Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election at Howard University in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election at Howard University in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris made history as the first woman of color to lead the ticket of a major party.

Despite her loss last week, her four-month bid for the Presidency left a big mark for many – like Sharmanda Jean-Francois.

“Just seeing that she was able to be in a position like that is really inspiring for me and other young Black women,” Jean-Francois, a senior at Howard University, said. “She really painted a portrait that no matter what, our voices are heard, our voices matter, and we’re worthy to be in positions like that.”

For Jean-Francois, Harris’ racial identity contributed to her appeal as a candidate – that, and her stance on reproductive rights.

“I really saw myself in her because I am Black and South Asian,” says Jolikha Ali, a 65-year-old in New York City.

Ali thinks that Harris’ identity is also what cost her the election. “Sexism and racism,” she says, “that’s really what it comes down to. And I don’t know that this country’s ready to elect a woman president of any race, to tell you the truth.”

Lessons from Harris’ campaign

Harris ran a historic campaign, but ultimately lost. What will her legacy be?

Harris didn’t run on her identity. Still, for some who voted for Harris, what resonated most was who she is. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist and New York Times opinion columnist, wrote about what Harris’ loss means for her legacy.

“I knew that this country could elect a Black president. I did not believe it could elect a Black woman president,” she told Consider This host Juana Summers.

Still, Cottom says, there are some takeaways for women of color seeking elected office.

First, she believes Harris steered too far from her identity. She argues that Barack Obama’s political success is proof voters could “feel good about doing the right thing, about voting for a Black woman candidate.”

“I’m not sure that subsuming the narrative about the historic nature of her race and gender helped in that regard. I think there were a lot more voters we could have brought to the table …making them feel good about supporting this candidacy, even if it was just on a diversity basis.”

The second lesson female candidates of color can learn from Harris’ campaign, Cottom says: “You can raise money.”

“I think there is a narrative out there…that we only rely on or can only be relied on to do small donor donations.”

The Harris campaign made a record-breaking $200 million in the first week after she replaced President Biden as the party’s likely nominee.

“She raised money,” Cottom said, “and raised a lot of money, by the way, which I think says a lot about her appeal to the Democratic donors and funders.”

What Harris’ loss means for Black women

Cottom argues Black women deserved more this election.

“Black women have saved democracy enough times to deserve more than cosmetic diversity,” she writes. “We deserve more than hope and change. We deserve recognition and power.”

She says Black women deserved more than a “Hail Mary candidacy.”

“I think we deserve a real candidate, with real institutional support, who will then be held responsible for responding to Black women as voters,” she argues.

“We have more to offer this party than our identity and our commitment. We also have economic issues. We are also working class voters. We are also real Americans. We also live in rural America. That is to say, we have political interests that I think the Democratic Party owes us some attention to, because we have been…a bedrock of the Democratic Party’s base.”

This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.

Now, many of his targets are bracing for the possibility that the president-elect will enact an agenda of “retribution,” as Trump put it.

“It would be naive and foolish for anyone not to take this seriously,” said Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents several people threatened by Trump. “We have to prepare as much as we can for what might be coming.”

Zaid has represented many current and former government officials who work in national security — people Trump often describes as members of the “deep state” out to subvert his agenda. Zaid also represented a whistleblower, who raised concerns about Trump’s interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelynsky in 2019. That whistleblower’s disclosure helped lead to Trump’s first impeachment, and enraged the former — and future — president.

When Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Zaid said, he knew he needed to connect with his clients.

“A lot of it is to get folks ready. Secure lawyers, CPAs, securing finances, things like that,” Zaid said. “Even being out of the country in the most extreme of circumstances.”

People have more options to fight politically-motivated charges if they are abroad, Zaid said. So in a few cases, he has encouraged his clients to take an overseas vacation around the inauguration.

Zaid said he recognizes that leaving the country in the face of Trump’s incoming administration might sound extreme. And he’s hopeful that these steps won’t be necessary.

“It’s sort of like we know the hurricane is approaching on Saturday,” Zaid said. “So we’re gonna make sure we have enough food and water to be able to ride out the storm. We just don’t know, unfortunately, how long that storm’s gonna be.”

And even if the Trump administration doesn’t resort to criminal investigations of their enemies, Zaid said he’s concerned about the possibility of politically-motivated IRS audits and firings of government employees.

He’s not the only one worried about Trump’s threats. Multiple sources declined to comment for this story, because they are concerned that speaking out now would make them a target.

Trump’s announcement that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida as Attorney General has only deepened those concerns.

Gaetz is widely seen as a pro-MAGA hardliner and Trump loyalist. He actively supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and previously called for criminal investigations of Trump critics, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. On social media, he has said he would “abolish” agencies like the FBI, which he would oversee as Attorney General.

Gaetz’s nomination “seems to reflect an intent to make good on the retribution threat,” said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor who served for nearly 25 years at the Department of Justice.

Still, McCord said she believes most career officials at the Justice Department will resist efforts to pursue purely political charges.

“He can direct his Department of Justice to open prosecutions, and if they are baseless, I do think there would be career prosecutors who say: ‘this is baseless,” said McCord, who is now executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law. “There may be a few opportunists who want to use the moment to make a name for themselves and perhaps, move up within the department, perhaps even get a political appointment, hitch their wagon to Donald Trump. But I don’t think that’s the vast majority.”

Regardless, even the threat of prosecution can have a chilling effect. And investigations, let alone prosecutions, can cause enormous stress and cost their targets hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Trump’s office did not respond to NPR’s request for comment on this story and questions about whether the administration plans to prosecute political opponents. Trump repeatedly pledged to appoint a “special prosecutor” to investigate President Joe Biden and Biden’s family on his first day in office. At other times, he has said “my revenge will be success.”

Some of the president-elect’s allies, have loudly pushed for prosecutions.

Steve Bannon, who helped run Trump’s first presidential campaign and served as his chief strategist in the White House, has called for prosecutions of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, among others.

“You deserve what we call a rough Roman justice, and we’re prepared to give it to you,” Bannon said on a livestream on election night.

Mike Davis, a right-wing attorney close to the Trump team who previously clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, threatened New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James brought a civil suit against Trump alleging widespread business fraud.

“I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump and his second term,” Davis said on a podcast. “Because listen here, sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time and we will put your fat ass in prison for conspiracy against rights. I promise you that.”

The New York Attorney General’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment.

As for Trump himself, just days after the presidential election, he posted online about rumors that he might be considering selling shares in his social media company, Truth Social.

“I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities,” he wrote.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is suing Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, and a former FEMA supervisor for violating the civil rights of Florida residents in the response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which hit in late September and early October.

The federal lawsuit accuses FEMA officials of conspiring to discriminate against Florida hurricane victims who support President-elect Donald Trump.

The suit names Criswell, and former FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington, who was fired after reports that she directed FEMA workers in Lake Placid, Fla. to skip over houses that displayed Trump campaign signs and flags in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

“Hurricane season is not over, and the federal agency in charge of emergency response is embroiled in scandal – caught withholding aid from storm victims in Florida who support President Trump,” said Moody, a Republican.

“I am taking swift legal action to find out how far this political discrimination reaches and to make sure all Americans who fall victim to devastating storms are served, regardless of their political affiliation.”

After reports of the incident, Criswell called Washington’s behavior “reprehensible” and fired her. She said Washington’s directive was a “clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.”

But the former supervisor, in an interview on media commentator Roland Martin’s digital show, claimed she was following standard protocol to avoid hostility in the field.

The incident came just days after conspiracy theories about FEMA spread after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeast, leading to threats of physical violence against FEMA workers in North Carolina. The agency curtailed door-to-door field operations there for a short period.

A spokesperson with FEMA says the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backs the legal action and says he’s instructed other state agencies to investigate and “ensure those who engaged in this behavior are held accountable.”
 
Criswell faces Congressional scrutiny over the matter as well. She’s scheduled to appear before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee next Tuesday.

Matt Gaetz’s nomination to be the next attorney general could face an uphill path in the Senate, as a growing number of Republican senators are calling for access to a House Ethics Committee probe into Gaetz’s conduct.

Gaetz resigned from the House Thursday, a day after President-elect Trump announced his nomination. That ends a House Ethics Committee investigation into sex trafficking and drug use allegations against Gaetz that began in 2021.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the current chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the House ethics panel Thursday to “preserve and share” their report and other information gathered on Gaetz.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who recently lost the race for Senate Majority Leader, but is a senior member of the Judiciary panel, told reporters on Thursday that the Senate “should gain access to all relevant information by whatever means necessary,” including a possible subpoena of the ethics report.

“I don’t think any of us want to fly blind,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “Part of this is to protect the president against information or surprises coming out later that he and his team weren’t aware of.”

Cornyn admitted he does not know if the Senate has the power to demand records from the House, but he joins a number of Senators who are pushing to know the details of the Ethics Committee investigation as part of the confirmation hearing process.

The House Ethics committee initially planned to meet on Friday but it is unclear if the meeting will still proceed, according to a source familiar with the process who was grated anonymity to speak about private discussions. It is possible the panel was planning to vote during that meeting to release its report on Gaetz.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Gaetz’s nomination “will be one of those that will be well-scrutinized.”

“It’ll be a fine tooth comb, and they knew that going in,” Tuberville told reporters Thursday.

Tuberville added that “I’m a Matt Gaetz fan because I’ve know him for a long time.”

Other Republicans Senators sidestepped questions about Gaetz. Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton simply said “no comment.” Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, asked about Gaetz, instead praised another Trump nominee, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, getting on the Senate subway told NPR “Elise is amazing!” But as the subway car pulled away she said about Gaetz, “he has an uphill battle.”

Cornyn, pressed if anything he’s heard about Gaetz raised any issues about his nomination told reporters he’s just read press reports and “I don’t know the man.”