Allies Of VP Harris Fume After Dems Look Past Her As Biden Replacement

Allies of Vice President Kamala Harris are reportedly upset and frustrated that she was not considered as a potential leader of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden’s widely criticized debate performance last week.

Citing Harris insiders, Politico reported that some of her allies bristled as the post-debate conversation among party members regarding a potential replacement for Biden included names like Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, but not the VP. The rebuff came even as Harris was expected to defend her boss amid a tidal wave of criticism over his weak showing against a more assertive, more confident former President Donald Trump.

Names like Newsom and Whitmer “trended online as potential replacements for Biden on the Democratic ticket, while Harris — by several measures the most obvious and best-positioned candidate — was left to publicly defend Biden at the single worst moment of their four-year-old political partnership,” Politico reported.

That left some of Harris’ supporters frustrated that her name is not being mentioned alongside other ambitious Democrats, Politico said, adding that they are unable to do much about it as Harris is effectively required to defend him.

“There’s nothing that she could do externally that would be wise,” Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo told the outlet. “Her best strategy is to internally just be an amazing VP.”

But, as Politico noted, Harris was not about to try and put Biden’s horrendous performance in a better light:

She had to perform the role of good soldier almost immediately after the debate, with postmortem interviews having been pre-scheduled with CNN and MSNBC.

As Harris watched Biden’s face-plant, she and her team realized her response would be even more closely scrutinized, according to three aides granted anonymity to describe private discussions — and she quickly made clear to her staff that they shouldn’t try to sugarcoat how badly her running mate had performed.

Harris told her advisers her role was simple, the aides said: project confidence as quickly and clearly as possible as a leader of the party, while preserving credibility by recognizing how weak the debate had been.

“She wanted to have an acknowledgment of what everybody was seeing,” a senior aide to Harris told the outlet.

Biden Raises Kamala Harris' hand in show of unity as donors, voters revolt https://t.co/ErwWfvFZ89 pic.twitter.com/0O7kYuBrJs

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 5, 2024