The VP had a moment in the spotlight in Biden’s reelection launch video. Then, just like that, she was gone. Again.
President Joe Biden launched his reelection campaign in late April with a video that employed all the subtlety of a hand grenade. It featured Biden surrounded and endorsed by an array of prominent African Americans, providing political observers with clues about the Biden campaign’s target demographics. Indeed, the video featured more Kamala Harris than voters had seen of her in months. Not since the aborted “Biden-Harris administration” branding campaign had the vice president been positioned so prominently.
And then, just like that, she was gone. Again. The general lack of notice Harris’s absence from Joe Biden’s side has generated adds insult to injury, and her supporters within the Democratic firmament aren’t going to take it lying down. According to a three-bylined item in the Messenger on Thursday, the vice president’s backers hope to coax the president into once again boosting Harris’s profile. And if sweet talk doesn’t work, threats might.
The table-setting begins with complaints: Where was Harris during debt-ceiling negotiations? Why does she have so few public events on her calendar? Why isn’t the vice president “as forward-facing and in the public eye as she should be,” wondered one unnamed Obama-era White House aide.
A variety of anonymous Democrats are sensitive to what Harris’s low profile says about the Biden White House. The vice president has developed a reputation for turning in maladroit performances on the campaign trail, but that might not be her fault. Indeed, by cloistering the veep, the Biden White House reinforces that perception. “There’s broad concern that she’s not ready and I think a good part of that is that she’s not out there as much as she should be,” the Obama aide added.
If the Biden team is somehow responsible for Harris’s penchant for viral clumsiness, it has also failed to properly employ the power she possesses owing to her historic demographic traits to rally minority voters. More than that, the Biden White House has meted out indignities to Harris suggestive of something far darker — as the item in the Messenger delicately implies. “Harris also has to prove herself in ways other vice presidents haven’t had to do in recent years,” the dispatch reads, assigning that sentiment to “political observers.” Not since the last vice president was compelled to evade a mob calling for his head while ransacking the Capitol has a VP encountered so many conspicuous firsts.
The most convincing argument for more Kamala is the remorseless actuarial math dogging the president. “Since President Biden is one fall away from serious damage to his candidacy, Harris will be required to take on a more significant role in the campaign,” said one former political media consultant and academician.
So, the best case that can be made for boosting Harris’s visibility is that the Biden White House is stuck with her, and her place in the line of succession ensures that she will receive public scrutiny whether the president’s allies like it or not. Moreover, it’s better to keep her inside the tent than for her embittered allies to be issuing veiled threats to question the president’s commitment to racial rapprochement.
We can only assume that this piece is fueled by the frustrations shared by Harris’s friends. If its premise was pitched by her enemies, it would be hard to tell the difference.