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Kamala Harris, coconuts and brat – a new viral campaign

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Kamala Harris, coconuts and brat – a new viral campaign
Getty Images Kamala Harris laughing over a green backdropGetty Images

In the days since Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for US president, young people across the US have had a lot to explain.

The increasing popularity of coconut trees. A British pop superstar becoming a sudden American political force. The resurgence of chartreuse green.

Social media was abuzz last Sunday after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and instead endorsed Vice-President Harris. And in the hours that followed, the Harris campaign leaned in to the excitement.

The Biden-Harris campaign Twitter account changed its username to KamalaHQ, using British pop superstar Charli XCX’s apparent endorsement of her as its new (similarly green) banner.

The campaign’s biography on X reads, “providing context”, a reference to much-lampooned remarks made by Ms Harris in May 2023.

While the president’s abrupt exit and Ms Harris’ subsequent rise have injected uncertainty into the election, social media users, particularly young people, have been enthralled. But it’s unclear if the newfound enthusiasm will help engage younger voters, a key group for Democrats in November, and whether the political momentum will continue.

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So far, the online flurry has proved fruitful: The campaign has raised more than $100 million in the roughly two days since Mr Biden decided to step aside, it hosted a fundraising call attracting more than 44,000 black women and recruited about 58,000 new volunteers.

Coconuts, brat and the online moments

Republicans have long used video clips of Ms Harris’ verbal slip-ups or awkward interviews against her. But in recent weeks, supporters have used those same clips to paint her as endearing, relatable and candid.

One video features Ms Harris at a White House event sharing an anecdote about 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?” Harris said as she laughed. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

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But the video – panned by detractors – has been embraced by Harris supporters who now use coconut and palm tree emojis to signal their allegiance on social media.

“When your opponent says something, you just take it and you make it your thing, and then you’ve taken the power away from them,” said Katherine Haenschen, a Northeastern University professor who researches the effect of digital communications on voter turnout.

“Memes matter. Memes are actually a complex way of conveying infomation to people,” she said.

Charli XCX’s apparent endorsement of Ms Harris also fuelled the online frenzy. In the hours after Mr Biden threw his support behind Ms Harris, the singer said “kamala IS brat” in a tweet on X, a reference to the singer’s popular new album.

Ms Haenschen said the term refers to women of contradictions who “can kind of choose their own path and they can kind of set their own agenda”.

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The tweet, in turn, was viewed 50 million times by Tuesday afternoon.

David Hogg, a 24-year-old Democratic activist who founded the March for Our Lives Movement after the 2018 mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, Florida, shared the post.

“The amount this single tweet may have just done for the youth vote is not insignificant,” Mr Hogg wrote.

It will reach more young people than a million dollar cable advertisement, said Annie Wu Henry, a digital political strategist who has worked on Democratic campaigns.

Of the more than 300 videos the Biden-Harris campaign has put out on TikTok, the three videos released since Mr Biden stepped aside have amassed 20% of the likes on the entire page, according to Ms Henry.

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Grassroots enthusiasm

Some experts say the Harris campaign’s social strategy is not unlike former President Barack Obama’s in 2008.

“It’s been a while that we’ve had someone to top the ticket who’s got the pulse of younger voters and is very involved and conversant in popular culture,” said Philip de Vellis, a political advertising consultant who worked on the Obama campaign.

But, Mr de Vellis cautioned, that does not mean it will translate into votes.

While some point out that online political enthusiasm traditionally has been crafted by a campaign then filtered down to voters and social media users, this push for Ms Harris feels more grassroots, Ms Haenschen said.

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Mr Obama’s success was result of a grassroots effort, but in a different context. TikTok did not exist and Facebook was just becoming popular outside of college campuses, she said.

Americans want to be part of a Zeitgeist and the Harris campaign, in its current very online iteration, allows them a chance to do that, she said.

The campaign should allow the Harris meme moment to run its course or risk losing steam, Dr Haenschen said.

Will this make a difference in November?

The virality of Ms Harris in this moment allows her to embrace her many identities, according to Rachel Grant, a professor of cultural scholar studies, media activism and social movements at the University of Florida.

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Younger voters can find clips of her speaking about something that resonates, like her experience attending Howard University or abortion rights.

For now, the millions Ms Harris raised in a few days has energised voters in a tight election now four months away. Still, the Democrats will have to strike a balance of leaning into the virality and key issues to ensure voter turnout.

“Her campaign shouldn’t be focused on coconuts and context and unburdened and all of that,” Ms Henry, the digital political strategist said. “It should be focused on what she can do for the American people.”

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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