Kamala Harris and the awful truth about her White House amateur hour
After three years of her chaos, countless reboots, and word salads, Americans in 2024 face the choice of whether Vice President Kamala Harris deserves another four years – and maybe not just as vice president. For the first time in recent history, there’s a real possibility that 81-year-old President Joe Biden, the oldest president to ever hold the job, might not make it through a second term if re-elected.
That’s right. Kamala Harris might be your next president — without ever running a successful presidential campaign on her own.
Despite running in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, voters never got the chance to offer a verdict on whether she was ready for the top job. She ended her campaign before the caucuses even began in Iowa.
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Her national political ambitions might have ended there, but Biden chose to resurrect her career, even though she attacked him during the primary for being a racist. She wasn’t his first choice for V.P., but his advisors – and even his old boss Barack Obama – convinced him that she was the right one.
In one of the last primary debates with Bernie Sanders, Biden had vowed to choose a woman running mate. He really liked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But the summer of 2020 brought a new problem for Democrats. The rancor and riots that ensued after the death of George Floyd raged on while Biden was considering his running mate, and Democrats knew choosing a black vice president was critical to their success in the general election. Biden confessed to Rep. James Clyburn he was "having a little war between my head and my heart" during the vetting process.
Biden had already angered Black voters by talking about the good old days when he worked with segregationists in the Senate and asserting that "poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids." Did you have a problem with that? Well, he argued, "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.’"
Biden’s team of advisors knew they needed a Black woman on the ticket to talk about racial issues if they had any hope of reassembling the voting coalition that carried Obama to victory.
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But why Kamala Harris? Biden’s family resented the idea of picking Harris, the one person who stabbed him in the back during the primaries. Jill Biden was furious that day, telling donors on a phone call that Harris could "Go f–k yourself." Biden’s sister Valerie, a close advisor, was also not a fan of Harris.
This is why Biden seriously considered Susan Rice, despite her embarrassing attempt to cover up the motivations behind the Benghazi terrorist attack, and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., even though she was on the record praising and supporting communist dictator Fidel Castro. Biden was ultimately convinced to choose Harris. Jill Biden and the family could forgive her, but they would never forget her deeply personal attack against Joe.
The Harris pick made history, but once the bright lights of the inauguration dimmed, Team Biden pushed her in the background. At events at the White House, Harris was literally masked (due to the pandemic) and silent, standing in the background, as Biden took the lead.
Despite Biden’s assurance that Harris would be a "true partner" in the White House, she was sidelined and isolated from political issues that mattered. In response, Harris became protective of her political future, reluctant to step in and help the president with politically difficult issues.
When Team Biden asked Harris to take on the immigration and border crisis she insisted she would only focus on the "root causes" of why migrants were leaving their home countries and flooding into the United States. "Do not come!" Harris told migrants during her trip to Guatemala in June 2021, but they came anyway, storming the border in record numbers.
Voters watched her incomprehensible "word salads" go viral, and despite multiple attempts at brand reboots and on-the-job media training, her approval ratings cratered. Staffers in her office fled in droves as Washington, D.C. insiders marveled at the wreckage. In the first 18 months, at least 13 staffers quit, clearly burdened by the tumultuous tornado surrounding Harris.
The first and second families are not close. First Lady Jill Biden has not invited Harris and her Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff for dinner in the residence of the White House, and the two couples rarely spend extended time in the same room.
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The vice presidency was never meant to be a place for on-the-job training, but that has not stopped Harris and her rotating staff from trying to fix problems on the fly, often in public view.
It’s a popular parlor game in Washington, D.C. How do you solve a problem like Harris? Throughout my reporting, I was surprised that few in Washington, DC even like Harris, let alone feel like defending her. Washington can be cruel. Once a politician disappoints, that person is quietly sidelined until they go away.
As I investigated her career, it was clear all the signs were there. Harris and her allies scorn anyone who brings up her relationship with Willie Brown. But Brown was no ordinary political mentor and no ordinary boyfriend. He opened up important doors for Harris’ political career. Brown gifted her lucrative appointments on state boards and the keys to a BMW, completing her dramatic entry into his world. She dazzled the elites as she rose through the political ranks despite a lackluster performance as district attorney and as California attorney general.
Harris was eager to seize the leadership mantle of the next generation of the Democratic Party, after winning her Senate race as Hillary Clinton lost to Trump. Not content to stay in the Senate for a full term, Harris leveraged her position for the maximum sensational moments to fuel her ambitions for the ultimate prize: the White House.
Why not?
After all, President Obama only served in the Senate three years before launching his presidential campaign, challenging the Clinton establishment for the ultimate prize. But Harris was no Barack Obama. The darling of the California elite failed to impress Democrat voters — even in her home state.
Harris made history as the nation’s first Black and first female vice president, but as is often the case with history-making Democrats, they do not receive as much scrutiny from the press. Their past is wiped clean, they are hailed as change makers. Any criticism is dismissed as racist or sexist or both.
Americans of both political sides know that something is wrong with Harris, and that’s OK. In a free society, you are allowed to talk about politicians’ problems and point out her failings, and you are not a bad person for doing so, despite what Democrats and the media may tell you.
Failing to fully investigate, vet and scrutinize our public figures is the real danger to democracy. Before voters cast a ballot for Kamala Harris in 2024, they deserve to know who they’re really dealing with.
Charlie Spiering is a veteran White House correspondent and the author of "AMATEUR HOUR: Kamala Harris in the White House," (Threshold Editions, January 23)