Divided States: Is Biden ‘side-lining’ Vice President Kamala Harris?
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Is US President Joe Biden side-lining his Vice President Kamala Harris? Is it because of the Democrats’ concerns to improve the Biden Administration’s performance after their recent defeats in elections? Is it an example of ‘racism’, or the ruling party’s attempts to foreclose her chances of a woman emerging as a potential presidential nominee in the future?
A cold war within the White House!
These questions are floating in the US political circles, where male chauvinists within the Democratic Party had earlier ‘sabotaged’ chances of Hillary Clinton, twice, from occupying the highest office as they rather chose a Black man, Barack Obama, as the President.
The Democrats just lost a bell-weather poll in Virginia, and are worried about the performance of their government.
Officially, however, the White House insists that the relations between Biden and Harris are harmonious and productive.
Kamala Harris, an Indian-American, is the first Asian and colored woman elected as Vice President in the history of the US.
According to the media reports, all is not well between the US President and Vice President. Biden’s ties with Harris have suffered a jolt so much so that the President is even considering appointing her to the Supreme Court to pave way for bringing in a new Vice President of his choice. Besides, his camp claims that the family members of Harris have an informal say in her office functioning, as they did in the offices she held previously.
Close associates of Harris, these reports suggest, are furious that she is being systematically side-lined, and that she is being burdened with tasks where she might fail and blot her chances in the future. Biden’s supporters claim Harris is ‘playing with the American public’.
Ever since they took an oath in January 2021, President Biden’s approval ratings have plunged and so have Harris’ as well. Biden’s approval ratings have fallen from 52 percent in April to 41 percent in early November. Harris’ ratings have plummeted to 28 percent.
Harris’ top aides reportedly believe Biden had handed her ‘no-win’ issues like managing the US-Mexico border crisis to handle illegal migrations. They insist she has been set up to fail and given responsibility not commensurate with her qualifications. “They’re consistently sending her out there on losing issues in the wrong situations for her skill set,” a former top Harris aide told CNN.
But more disturbing is the charge they sought to paste on President Biden that he has ‘defended’ a White man, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, instead of Harris.
President Biden, 77, is likely to seek another four-year term in 2024. If the Democrats refuse to nominate him because of his advanced age and health issues, Harris could be his replacement.
The media reported Harris had complained to her confidants about having little say in the President’s approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“When Biden picked Harris as his running mate, he was essentially anointing her as the future of the Democratic Party. Now many of those close to her feel like he’s shirking his political duties to promote her, and essentially setting her up to fail. Her fans are panicking, watching her poll numbers sink even lower than Biden’s, worrying that even the base Democratic vote is giving up on her,” a media report said.
The stalemate is such that many Harris staffers, including her press aide Sabrina Singh, are looking for jobs elsewhere.
Clearly, the Democrats are worried no end. With the Virginia polls showing they could lose control of both the Senate and the House of Representation — where they hold razor-thin majorities — in the mid-term elections in 2022, they have little choice.
They cannot remove Biden, but they certainly can Harris!
