sentences, answer after answer.And it did not keep him from finishing an argument on tax reform and health care with a spiral that was surely saved instantly to the hard drives of Republican campaign operatives: “Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with, the, uh, with the Covid, excuse me, with, um, dealing with, everything we had to do with, uh … look … if — we finally beat Medicare.”There was no interruption. Mr. Biden came across loud and unclear.You can at least credit Mr. Biden for one accomplishment: For perhaps the first time since Mr. Trump announced for president nine years ago, he managed to hold a debate in which Mr. Trump’s performance was not the biggest news afterward.The former president and challenger had his own issues. He blustered, dodged, made false statements and repeated his denials of his 2020 election loss. He cited his golf game as proof of his acuity and uttered the line, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.” But Mr. Trump, kept to glowering between answers by the mute button, was outrageous and misleading in a familiar way; it was the standard man-bites-fact-checker story.The debate in Atlanta — sorry, the “CNN Presidential Debate,” as the ubiquitous branding emphasized — was fairly bare-bones. (It was also simulcast on the other major news networks.) The moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, spread questions across a variety of topics, not correcting candidates in the moment. The pushback they gave was limited to reminding the debaters of how much time they had left and firmly asking them, again, to answer questions they had sidestepped, as Ms. Bash did when asking Mr. Trump if he would accept the results of this election as he had not in 2020. (He gave the qualified answer that he would accept a “fair” and “legal” election.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More