Is Kamala Harris a liability on the Democratic ticket for Joe Biden?: President Biden, when he announced his re-election run in April, made it clear that Vice President Kamala Harris will be on his ticket. Conservative media seems to think she’ll ruin his reelection chances.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: Not a Winning Ticket?
Ever since the beginning of the Biden presidency, there’s been a great deal of speculation that Kamala Harris is dragging down Biden, or that he risks losing the election if voters think that Harris might assume the presidency.
But the vast majority of this speculation seems to be coming from the conservative media, Republican politicians, and others who would very much like to see both Biden and Harris swept out of office. There’s also an odd implication that it’s somehow self-evident that Biden is going to die, or otherwise be incapacitated, and that Harris will end up as president.
Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate, appeared on “Fox and Friends” Monday and took aim at Harris.
“A vote for President Biden is actually a vote for President Harris,” Haley said, seeming to imply that Biden won’t live through an entire term. “We are running against Kamala Harris, make no bones about it… they know that it’s Kamala Harris that’s gonna end up being president of the United States if Joe Biden wins this election.”
In the New York Post this week, columnist Michael Goodwin wrote that Harris is “a Biden fall away from being in the Oval Office.”
“It was alarming to watch Joe Biden take a tumble Thursday at the Air Force Academy commencement,” Goodwin wrote, feigning concern just as Haley did in the Fox interview.
“But the really scary thought is that if he had landed head-first, Kamala Harris would be sitting in the Oval Office. Talk about terrifying!,” Goodwin wrote, implying that a Harris presidency would be more “scary” than President Biden falling to his death on national television. There were also references to Harris’ habit of giggling.
Despite the fall, and contrary to Goodwin’s “concern,” there is no indication that the president is near death. He was, but by all accounts, okay after his fall on stage this weekend.
The columnist went on to talk up the presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — whose support seems to come almost entirely from the political right — and speculate that Biden could be forced to debate Kennedy.
Fox News aggregated Goodwin’s column while pointing out that, per a Monmouth poll in May, Harris’ approval rating was at 37 percent.
Fox also quoted Anita Vogel, on a TV panel, speaking about Harris’ qualifications.
“She is an accomplished person. Right? She has a law degree from UC Hastings. I mean, the woman has an amazing resume. She was a district attorney in Alameda, California. She was elected as district attorney to the city and county of San Francisco. She was the first African-American woman to serve as the California attorney general. She went on to be elected to the Senate representing the state of California. And now she is vice president. She is a seemingly very accomplished and smart woman,” Vogel said. “But when she gets in front of the cameras and in front of people, I don’t know what happens.”
In the meantime, the Biden Administration is seeking to shore up Harris ahead of the re-election campaign. According to US News, that’s the administration’s strategy, going into 2014.
“The underlying message was one that puts President Joe Biden’s campaign in an awkward quandary,” US News said in the report this week. “The 80-year-old president insists he is up for the rigors of a second term, which would end with him at age 86 if he completed it. But at the same time, the White House and the Biden-Harris campaign are elevating Harris’ profile to give voters a real-time idea of what it would be like to have not just the first woman, but the first woman of color, leading the country.”
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.
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