The Kamala Harris coconut tree meme, explained as best we can : NPR

Choose a Girl

He echoed others when he said he was not sure how Biden finds a way out of the spiral in which he is caught — a constant questioning about the path to victory that only makes the path to victory harder. At the White House, officials stoked the fires they could control. The policy shop began to fast-track plans that had long been in the works, including a blueprint to create term limits for the Supreme Court and impose new ethics rules on the justices — catnip for the liberal base. Propeller heads finalized a plan for legislation to take away tax rebates from corporate landlords who increased rent by more than 5 percent a year, a potentially massive new federal intervention to reverse a major driver of inflation. But Fulks spoke those words on behalf of a president no longer backed by an entire party. Two-thirds of the country, including 56 percent of Democrats, said in a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll in early July that Biden should drop out.

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Trump advisers and operatives in key states began discussing how they could help keep Biden in the race, believing he is a weaker candidate than other options for Democrats. “If Democrats want to win Georgia, they’d be better off with a potted plant at the top of their ticket,” said Cody Hall, a top adviser to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), describing the current environment there. “Lots of rumors going around about my meeting this morning with President Trump. Our main topic was national unity, and I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well. No, I am not dropping out of the race,” Kennedy wrote. After meeting with Trump the morning of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, Kennedy tried to dispel rumors on X suggesting that the pair met to discuss a unity ticket. In May, Kennedy told reporters during a presentation that he believed he had a path to victory if Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, leaving him in a head-to-head race against Mr. Trump. This time, instead of facing off against fellow Democrats, Harris would be able to elevate one to serve as her running mate.

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And I think the coconut tree clip is a perfect example of that,” said Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture. “My mother … would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ ” Harris said with a laugh. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

More from CBS News

• Other officials said more effort was still being put into planning a future agenda.
• “Lots of rumors going around about my meeting this morning with President Trump. Our main topic was national unity, and I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well. No, I am not dropping out of the race,” Kennedy wrote.
• She’d be buoyed by a Democratic Party that would coalesce behind her, desperate to defeat Trump.
• Another policy stumble marred what seemed to be her breakthrough moment.

Biden won in 2020 by 4.5 percentage points nationally, but he now trailed Trump by about 2 points, according to a Washington Post average of polls. Public surveys since the debate showed him down slightly in the must-win Northern swing states and by larger margins in Western and Southern states he hoped to win. Some advisers traded accusations, without evidence, that top aides had misplaced loyalties, selfish interests, personal ambitions.

Biden is testing how far a president can lead when his followers go astray. The mantra of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — “Diversity is our strength. But two days after that July 11 NATO news conference, the president found himself hunched in front of a stone fireplace in his Rehoboth Beach, Del., home, losing his temper. A war hero had just questioned the toll that age took on his ability to lead.