Politics

How Kamala Harris is preparing to meet the moment was the talk of BLN live event in Brooklyn

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

Blue Light Newsroom

How Kamala Harris is preparing to meet the moment was the talk of BLN live event in Brooklyn

Sept. 8, 2024, 12:43 AM UTC

By Kara Schindler

There was one name that dominated nearly every conversation and every panel at the “BLN Live: Democracy 2024” event in Brooklyn on Saturday: Kamala Harris. The vice president’s unexpected entrance into the presidential race — and the renewed sense of unity it has inspired among Democrats — came up like a refrain, and it was the topic that instantly sparked the most enthusiasm in the 2,000-person auditorium.

On Saturday afternoon, BLN anchors, experts and 4,000 dedicated viewers took over the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a first-of-its-kind live experience that featured in-depth panels, conversation and analysis about the incredibly high stakes of the upcoming election. And Harris’ historic candidacy was the primary subject of those conversations over the course of two sessions.

“One of the things that’s happened in the last five, six weeks is America has figured out how much Harris was underestimated,” Claire McCaskill told the crowd to roaring applause.

“[Harris] really stepped into this moment in a way a lot of people failed to anticipate,” Joy Reid said during a discussion later with fellow anchor Alex Wagner.

MSNBC Events - Season 2024 — Joy Reid and Alex Wagner.Ralph Bavaro/BLN

But it wasn’t just the element of surprise that has helped Harris re-ignite the Democratic Party. “Harris’ candidacy represents an affirmation that the path Obama opened for the country might actually be its destiny,” Wagner argued. “It’s not just a Democrat might save the country from Donald Trump. It’s a Democrat who could meaningfully move the ball forward and finally shatter that last glass ceiling.”

The audience’s enthusiasm for Harris was heightened by a collective anticipation for the biggest test of the vice president’s abbreviated campaign to date: her first faceoff with former President Donald Trump at Tuesday’s presidential debate. “Is Kamala Harris freaking out?” Jen Psaki asked McCaskill and longtime debate moderator Andrea Mitchell in an onstage “editorial meeting” about how Harris ought to prepare. “She’s focused,” McCaskill suggested, “and then I think she’s also [most likely] giving a little thought to how she can bug him.”

But the question of how much the debate might affect the course of the race was more in dispute. “We just had the most consequential debate in American history. A debate the first five minutes of which not only ended [Joe Biden’s candidacy] but changed, just a month before the convention, the terms of the general election,” Rachel Maddow said before she asked Lawrence O’Donnell. “Is this next debate likely to also be very consequential?”

“It’s unbelievably difficult to reach these undecided voters with these kinds of activities,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t think it has the ability to shift much.”

The upcoming debate is only one of many unknown factors at play at this stage of the race. Despite poll numbers that Steve Kornacki agreed should make Democrats happy, the overall picture “is one of exceedingly close, narrow margins,” he explained.

Another unknown factor remains the future of the Republican Party after the election. Asked by an audience member whether Harris’ victory could finally dismantle the MAGA movement, McCaskill drew on her own experience. “I won an election by 15 points in 2012 and lost by 6 in 2018 to a guy who was hugging Trump,” recalled the former Democratic senator from Missouri. “What happened? Well, the mainlining of grievance … and I’m not sure if that goes away.”

“There’s a number of House and Senate members that think they’re going to be the next Donald Trump,” McCaskill continued, pointing to Sens. Josh Hawley and JD Vance as examples. “It remains to be seen whether this cult of personality is transferable.”

Kornacki also shared his view of the harmful costs of Trump’s enduring presence in national politics. “Do you see us as terminally polarized, terminally red and blue?” Katy Tur asked Kornacki.

He admitted it’s a question he’s been asked a lot. “Pessimistically, I think there’s a very tribal impulse in all of us,” he said. “But I have one optimistic note, that is maybe … maybe all of us, collectively, just get sick of it.”

Wrapping up the day, Maddow and O’Donnell took a moment to acknowledge the challenges and opportunities of covering such a historic election at BLN. “I value the editorial freedom that we’ve got,” Maddow said. “That is a blessing and something worth protecting and fighting for. It’s the art of what we do and not the science — and I love it.”

Kara Schindler

Kara Schindler is a digital platform producer at BLN.

Politics

It’s hot. Maybe too hot.

Published

10 minutes ago

June 13, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

High-stakes geopolitics aren’t the only external factor threatening to hijack the tournament.

Perhaps ironically for a competition hosted by a U.S. president who is highly skeptical about climate change and says assertions about rising temperatures have been made “by stupid people,” the heat is very likely to be a problem.

Heat waves have become a persistent part of Northern Hemisphere summers — each one made hotter, longer and more likely to occur as a result of man-made global warming. The locations of several stadiums across the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the peak-summer timing of the World Cup, are expected to put players and fans at risk of overheating.

The problem isn’t just heat, but also humidity. The combination of the two feels far hotter and is measured with wet-bulb temperature, which mimics how the human body cools off through sweating. A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit can be fatal even to healthy people; the football players’ union FIFPRO says wet-bulb temperatures above 79 degrees — which can be reached through a combination of 86-degree heat and 50 percent humidity, for example — will affect performance and health, and 82-degree heat should prompt the postponement of a match.

When scientists last month ran the numbers, they found that 26 of 104 matches are expected to take place in conditions of at least 79-degree wet-bulb temperature. Five matches are estimated to breach the 82-degree wet-bulb barrier. And a peer-reviewed study found that during last year’s FIFA Club World Cup in the U.S., average wet-bulb temperature exceeded 82 degrees in 31 of 57 matches analyzed by scientists.

That study also found that high temperatures were associated with players covering less ground, forcing a change of tactics. Exhaustion sets in faster under high temperatures — at the Club World Cup, 10 players asked to be substituted in a single match. But heat doesn’t just affect gameplay. At the 2024 Copa America, an assistant referee collapsed in the heat and, last month, two people died during sports events held amid a heat wave in France.

As climate change continues to heat the planet, FIFA will have to grapple with the growing threat at every subsequent tournament. The 2030 men’s World Cup in Spain, Portugal and Morocco takes place in a global warming hotspot. The women’s World Cup next year will be in Brazil during a warming El Niño event, expected to supercharge the heating effect of climate change.

And that’s not even counting the other growing climate risks — from wildfire smoke to extreme rain — that threaten to disrupt future events.