By Elaina Batista, Contributor
On Oct. 6, an episode of “Call Her Daddy”, a podcast hosted by Alex Cooper, was released featuring Vice President Kamala Harris. Audiences had mixed reviews on the appearance.
One of the main grievances people had with Harris appearing on “Call Her Daddy” was that it appeared as though Harris was not taking this election seriously. This interview caused a great deal of criticism on the internet as reported by NewsWeek. Harris’s opponent, Former President Donald Trump has also been on several podcasts throughout his campaign and has not received the same level of criticism.
Cooper recorded an introduction to her podcast “Call Her Daddy”, explaining that she has no intention of telling people who to vote for and where they should align politically. She even stated that she gave Trump the same opportunity to have a sit down conversation and have the opportunity to get his message across to her listeners. Trump declined her offer.
Within the forty-five minute long podcast between Harris and Cooper, they discussed everything from relationships and sex to sexuality and trauma. Cooper’s platform mainly appeals to Gen-Z and millennial women, but the episode received a lot of backlash due to the fact that listeners do not want politics entering a space that is meant for casual fun, as discussed in an article by CBS.
One of the main topics of this presidential election was the overturning of Roe v. Wade, so Harris took the opportunity to speak directly to young female voters and urge them to understand how important this upcoming election is. Harris emphasized the importance of women having control over their own bodies and argued that Trump’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was ultimately “immoral”.
In addition to sitting with Cooper on her podcast, Harris recently appeared on the basketball podcast “All the Smoke,” hosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson and on Howard Stern’s radio show.
Trump has been on several podcasts throughout his campaign, including Logan Paul’s podcast, “Impulsive”. The 90-minutes Trump had on Paul’s podcast did not spike as much discourse on the internet as much as the sit down between Cooper and Harris. Paul also extended an invitation to President Joe Biden to appear on the podcast before Biden withdrew from the election. Paul asked Trump questions ranging from pop culture and the existence of aliens to the fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, artificial intelligence, deep fakes and technology, according to NBC. Trump was also a guest on “Flagranta”, a comedy podcast hosted by stand-up comics Andrew Schulz and Akassh Singh and on former-MTV-reality star now comedian Theo Von’s podcast, “This Past Weekend With Theo Von.” More listeners seemed to think that this interview was less “problematic”, according to Mother Jones, due to the fact that Von’s questions represented inquiries from a large voter base.
According to the New Yorker, both Harris and Trump have acknowledged that they must understand how voters of America are consuming their media, and how adapting to the new age is crucial to their campaign.