The Stars of 107 Days

A few weeks ago, I took up the challenge of reading this memoir by former Vice President Kamala Harris, which was certainly written by her and certainly not by the writers mentioned in her acknowledgements, either writer Adam Frankel “who with great skill, care, and grace helped me express my thoughts” or Geraldine Brooks whose “ferocious and brilliant insights were indispensable.” I’m sure KH herself put in the due diligence to get the book out so very quickly.

I’m afraid a book of this depth can’t be summarized in just one post, so I’ve decided to divide my analysis into three parts. I will do a post on “Praise for Kamala,” which will highlight the adoration given to KH by herself and others. Another post will follow with some topics left out of the book. This first post is about a very important topic: celebrity endorsements. Harris's book is very helpful in letting us know about quite a number of our betters who supported Kamala Harris while the majority of this country’s little people voted for Trump.

For instance, did you know that Quavo himself performed at an Atlanta rally for Kamala Harris? I know I don’t have to tell you about Quavo, the famous rapper. Not only was he the frontman for the now-defunct hip-hop group, Migos, but he was also a witness to the murder of the rapper Takeoff. Harris thought it important that we knew she had his support.

Who else performed at Harris rallies? Megan Thee Stallion (“Hot Girl Summer”), Fat Joe (“Flow Joe”), Katy Perry (“I Kissed a Girl”), James Taylor (“Steamroller”), Yo Yo Ma (Beethoven's “Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C”) and Lady Gaga (“Poker Face”). Sure, they may have received cash as well, but mainly they were just there to help stupid Americans know who deserved their ballots. And it should be noted that Beyonce at a rally made it clear that she wasn’t there to perform, but instead to “speak from her heart.” Naturally, Oprah Winfrey was one of her convention speakers.

But Harris didn’t just rely on celebrities to bring more eyeballs to her message; she learned a lot from celebrities too. Bono (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”) told her about poverty in Africa. Usher (“U Remind Me” and “U Got It Bad”) taught her about Minority Business Owners. Charlemagne the God taught her about Message Discipline. And Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) schooled her about abortion.

Writer/director/actress/assaulter of Narnia Greta Gerwig helped Harris with preparation for her big speech at the convention.

Perhaps the most important celebrity that contributed to the Harris campaign is Charlie XCX, whose album “Brat” sold very well and was named the best album of 2024 by Rolling Stone. When Charlie XCX said, “Kamala Harris is Brat,” well, Brat Summer was born. All this to the delight of the media who knew a winning slogan when they saw one.

Now singers and actors weren’t the only stars in the world of the Harris campaign. She innovated by promoting celebrity CEOs. She learned so much from the following business moguls:

Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani

Alison Whritenour of Seventh Generation

Jenna Johnson of Patagonia

Josh Silverman of Etsy

Not only had they been advocates for Build Back Better legislation, they were also advocates for further bills promoting parental leave and company child care. Harris also got business advice from Mark Cuban, while Donald Trump had to settle for Elon Musk.

We are also reminded of the Famous Journalists who Harris encountered. Like the crew of 60 Minutes who edited her story as they edit every story for time and clarity, and that’s why CBS paid millions of dollars in damages. Dana Bash did the first formal interview of the campaign in the hard-hitting style she usually reserves for liberal Democrats.

Before appearing on Stephen Colbert’s show, he said to her, “Let’s go out and have some fun.”

She says of Howard Stern that he was “a great interlocutor.” That’s what had always been said of Stern, going back to the days when he was interviewing strippers and talking about the size of his private parts.

She recounts the time Anderson Cooper asked her, “Is Donald Trump a fascist?” and she answered, “Yes.” She knows now she should have said, “Some people who worked for Donald Trump now call him a fascist.”

There were these little snafus in the campaign, for instance, when she was on The View. In the book, this is how the cast of that show is described: “All the hosts of the show are thoughtful women of different political stripes.” Whoopi Goldberg introduced her on the show as “the next President of the United States.” It was on this show that Harris was asked, “Would you have done anything different from President Biden?”

She couldn’t, at that taping, think of one darn thing she would have done differently than Joe. Sadly, in preparations before the show, she had the most swell answer. It was, “I’d have appointed a Republican to my cabinet.” If only she had answered that way, surely, she would have won the election.

She talks about her interview on Fox News with Bret Baier, who was just mean to her with the hard questions and the interrupting.

Now, many other pop stars appear in the book: Spike Lee, D. L. Hughley, Jon Bon Jovi, the list goes on and on, but I’d like to mention just one more.

There are a number of religious celebrities mentioned in the book. One of them is Dr. Rev. Jamal Bryant, pastor of the mega-sized New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. He said to his congregation, “It takes a real man to support a woman,” and gave the pulpit to Vice President Kamala Harris on a Sunday morning. I don’t recall any "separation of church and state” advocates saying a word about this. (I do just want to note that I would be quite angry if anyone running for office were allowed time in a worship service of a church I was attending. Even if it was a candidate I supported. I might stop attending that church AND supporting that candidate.)

You may wonder why I'm taking so much time talking about relatively insignificant pop culture figures. It’s because this book, 107 Days, gives so much space to these people. It seems that to Harris, these are the people who matter.