Vice President Kamala Harris claimed she was “ready to serve” and touted her “capacity to lead” when asked last week about the advanced age of President Biden’s boss and voters’ concerns about him.
“I’m ready to serve — there’s no question about that,” Harris told the Wall Street Journal.
He insisted that everyone who observed his performance in office “completely stopped realizing my ability to lead.”
The veep’s remarks sparked a backlash from critics — including members of his own party — who said Harris has a dismal track record of actually getting things done and there’s clearly no love lost between the pair these days.
Democratic insiders told The Post on Monday that Harris should reassess his readiness — after leaving Biden exposed on the border crisis, which he was tasked with helping resolve before disappearing from the issue.
“If the vice president is ‘ready to serve,’ he should start with his current role as border czar,” a Dem source told The Post.
“The disaster we are seeing on our southern border does not inspire confidence, even among Democrats, in his ‘ability to lead.’ “
Veep Kamala Harris says she’s “ready to serve” if something happens to her 81-year-old boss, President Biden. Reuters
One Republican strategist speculated that Harris’ remarks showed he believed Biden was struggling at his job — and the public should know about it.
“Kamala Harris is speaking the quiet part loudly and trying to signal to Democratic donors and delegates that Joe Biden is clearly unfit for office — and if something happens to him, he’ll be ready to step in,” the source said. told The Post.
“The problem is that every issue that Kamala Harris has touched on, she’s made it worse, whether it’s the border or the various other issues that she’s tried to take on as vice president,” the strategist said.
“He’s a politician in America who can basically make Joe Biden look semi-competent, which is impossible to do because he’s the most incompetent and mentally unsound president we’ve ever had in the history of the United States.”
Another national GOP strategist told The Post, “Every voter in America, Democrat and Republican, needs to ask themselves as they head to the ballot box this year if Kamala Harris’ presidential threat is something they can stand.”
The comments came after a book released last month, “Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House,” in which veteran Washington reporter Charlie Spiering wrote that Biden knew full well that Harris was “not up to the job” of commander. as the leader. In fact, he preferred Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as his running mate in 2020 — before bowing to public pressure, the book said.
Harris has not done public interviews often but appears to be doing more ahead of the November general election. Getty Images
Harris talked about being ready to take over if needed during an interview aboard Air Force Two — two days before special counsel Robert Hur’s scathing report on the 81-year-old Biden’s condition dropped.
The report determined that Biden “intentionally kept and disclosed classified material”, but Hur chose not to prosecute, citing precedent, Biden’s cooperation – and added, controversially, that jurors would likely see him as “a well-intentioned old man with a failing memory .”
Hur documented several examples of Biden’s forgetfulness during a five-hour interview with the president in October. Biden allies, including his personal attorney Bob Bauer, who attended Hur’s interview, have vigorously disputed the special counsel’s characterization of their exchange.
But then during a presser to refute Hur’s character on Thursday, Biden mixed up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico.
Biden is already the oldest US president in the country’s history and will complete a hypothetical second term at the age of 86.
A handful of Republican critics have sought to portray Harris as the man who will end Biden’s term if he is re-elected.
“We are going to have a woman president of the United States,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told supporters earlier this month. “The hard truth is me or Kamala Harris.”
The insinuation was that former President Donald Trump could not win the general election and that President Biden would not be able to serve a full second term, leaving Harris behind.
Biden and Harris have both warned of the importance of the November election. AP
Harris has laughed off the scenario.
In September, he told The Associated Press, “Biden is going to be fine, so that’s not going to work.
“Every vice president understands that when they take the oath, they must be very clear about the responsibilities they may have to take over as president. I am no different,” he said.
Harris has repeatedly defended Biden on questions about his age and mental acuity in the past.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Biden, whether it’s in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, and other places — he’s very smart,” Harris told ABC reporters last month. “He has the ability to look around in terms of what might be the challenges that we face as a country or globally.”
During his time in the White House, Biden has handed several high-profile responsibilities to Harris, such as tapping him to lead the US response to the border crisis. Critics say the country has failed miserably on the immigration issue.
Harris, the first female vice president in US history, has also recently taken a prominent role in defending abortion rights. He has launched a tour of the country championing the issue.
“I believe that the majority of people have an empathy gene,” Harris told the Journal.
Harris has led the administration’s messaging and the Biden campaign on abortion. Getty Images
“And the more they realize what’s really happened since the Dobbs decision came down, the more they’re open to considering the basics, which is: Should the government tell a woman what to do?” he said about the decision of the US Supreme Court in June 2022 opening the door for states to drop the right to abortion.
Harris has sought to blame Trump for appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that dictate the balance of power on the bench.
The vice president has a net preference rating of -19.2 points, while Biden has a net advantage rating of -15.3 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
