The debate over Joe Biden’s future has raised many questions, but one thing has become clearer: It’s time for Americans to get used to the idea of a Kamala Harris presidency.
One of the most common arguments Democrats have recently seen and heard in support of keeping Biden on the party line is that Harris is perfectly prepared to take over if Biden is unable to continue campaigning or serving as president, a point frequently made by Biden-Harris supporters. Social Media and Other Media Platforms recently.
A widely circulated Google document titled “Freeing Yourself from the Burdens of Past Burdens: Why I Support Kamala” has caused quite an uproar among Democrats and on social media. The uproar over the vice president may only intensify given the apparently lukewarm to negative reaction to Biden’s ABC News interview on Friday night, which, far from reassuring Biden’s supporters, has done little to silence calls for him to drop out of the race.
Harris, meanwhile, has provided strong support for the president and has dutifully bolstered the image of the team’s strength by standing by him publicly and privately, including easing fears during a White House staff call last week and solidifying a common message on current controversies.
For those who think it’s time to move on from Biden, Harris is again a strong answer. A recent CNN poll showed that a significant majority of Americans believe Democrats would have a better chance of beating Trump if they moved on from Biden, but Harris performed slightly better than Biden in a hypothetical matchup with Trump. Other polls have shown similar results.
Moreover, Harris has a number of notable advantages over other candidates, including the fact that she is already vice president and has continuity with the current administration, which would make it easiest for her to maintain access to funds raised in the name of the Biden-Harris campaign, she has strong and vocal support from party leaders, and she is already a recognized leader within the administration on some of the issues that are likely to be most defining in the race, such as women’s reproductive freedom.
Indeed, while Harris may have had a low-key start as vice president — after people close to Biden limited her responsibilities too severely early in the administration, now recognized as a serious mistake — she has since risen to a much more high-profile role in the last year, with great success.
For those, like me, who have followed her tenure as Vice President closely, this was not a big surprise: she had already achieved outstanding results on a wide range of issues, including initiating important dialogue with countries on our southern border to reduce sources of migration, being a leading voice in developing a “tomorrow” plan for Gaza, actively working to garner support for the Administration’s Ukraine policy among allies, actively working on next-generation technology issues, supporting better gun control laws, and serving as a highly effective advocate on issues related to women and communities of color.
“Having watched the Vice President be questioned enthusiastically in small groups on a wide range of issues, it’s long been clear to me that she’s not only flawless in her duties, but also a strong communicator, especially as she’s grown accustomed to using her own voice to express herself. She’s also able to do something many politicians struggle with – listen – while also serving as an advocate, skills she developed as a prosecutor and senator.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris raise their hands as they stand on the White House balcony with First Lady Jill Biden and First Lady Doug Emhoff during an Independence Day celebration in Washington, USA, on July 4, 2024.
Elisabeth Franz/Reuters
For the reasons above, it is clear that if Biden continues to run, Harris will have to play a bigger role in the campaign. If Biden withdraws, Harris is overwhelmingly the most likely candidate to succeed him among people around the world. In fact, out of the United States’ current population of 333 million, Harris is one of only three likely candidates to become the next president.
Of course, this is also due to a fact that is inherent to the vice presidency but is rarely discussed: she is the president-elect. The current debate over Biden’s age and health has prompted a more open discussion of this awkward issue. America has never had an older president than Biden, and it is not unlikely that she will be asked to assume the presidency, temporarily or permanently, if he is re-elected for a term that is expected to last until he is 86 years old. This will be a key factor in the national debate between now and November.
For these reasons, Biden and Democratic supporters are not the only ones seriously considering Harris’ ability to serve as president. Donald Trump is now attacking Harris as well, clearly threatening her candidacy. A leaked video shows Trump attacking Harris. He has also attacked her on social media with a childish nickname he gives to people who dare challenge him, and made satirical jokes about her relationship with the California politician.
Harris is in many ways Trump’s worst nightmare as a rival. Trump knows that since the Dobbs decision, election after election has swung in Democrats’ favor, even in Republican-leaning states. The fact that the Trump administration has stripped basic freedoms from the vast majority of American women is bad enough. If Trump had to face off against a woman who is one of the nation’s most effective communicators on women’s issues, Harris would undoubtedly have the advantage at the ballot box.
To make matters worse, Trump is not only the architect of the end of Roe v. Wade, but he is also a convicted rape and serial sexual abuser, and has been implicated in even more horrific crimes due to the release of records related to the case against his friend, pervert, pedophile, and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
In short, Trump is the most anti-women jerk of any major politician in the history of the United States, and any confrontation with a woman now would be disastrous for him.
“Perceptions of Kamala Harris are evolving and her ratings have been rising for some time, but the post-debate discussion of Biden’s future has dramatically accelerated those reassessments.“
— David Rothkopf
Some may argue against Harris’ candidacy because of the historical misogyny of the American electorate, but that argument seems to have faded in recent years. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, but let’s not forget that she won the popular vote. Moreover, of course, America finally elected a woman as a nationally-endorsed candidate in 2020: Harris. And the numerous post-Dobbs campaigns have mobilized women across the country as an even more effective voting bloc. And, as mentioned above, since the 2016 election, Trump has lost a court case, in which a jury concluded that, in the opinion of the judge in that case, Trump was a rapist.
Perceptions of Kamala Harris are evolving and her ratings have been rising for some time, but the post-debate discussion about Biden’s future has dramatically accelerated this reevaluation and caused people to view Harris in an entirely new way.
If Biden continues to run, the vice president will have to play a larger role in the campaign. Discussions about Biden’s role as his successor will likely intensify in the coming months, as the debate over Biden’s age will inevitably take center stage between now and Election Day. If Biden drops out of the race, he will, of course, most likely become the Democratic presidential nominee.
If Biden wins, his age will inevitably impart a fragility to her vice presidency that has rarely existed until now, and if Harris runs, her chances of winning are very high, given Trump’s grotesque flaws and her strengths.
Even if Biden doesn’t win, Kamala Harris will likely remain at the top of the very small list of Democratic presidential candidates for 2028. (All but one Democratic vice president since Truman has ultimately been their party’s presidential nominee.) That means the prospect and promise of a Kamala Harris presidency will likely be with us for a very long time.
