The corridors of power between DC and New York seem to be on the warpath against Vice President Kamala Harris. The question to ask is: Why?
She checks so many diversity boxes in the equity narrative, could Democrats really be on the verge of robbing the nomination from Harris if Biden chooses to forgo a re-election campaign? The grumbling and anonymous sources that continue dropping dirt on the Vice President are a steady and unending stream.
Just days ago, we discussed a piece from The Washington Post which quoted several party insiders voicing concern over Harris’ future political career. Now, days after that, The New York Times is in on the action lamenting how Democratic Party insiders are tired of waiting for Harris to find her footing and develop a voice.
The Times story, which is rather lengthy, includes a sourced quote from Hillary Clinton about how, in her opinion, Kamala doesn’t have what it takes to clear a primary field:
She has already made history as the first woman, the first African American and the first Asian American ever to serve as vice president, but she has still struggled to define her role much beyond that legacy.
But the painful reality for Ms. Harris is that in private conversations over the last few months, dozens of Democrats in the White House, on Capitol Hill and around the nation — including some who helped put her on the party’s 2020 ticket — said she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country. Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her.
…
Members of Congress, Democratic strategists and other major party figures all said she had not made herself into a formidable leader. Two Democrats recalled private conversations in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lamented that Ms. Harris could not win because she does not have the political instincts to clear a primary field.
Hillary, from firsthand experience, knows what it takes to not win the presidency so her expertise on the matter is without question.
For a refresher, Kamala Harris ended the 2020 Democratic primary with 2% support before a single vote was ever cast. Hillary is correct that Harris’ political instincts are garbage.
The real problem, for those who support Harris, is that it’s Joe Biden’s fault:
Those close to Ms. Harris hope she can move beyond “defensive politics,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who organized a meeting at her residence about the legacy of the vice presidency and will attend another session with her this week.
“President Biden has to give her more leeway to be herself and not make her overly cautious that a mistake, a rhetorical mistake, will cost the party a lot,” Mr. Brinkley said. “It’s better to let Kamala be Kamala.”
Really? The guy who flubs every other word, repeats stories that are abject lies, and can’t string sentences together without going off script has been muzzling his Vice President? There’s clear animosity between the Biden and Harris camps, it’s been documented. Is Joe Biden worried that he’ll be upstaged by his VP?
This isn’t a Joe Biden problem, though. Kamala Harris’ biggest enemy is looking at her in the mirror when she wakes up in the morning. She’s condescending with her tone and inauthentically fake when she tries to relate to ordinary people. When she does speak publicly, on important topics, she communicates to her adult audience like they’re a room of five-year-olds.
If it wasn’t for Joe Biden picking her from obscurity to join his national ticket, she’d be working her way back through California politics again hoping to run for Senate but generally making no impact on the broader conversation.
Democrats, in some circles, obviously don’t want Harris to run as Biden’s successor. How far will they go to push her out?
