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Call Her Daddy host Alexandra Cooper said she knew her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris would divide her fanbase but has defended the sit-down.
The Democratic presidential nominee appeared on the mega-popular sex-positive podcast series in an episode that aired Sunday, less than a month before the election. In a clip that played before the interview, Cooper explained her decision to have Harris on the show.
“As you guys know, I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show because I want Call Her Daddy to be a place that everyone feels comfortable tuning in,” she said in a piece to the camera.
She continued: “I talk about topics like mental health, relationships, sex, sexuality, trauma. Overall, my focus is women and the day-to-day issues that we face… At the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations of this election is women and I’m not a part of it.”
She also addressed the fact that her listeners are ideologically diverse. Call Her Daddy was formerly owned by the conservative media company Barstool Sports until Cooper signed a distribution deal with Spotify in 2021 worth $60m (it is now distributed by SiriusXM).
“I am so aware I have a very mixed audience when it comes to politics,” she said. “My goal today is not to change your political affiliation.”
Cooper added that her crew had reached out to Harris’s opponent Donald Trump.
“If he also wants to have a meaningful and in-depth conversation about women’s rights in this country, then he is welcome on Call Her Daddy anytime,” she said.
Despite the explanation, comments on Cooper’s Instagram were flooded with angry Trump supporters, some of whom called her interview with Harris “propaganda.”
“Alex, you should know your fan base is mostly conservatives. Trump 2024,” one comment read.
“One of my most favorite podcasts and now I’ll never listen again. unbelievable,” read another.
“I’m so disappointed, this feels like propaganda and trying to make her look ‘gen z,’” a third person wrote.
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In a follow-up video, Cooper took fans behind the scenes for her interview with the vice president.
There, she acknowledged: “I totally understand everyone has different political opinions, but I feel really good that the entire episode is about women.”
During the episode, Harris responded to Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying “my kids keep me humble” and that “unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”
“I feel sorry for [her],” Harris told Cooper.
“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble, two, a whole lot of women out here who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life,” she added. ”And I think it’s really important for women to lift each other up.”
Cooper also asked Harris to respond to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s comment that the “entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Harris told Cooper she thought the remark was “mean and mean-spirited.”
”I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down, the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” she added.
