In one of the funnier moments out of the left to make its way to social media, Sen. Chuck Schumer had a Jeb Bush moment on Tuesday, July 23, when he tried to garner some support from the crowd while offering his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, but instead of getting claps got hilariously stony silence from the crowd.
As background, on Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he would be dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee. In a tweet on the matter, he said, “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Continuing and supporting Kamala, he said, “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Sen. Schumer, speaking about that decision during the Tuesday press conference, framed it as “selfless” and tried to get enthusiastic for the frequently-cackling VP. He said, “President Biden’s selfless decision has given the Democratic Party the opportunity to unite behind a new nominee. And boy, oh boy, are we enthusiastic.”
Continuing, he claimed that Kamala has been “impressive” in securing delegates for herself, ignoring that she didn’t win them in a primary election. “In quick order, Vice President Harris has done a truly impressive job securing the majority of delegates needed to win the Democratic Party’s nomination to be our next President to the United States. The vast majority of my senators quickly and enthusiastically endorsed her,” he said.
Then, excitedly announcing that he will be supporting her in the election and during the convention, Sen. Schumer said, “So now that the process has played out from the grassroots bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.” Then, getting to the “please clap” moment, Sen. Schumer said, “I’m clapping. You don’t have to.”
Watch him here:
The same thing happened to Sen. Schumer in another press conference. He said, “Vice President Harris secured a majority of delegates. Today in Wisconsin and across America, we begin our next chapter, and it will be our best yet. Vice President Harris will beat Donald Trump and become the next President of the United States of America.” Then, he pointed to the audience, wagging his finger and asking, “Applause?”
Watch that here:
Other Democrats are ridiculously trying to support Kamala as well. For example, CNN’s Van Jones argued that in a matter of days Kamala has become cool. He said, “All the things that were cringe-y about Kamala — her laugh, the coconut tree comment, being unburdened — like, all those weird things she said, she’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours as a whole generation has taken all that content and remixed it in all these incredible TikTok videos.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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