Column: In memes and money, Kamala Harris’ note-perfect political instincts are paying off

Never has an NCAA Sports Day been so widely and breathlessly covered as it was on Monday.

And never has it been clearer that Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, did not just fall out of a coconut tree.

With President Biden recovering from COVID-19, the task of honoring top college athletes from across the country fell to Harris, who performed the same duty last year with much less fanfare.

This year, of course, the event occurred the day after Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as the party’s replacement candidate for president.

Cue general insanity.

This made Sports Day, by logistics rather than intent, the first time Harris spoke publicly since that dramatic, and historic, turn of events. Suddenly, a low-key get-together, which included a series of brief remarks and a picnic, was the subject of breaking-news alerts as the world’s eyes, and news cameras, were focused on the White House steps.

But anyone who thought Harris would use the moment to talk up her presidential campaign, including many of the pundits who suggested as much, were sorely disappointed.

The very worst thing Harris could have done was to make that moment about her. And so she did not.

Harris spoke poignantly, and briefly, about Biden, whose presidential accomplishment she called “unmatched in modern history.” “I am a firsthand witness that every day, our president Joe Biden fights for the people,” she said, “and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation.”

And then she spoke about the athletes. Even though Harris could become this country’s first female president just as women’s sports have finally begun to get the respect they deserve, this was not the time nor the platform for politicking. Harris spoke words of broad and sincere admiration, which is precisely what the moment called for.

If some managed to see subtext in her celebration of their grit and tenacity, in her praise for the people who supported them and hope that those headed to the Summer Olympics bring home the gold, well, subtext is often in the eye of the beholder. The text was Harris honoring top athletes, doing her job as vice president and praising the man under whom she serves.

It was note-perfect, a capstone to Harris’ performance throughout the chaos that ensued in the weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance caused many voters, donors and Democratic politicians to call for him to step aside. Publicly, Harris remained steadfastly loyal to the president and his prospects, which she appeared to do privately as well. Even as the White House and the Democratic Party began leaking like a sieve with reports of anger, panic and frantic planning, none of those leaks involved Harris.

The many “Veep” memes notwithstanding.

Indeed, the quickly proliferating Harris memes, whether referencing “Veep,” coconut trees or Charli XCX’s summer-defining album, “Brat,” were nothing but a boon to Harris, occurring as they did alongside record-breaking fundraising for her campaign.

Memes and money are both forces to be reckoned with, and for at least a 24-hour period, they gave Harris critical breathing room.

Amid the initial collective gasp that followed Biden’s announcement, memes and money — a reported $81 million in 24 hours — offered palpable proof that of political momentum. They lifted Harris above the cauldron of grief, relief, anger and confusion with the time-honored benediction of cold, hard cash and a cheeky pop-culture energy that Biden has only rarely been able to conjure.

The money silenced any immediate argument about donor support while the memes proactively diffused the attacks that the Trump campaign is already launching on Harris’ vice presidency and public persona. Some may try to use “coconut” in its racist form, or try to turn “Brat” into a pejorative, but it’s too late. The fruit (or drupe) and tree emojis, along with the lime-green “Brat summer” T-shirts, are already in pro-Harris circulation.

Money and memes are not guarantees of victory, but they certainly do not hurt.

The coconut tree remark seems particularly prescient. Harris was quoting her mother’s words — ”You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” — to emphasize the fact that no one lives in a vacuum, that everything happens in the larger context of history, society and the actions of others.

A fact Harris must now navigate with more care than any other presumptive presidential nominee in history. On top of the sexism and racism she will inevitably face, Harris must prove she is a better candidate than Biden without seeming to criticize or distance herself too far from the man who, after weeks of relentless criticism from the media and his own party, is now being heralded by those same people as selfless and sacrificing.

How much she will be, or choose to be, aided in that effort by Biden himself remains to be seen, but either way it is narrow path. She must reassure both those Democrats who wanted Biden to step aside and those who did not, while also appealing to swing voters who have not decided which party to support.

Given how well she handled her first assignment — being Biden’s loyal vice president at the same time she emerged as his best possible replacement— Harris merits confidence. You might even say she could thread a coconut through the eye of a needle.