Axios AM

October 13, 2024
π³ Happy Sunday! Smart Brevityβ’ count: 1,493 words ... 5Β½ mins. Thanks to Erica Pandey for orchestrating. Edited by Dave Lawler.
βΎ "Big Spender" is the theme music for baseball's final four: The Mets, Yankees and Dodgers are in the League Championship Series with the sport's top three payrolls, joined by Cleveland at No. 23. (AP)
1 big thing: Tension on Harris, Biden teams
The relationship between Vice President Harris' team and President Biden's White House has been increasingly fraught in the final weeks before Election Day, 10 people familiar with the situation tell Axios' Alex Thompson.
Why it matters: Biden's team wants Harris to win. But many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his re-election bid, and are still adjusting to being in a supporting campaign role.
- "They're too much in their feelings," a close Harris ally said of the president's team βΒ a sentiment shared even by some White House aides.
Some on the Harris team say top White House aides aren't sufficiently coordinating Biden's messaging and schedule to align with what's best for the vice president's campaign.
- Biden gave an impromptu press conference in the White House briefing room Friday just as Harris was about to do an event in Michigan β ensuring her event would get less TV coverage than it otherwise would have.
- Earlier in the week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for not taking her call about the recent hurricanes β only for Biden to praise DeSantis soon after for being "gracious" and "cooperative." (A person familiar with the situation told Axios that Biden hadn't been briefed on Harris' comments.)
- Biden has been eager to boast about a robust jobs report, helping to end the strike by the longshoremen's union and other perceived victories recently. Harris has been trying to focus on voters' pocketbook concerns, including inflation.
- A person involved with Harris' campaign told Axios: "The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign."
The tensions have played out at the staff level, too.
- Harris' team has been trying to add staff to the vice president's office to handle the bigger workload. And it's been frustrated at the White House's pace in getting people detailed for that, according to two people familiar with the matter.
- The White House has been working to help Harris' team, but has been frustrated by rules about who can be detailed and when.
Story continues below.
2. π³οΈ Part 2: Wariness in the trenches

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Several Biden aides joined Harris' campaign, but some feel like they've been labeled as disloyal by the president's team for leaving or even considering it, Alex Thompson reports.
- A White House official told Axios: "Everyone from the president on down knows how important the election is, and we always anticipated a number of staff would want to transition from the administration to the campaign for the final stretch."
Some on Harris' team are wary of the Biden campaign crew they're now working with.
- After all, Biden's team publicly argued that Harris was less electable than Biden in the weeks after the president's disastrous debate in June.
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Axios: "President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after leaving the race, rejecting other approaches that would divide the party, and has attested to her leadership abilities and continually made clear his support for her."
- Bates added: "While ensuring that all critical White House functions are fully staffed, we have made significant changes to guarantee the vice president's team has all of the support and resources that they need."
- Harris' office and her campaign declined to comment.
π‘ Reality check: Tensions between the Biden and Harris teams were likely inevitable.
- Beyond Democratic leaders' historic push for Biden to step aside so late in the campaign, every sitting vice president running for the White House has had staff infighting with the current Oval Office occupant.
- This often-uncomfortable dynamic β a vice president running to replace the president they've served β also was evident with Al Gore and Bill Clinton in 2000, and George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in 1988.
Despite the sore feelings among some Biden aides, much of the president's staff is actively rooting for and trying to work toward a Harris victory.
- Amid frustration about coordination among senior staffers on both sides, much of the mid-level staff is working well together, people familiar with the dynamic told Axios.
3. ποΈ Why candidates β€οΈ podcasts
Presidential candidates eager to reach new audiences in a more relaxed environment are flocking to podcasts.
- Why it matters: Cord cutting, the rise of TikTok and the scattering of audiences have made podcasts a favorite platform for the Harris and Trump campaigns, Axios' Sara Fischer and Neal Rothschild report.
The big picture: While podcasts don't offer the same reach as a network news interview, they can deliver a specific message to a narrower slice of the electorate.
π§ Vice President Harris' recent media blitz included stops with popular podcasts "Call Her Daddy" with Alex Cooper and "All the Smoke," hosted by two former NBA players.
- The "Daddy gang" is 70% women and 76% under 35, according to Edison Research data obtained by NPR. "All the Smoke" is popular among Black men.
- Trump has worn out podcast microphones in recent months, joining "All-In," Lex Fridman, Theo Von and Logan Paul β audiences laden with young men.
In podcast interviews, Trump showed a rarely seen softer side when he discussed his brother's alcoholism and his own mortality. Harris talked about memories of her late mother.
4. π SpaceX's "chopsticks"

In a mind-blowing feat of aerospace engineering, SpaceX just successfully caught a Super Heavy booster β as tall as a 20-story building β in a giant pair of metal "chopsticks" on its return to the launchpad during the fifth test flight of the Starship megarocket.
- Zoom in: "The goal ... is to hash out how SpaceX might one day recover and rapidly refly Super Heavy boosters for future missions. Quickly reusing rocket parts is considered essential to SpaceX's goal of drastically reducing the time and cost of getting cargo β or ships of people β to Earth's orbit and deep space," CNN reports.
π What we're watching: While the spacecraft system has successfully launched for the stars, it will later today attempt to reenter Earth's atmosphere for an "on-target splashdown" in the Indian Ocean, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.
5. π· Trail warriors

Former President Trump rallied in Coachella, Calif., yesterday β a desert city east of Los Angeles best known for the annual music festival bearing its name.
- It was another of Trump's late-campaign detours in blue states. He'll be at Madison Square Garden in New York City later this month.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz tramped through tall grass during the annual Minnesota Governor's Pheasant Hunting Opener yesterday, giving the campaign a chance to highlight his rural roots, AP reports.
6. π Consumers still skittish


The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index ticked down in October (within the margin of error) after two months of gains. Sentiment is 8% stronger than a year ago, and almost 40% above the trough reached in June 2022.
- Why it matters: "While inflation expectations have eased substantially, ... consumers continue to express frustration over high prices," survey director Joanne Hsu said.
π¨ Red alert for Harris campaign: In an ABC News/Ipsos poll out this morning, 59% of U.S. adults say the economy is getting worse β more than twice as many as say it's getting better, 23%. (Explore the data.)
π An orange flag about continuing consumer worries about the cost of living:
- The National Retail Federation's forecast of Halloween spending is down 5% from last year's record-setting level, with greeting cards and costumes likely to take the biggest hit. (Bloomberg)
7. π¦ Amazon gets faster

Amazon has a new AI tool that helps drivers spot the next box to grab:
- At each stop, Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) projects a green circle on packages that need to be delivered, and a red "X" on others.
π What's next: The tool, which Amazon predicts will save drivers 30 minutes or more per route, will be in 1,000 vans by early next year.
π Zoom out: The rollout reflects how Amazon has changed under Andy Jassy, its new CEO, Bloomberg's Spencer Soper writes.
- "[Jeff] Bezos wowed the media with grandiose announcements that looked far into the future, such as fleets of autonomous delivery drones β a project still in the testing phase more than a decade after he announced it."
- "Under Jassy, who steered the company through layoffs and shuttered dozens of moonshot projects, the focus is on near-term efforts to shave costs."
8. π¦ 1 for the road

Fans of the No. 3 Oregon Ducks, joined by quarterback Dillon Gabriel, storm the Autzen Stadium field in Eugene, Ore., last night after beating the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, 32β31.
- The last time an AP top 3 match-up was decided by a point was in 1991, when No. 2 Miami defeated No. 1 Florida State 17-16, ESPN reports.
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