Call Me Mamala

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump failed during their alt-media blitz.

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump have one thing in common: both believe they need so-called alt-media to win swing voters. This week, both candidates appeared on multiple podcasts and YouTube platforms. Both failed in their endeavors, but not for the reason politicos believe. 

DC press corps and conservative pundits think Harris avoided traditional interviews because she fears journalist inquisitions (as if Rachel Maddow will ask Harris tough questions). However, Harris and Trump are heading towards independent podcasts because they attract viewers. The top podcasts attract far more viewers than many television news shows–and it’s not like politicians ever liked journalists. They worked with reporters to reach voters; that’s it. If you define “mainstream media” as “popular media,” alt-media is the mainstream media. 

To get the most out of their podcast and YouTube hits, Trump and Harris needed to do more than just show up to a green room. They had to deliver. Both candidates succeeded but mostly failed in this endeavor. 

What worked? Harris’s Call Her Daddy segment succeeded in centering the election around abortion. It also exposed her to a younger female audience, which, although they hate Trump, may forget to vote. Likewise, Trump’s Flagrant appearance reinforced Trump’s likeability quality with his male fans. My X feed was filled with the MAGA base pumping Trump’s routine about breaking up a teenage Don Jr.’s New Year's Eve Party. If you laugh with Trump (not at him), you will surely laugh as he riffs with comedian Andrew Schultz. 

Okay, great: Trump and Kamala catered to their bases. But both candidates need swing voters to reach 270 electoral votes, and that’s where they failed. Take Harris. She attempted to cater to male voters by appearing on The Howard Stern Show. If the year was 1996, the appearance could shift the election. We live in 2024. Stern is as popular with young men as Trump is with keffiyeh-wearing socialist women. Stern is irrelevant. To reach young men, Harris needed to take a cab downtown to the Barstool Sports office and sit down with Dave Portnoy or even the company’s gay hosts, Pat and Joey. Really, anyone at Barstool could help Harris. Barstool, The Joe Rogan Experience, even Chappo Trap House–that’s where you meet dudes in 2024. Not Sirius XM Radio. 

Trump made the same mistake. He’s gravitated towards alternative spaces where he will receive only friendly comments, but Trump must peel away female suburban voters to win. He has enough Austin podcast dudes. Trump’s fans will say all female podcasters hate him, but that’s false. A slew of conservative women dominate podcasting, with one show outranking even Call Her Daddy. (Because I serve as a public relations representative for one of these podcasts, I’ll refrain from speaking about the individual shows.) The audience for these shows is suburban women. They differ from The View audience. Whereas View moms pearl clutch every time someone doesn’t wear an N-95 mask on a plane, podcast moms go to soccer practice but also oppose vaccines and abortion. These women’s beloved female podcast hosts would call out Trump on his abortion backtracking, but they are all still voting for Trump. These shows could reintroduce Trump to the suburban women he needs to win the election. 

Trump and Harris suffered from the same problem this week: They wanted to sit down with people who embrace them. Trumpers may say the president seeks conflict, but if he cared about winning new voters and the election, would he really be holding a rally in Madison Square Garden in a state and city he will surely lose? 

There’s an argument for sitting down with friendly media. Campaign rule #1: Do no harm. But if you take time during a heated election to sit down with the media, you better get something out of it. It’s unclear whether Trump or Harris got much out of their alt-media blitz this week other than serving their egos. And that’s not how you win an election.