Talk about an unexpected formulation! The media and Democrat narratives (but I repeat myself) have painted this cycle as a referendum on Donald Trump. It's all hands on deck to stop the second term of a president who, er ... created significant economic growth, started no new wars, and kept Iran and its proxies boxed in. Trump poisoned the well after the 2020 election, but democracy didn't end then, and it's not going to end in a second Trump term.

In those narratives, it doesn't really matter whether it's Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or AOC as the alternative ... which is why the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) keep promoting that as the main electoral narratives.

One might expect other independents on the Left to fly the same flag, especially the Robert Kennedy Jr ticket. And yet RFK running mate Nicole Shanahan -- a Silicon Valley progressive -- casts Kamala Harris as the real threat in this cycle. On an 'Impact Theory' podcast published earlier today, Shanahan declares that the campaign right now is considering a withdrawal and endorsement of Donald Trump to prevent Democrats from taking the White House:

RFK Jr’s running mate Nicole Shanahan says they have two choices right now:

1. They stay in and risk a Kamala Harris/Tim Walz victory. Shanahan admits that they draw more votes from Donald Trump than they do from Kamala Harris.

2. They walk away and join forces with Donald… pic.twitter.com/oc5pDp92sv

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 20, 2024

SHANAHAN: You know, there’s two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw more votes from Trump, we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and -- you know, we walk away from that, and explain to our base why we're making this decision. Not easy -- not an easy decision.

This sounds even more surprising coming from Shanahan. She comes from Google (Sergei Brin's former wife) and has spent considerable time and money on left-wing causes, especially on "women's reproductive science" and other social-justice causes. Until she became RFK's running mate, she led the Bia-Echo Foundation and funded it with a $100 million grant in 2019. The foundation's list of causes would practically mirror Kamala Harris' policy page ... if Harris had a policy page, that is.

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One would think that Shanahan would see Harris as a natural fallback candidate. Instead, she and RFK appear far more concerned about another term with the same administration in place. Why?

ZeroHedge pulls some quotes from other parts of the podcast that explainit:

Shanahan is clearly disillusioned at the anti-democratic methods that the Democratic Party have pulled to stall RFK Jr's progress:

"...the DNC made it impossible for us...

...they have banned us, shadow-banned us. kept us off stages. manipulated polls. used lawfare against us. sued us in every possible State. They've even planted insiders into our campaign to disrupt it, and to create actual legal issues for us.

I mean the extent by which the sabotage they've unleashed upon us is mindblowing.

I mean we're still learning new ways that they have sabotaged us.

I really wanted a fair shot at this election and I believed in the America that I a little girl pledged an allegiance to..."

Those ... are pretty good reasons.

More to the point, though: RFK and Shanahan really seem to want an exit strategy that will make their Quixotic quest meaningful. If all they do is pull out, that alone will likely help Trump, as their Democrat voters seem to have decamped back to Kamala now that Biden's off the ticket. 

But if they come out and endorse him and join the Trump campaign, that would have more impact. With Biden out of the race and the polls resetting, Trump might be in the mood to cut a deal with Kennedy and Shanahan for a place in his administration. However, they seem almost too eager to get out, and that may cut their trading value considerably. Would Trump be happy enough with the more modest effects of that -- or would he rather cut a grand deal?

Need we even ask?

Also, today's episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today's show features:

•  Democrats began their convention on Monday to formalize the anointing of Kamala Harris.Did they pass up an opportunity to model democracy? 
• Andrew Malcolm and I discuss The Anointment, as well as review the media criticisms of Harris' attempt to rebrand Bidenomics as Kamanomics. 
• Also: Does Donald Trump need a reset for a new contest against Harris, and is he capable of strategic adjustment? 

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!