The next election won’t take place for another 1,202 days, but we’re already getting a taste of what the Democratic primary may look like.
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Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and adviser to two Democratic presidents, is suddenly all over the news. This week alone, he’s appeared on a number of podcasts in what seem to be early forays into an exploratory campaign for president. Emanuel went on the former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s podcast and answered “no” when asked if a man can “become a woman.” On another podcast, with The Free Press’s Bari Weiss, Emanuel said that Democrats lost in 2024 because Kamala Harris didn’t set herself apart from Joe Biden, and noted that his party “got sidetracked” by issues that were not front of mind for voters.
Emanuel was the most visible in the media this week, but he’s not the only would-be candidate we’re hearing from. This morning, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on the podcast The Breakfast Club; he also made a surprise cameo on a Barstool Sports podcast last week to present a jokey “Lib of the Year” award to the internet personality Jersey Jerry, who was wearing a MAGA hat. In an elegant Vogue spread, an old-school and somewhat stiff way to communicate one’s political ambitions, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear bragged about having once been on MrBeast’s show. “We’ve got to do the YouTube shows,” he said, telling the reporter that, unlike Harris, he would have gone on The Joe Rogan Experience. Buttigieg and Representative Ro Khanna of California have both appeared on the comedy podcast Flagrant, co-hosted by Andew Schulz. California Governor Gavin Newsom invited the conservative activist Charlie Kirk to be a guest on the first episode of his podcast.
