A new piece in The New York Times Magazine hopes to redefine Kamala Harris’s popular persona that Democrats say remains trapped in 2021 when she made a serious public-relations blunder.
Kamala Harris has become a punchline for Republicans and even some Democrats who view her as unqualified.
“Biden has never been good at saying no. He should have resisted the choice of Harris, who was a colleague of his beloved son Beau when they were both state attorneys general,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said, comparing her selection with other political blunders that he believes that Biden has committed in office. “He should have blocked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has done considerable damage to the island’s security. He should have stopped his son Hunter from joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company and representing companies in China — and he certainly should have resisted Hunter’s attempts to impress clients by getting Dad on the phone.”
Nikki Haley: A Vote For Biden Is a Vote for Kamala Harris
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has quipped that a vote for Biden is a vote for Harris.
Harris was chosen for historical reasons. Her status as the first woman and first minority vice president is unprecedented.
“But between Biden’s initial pledge to select a woman and when it was time to announce his choice, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August, the world had effectively turned on its head. Suddenly, amid the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions, there was no campaign trail, and most of the meetings to discuss selecting the vice president were happening on Zoom,” New York Times political reporter Astead W. Herndon wrote. “The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that May would spark nationwide protests calling for racial justice. And in the absence of in-person politicking, social media took on more importance, helping push the conversation about Biden’s running mate to explicitly racial terms.”
This has led Democrats to blame questions surrounding her competence as vice president on “racism” and “sexism”.
Haley has ridiculed Kamala Harris and Democrats for whining about racism and sexism, noting that she was the first female Indian-American governor in America.
“Take it from me, the first minority female governor in history: America is not a racist country,” Haley said in a speech last month.
Democrats are not happy with Haley’s effort to disrupt their narrative that aims to distract from bipartisan questions about Harris’s personality and qualifications to be a heartbeat or a scandal away from the presidency.
“She gives the Republican Party that cover of, ‘Look, she is a woman of color, but don’t worry, she’s not going to challenge their notions of how a woman should be,’” Democratic political consultant Shasti Conrad said.
In Search of Harris’s Voice
Harris remains on the ticket as a governing decision according to White House Communications Director Anita Dunn.
“It was a governing decision,” Dunn told The New York Times. “Who can be president, if necessary? But really, Who can be a good partner for me in terms of governing and bringing this country back from the precipice?”
She notes that Harris has become the point person for the Biden-Harris campaign on key issues such as abortion and gun control that it is hoped will resonate with voters.
“And while Dunn acknowledged some initial difficulties for Harris during the first two years in office, she also said the vice president ‘has found her voice, and she’s found her role,’ as issues like abortion rights and gun safety have given her a clearer message heading into 2024,” The New York Times said.
When asked about Biden’s flagging support among blacks, Harris deflected and said the Times should ask about how she helped the campaign after the 2024 election. Harris has become the candidate who has no clear identity apart from being the first woman and first minority in the job, and that has not helped Biden in the polls.
She clearly is not Barack Obama who became a transformational figure in his own right. Harris is not Obama. Obama shaped the narrative. Harris does not have one and is looking for something that will stick. It’s a problem she shares with her boss, Joe Biden.
Kamala Harris simply looks lost.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
