I'm old enough to remember way back in 2016 when then-candidate Jeb Bush felt forced to implore the audience at one of his events to "please clap." The media had a field day ripping him up after that and rightly so. If you can't inspire an audience to raise their voices in support, the problem is on you, not on them. It was embarrassing. We've seen a few similar instances with Joe Biden, though they've shown up more often when he inadvertently reads aloud the instructions on his cue cards, such as, "pause for applause." But today, even though she's not even the official candidate for president yet, to say nothing of holding the office, Kamala Harris joined the club. While attempting to shower praise on Biden for his supposed "legacy of accomplishment," Harris paused and waited awkwardly for a moment before adding, "Yes, you may clap." Portions of the crowd did so, though perhaps reluctantly. Don't expect to see CNN and MSNBC going on about this for hours, however. That would be bad politically for the anticipated, historic, first female, African-American-Asian President. (NY Post)

Vice President Kamala Harris awkwardly encouraged a crowd to clap for President Biden on Monday in her first public appearance since he ended his candidacy for a second term Sunday and endorsed Harris to replace him.

“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already …,” Harris said in a speech on the White House South Lawn, before stopping mid-sentence to add, “Yes, you may clap.”

Harris delivered her trademark laugh — often described by detractors as a cackle — while pausing at the event honoring the men’s and women’s NCAA championship teams.

As noted above, the trademark Kamala "cackle" was back, though if you watch the video, it doesn't sound like many other people were getting the joke. You can watch for yourself and be the judge. It's a relatively short clip and both the "you may clap" and the cackle come in the first fifteen seconds.

This is almost rather sad in a way. The enthusiasm in the audience is obviously lacking, and this was a hand-picked crowd of supporters that were vetted before they were allowed onto the White House grounds. They seemed supportive enough of Harris, I suppose. But they clearly were not about to salute the performance of Joe Biden even when spurred on to do so. By inference, that is a judgment on the performance of the entire Biden-Harris administration to date.

It's also notable that many in the Democratic leadership weren't exactly rushing out of the gates to endorse Harris as the Nominee after Biden said he would be stepping aside and endorsing her. Nancy Pelosi didn't do it until this afternoon and Barack Obama still hasn't. I don't believe this is because they significantly dislike Kamala Harris. They're all on the same team after all. But the entire reason for pushing Joe Biden over the side of the ship was to replace him with someone who might be able to beat Trump and keep them in power. All of these people know how to read the polls. I suspect many of them think that their current prospects haven't improved noticeably with Harris as the replacement nominee.

That brings us to the question of why Kamala Harris was the first person addressing the nation in the wake of all this turmoil. Where is Joe Biden? Harris insists that he is at home recovering from COVID. Fair enough, I suppose, but how bad of a case of COVID could he possibly have? He's already had every vaccine imaginable and he should have natural immunity from the multiple times he had it in the past in spite of that. Is this all it takes to knock him out of action now? Add that as one more layer to the mystery of how Joe Biden can simultaneously be incapable of running for another term, but still somehow be deemed able to function as the leader of the free world in the midst of multiple crises, many of his own making.