Kamala Harris Has Been the Subject of a Lot of Bad Press over the Years. Can Team Biden Save Her? We Might Just Find Out: After years of challenges, The Biden Administration is going forward in 2024 with Vice President Kamala Harris on the ticket. Per a new report, the administration has plans for how to rehabilitate the vice president’s image.
Kamala Harris in the Spotlight
Anyone who thought there was a chance that President Biden would drop Vice President Kamala Harris from the ticket was proved wrong last week when the president announced he was running for a second term, and “Biden-Harris” was all over the announcement.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris Announce Reelection Campaign” was the headline of the press release, and Harris was mentioned repeatedly.
Sure, the New York Post noted that only Biden spoke in the launch video while Harris did not — “Kamala Harris muzzled in Biden’s 2024 campaign announcement video” — but per a new Axios report, the Biden team is focusing on shoring up Harris’ low approval ratings, which are currently in the high 30s. And Axios noted that Harris and Biden are shown together repeatedly in that video.
Part of the strategy is to “schedule events with Harris promoting popular Democratic causes such as infrastructure spending and abortion rights.”
“Our teams have been focused on lifting up the priorities of President Biden and Vice President Harris as they build a future where every person in our nation can thrive, and will continue to remain focused on this work together,” a spokesperson for Harris told Axios.
Axios also stated that the Trump campaign will likely run strongly against Harris, arguing that re-electing the now 80-year-old Biden ”could mean a Harris presidency.”
Even other Republican candidates, like Nikki Haley, hinted at a similar strategy in a Fox News interview over the weekend.
“I think we can be all clear and say, with a matter of fact, that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, said on Fox News over the weekend. “Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R- TX) made a similar argument, also on Fox, over the weekend, exaggerating President Biden’s age in the process.
“Joe Biden is 142 years old,” Cruz said in the interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow, which took place Sunday. “[T]he Democrats are suggesting Kamala Harris for president.”
Cruz also asked viewers to “imagine” Harris, as president, sitting across from Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, or other current world leaders.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote last week about how Harris’ role might change heading into the re-election campaign.
“This time, Biden’s running mate will really matter,” Friedman wrote. “We are always told that, in the end, people vote for the candidate for president, not for vice president. But because Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term — and therefore the chance of his health failing is not small — people will be asked to vote as much for his vice president as for him, maybe more than in any other election in American history.”
Friedman added that Biden needs to make the case that Harris is ready.
“It’s no secret that Vice President Harris has not elevated her stature in the last two-plus years. I don’t know what the problem is — whether she was dealt an impossible set of issues to deal with, or is in over her head, or is contending with a mix of sexism and racism as the first woman of color to serve as vice president,” he added.
“All I know is that doubts among voters about her abilities to serve as president, which were significant enough for her to quit as a presidential candidate even before the Iowa caucuses in 2020, have not gone away.”
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Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
