There are apparently some officials in the White House who aren’t too happy that Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t defend the service President Joe Biden has done for the country, nor what his administration has done over the last four years.
Selina Wang, a senior White House correspondent for ABC News, reported that there is mounting frustration within the Biden administration following last week’s presidential debate with GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Harris has seemingly sought to separate herself from Biden and the administration, even though she’s an integral part of it. As the Biden administration has struggled mightily on major issues such as the economy, border security and crime, that’s posed a major challenge for Harris as a presidential candidate.
Harris will have trouble campaigning on wanting to fix the economy, border security and crime unless she undermines the policies of the Biden administration. At the same time, she needs to validate her candidacy by pointing to her record, which obviously includes her time as vice president under Biden.
It’s quite the conundrum.
Following last week’s debate, Wang posted on the social media platform X:
“Some White House officials also disappointed that Harris did not stand up for Biden during the debate, a former Biden White House official tells me. Many felt Harris missed opportunities to acknowledge that Biden deserves thanks for his service, according to the source.”
Apparently, though, the White House tried to deny that the information supplied to Wang was valid. As she wrote of what they told her:
“This is not the view of @POTUS or his team. The @VP spoke passionately about his leadership and the historic progress they have achieved together. As he said, in the debate he saw the person who has been his partner for 3.5 years. He and his team are proud of her performance.”
Just a few days after the debate, Harris again didn’t speak too highly of the job the Biden administration has done in the White House. In an interview she gave with a local ABC News station in Philadelphia on Friday, she said that the policies of the current administration aren’t fit for the “21st century.”
The vice president suggested that she’s got a fresh “approach” and “new ideas” for the “current moment.”
As she told a reporter from the station:
“My approach is about new ideas, new policies that are directed at the current moment. And also, to be very honest with you, my focus is very much in what we need to do over the next 10, 20 years to catch up to the 21st century.
“I’m obviously not Joe Biden, and you know, I offer a new generation of leadership.”
It’s a very tight line that Harris is trying to walk, between touting her record in the Biden administration while also separating herself from the current president.
So far, it looks as if Harris isn’t having too much trouble throwing her current boss under the bus.
