“People are saying, ‘Biden is too old,’ but the fact is, I’m older than Biden,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), 85, said to a standing ovation. “No matter what anyone says, there’s no other Democratic candidate. It’s going to be Biden. You better vote!”
The congresswoman’s candid remarks made it all the more conspicuous that the next speaker on the show, Vice President Harris, did not address any of the issues plaguing the political world.
Harris mentioned the president just once while touting his accomplishments and the urgency of her reelection against an opponent who said she “proudly intends to weaponize the Justice Department against my political opponents and has deprived American women of the most basic right to make decisions about their own bodies.”
The vice president, using the skills he has developed as a prosecutor, pursued the cases against Donald Trump more forcefully than Biden himself has done recently.
That’s where she finds herself in a delicate situation: If Biden steps down (as he has vowed not to do), putting Harris at the top of the list would be the quickest and most logical way for Democrats to realign, and it’s also why some polls suggest she might have a slight edge over Trump, and why the Trump campaign is already preparing an all-out attack against her.
Air Force Two landed in New Orleans on Friday night, just after ABC aired a primetime interview with Biden that did little to stem the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance. As the vice president stepped off the plane, she was hit by a downpour punctuated by thunder and lightning. I wondered: Was this a coincidental weather phenomenon, or an omen?
Biden doomsday scenarios are everywhere, except in the circles around Harris, who has been Biden’s most loyal and effective ally in this fight. In a combative interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper just minutes after the debate, she refused to give an inch: “I’ve watched the last three and a half years of performance, and I’m not going to spend the whole night talking to you about the last 90 minutes.”
Harris’ off-the-cuff remarks have since become a mainstay of the Biden campaign’s argument.
But for much of the past three-plus years, Harris herself has remained behind the scenes, tasked with an impossible task — tackling the root causes of migration — while serving an administration that showed no interest in the border.
Until the ruling is overturned Roe v. Wade The White House has recognized her value as a messenger on the suddenly hot topic of abortion, an issue Mr. Biden remains reluctant to talk about, and Ms. Harris’ travel schedule has accelerated dramatically: She has made more than 90 trips so far this year, according to staff tally.
When Biden made Harris his historic running mate in 2020, becoming the first Black woman on a major party ticket, the two knew each other primarily as opponents. The California senator’s own campaign for the Democratic nomination that year looked promising but imploded before the first vote was cast in Iowa. She was overly cautious, overly careful and chock-full of policy proposals that never made up the basis of her candidacy.
Given Biden’s age, Harris was always going to be an issue in the race, and during the Republican primaries, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, was unusual in not declaring that a vote for Joe Biden was a vote for Kamala Harris.
Conservative commentators have mocked her laugh, Trump has mispronounced her first name, and in a recently released video, he called her “pathetic” and “really awful.”
But watching her over the weekend, I sensed a confidence not seen in Ms. Harris when she ran alone four years ago, one that would make her less likely to be caricatured and demonized than Republicans believe.
Harris ended her appearance there with a message to the young women in the audience.
“There are many times in your life when you are in a room. [where] “You’re going to be the only person who looks like you or has had the same life experiences as you,” Harris said, “and what I ask of you is to always walk into that room with your chin up and shoulders back.”
“Please, don’t ever hear that you can’t do something. People around you will say, ‘It’s not your time yet. It’s not your turn. No one has done anything like you’,” she added. “Never hear that. I like to say, ‘I eat no for breakfast. I never hear no.'”
This may or may not be Kamala Harris’ own moment, but we know what her answer will be if the call comes.
