[ad_1]
Joe Biden and his deputy present themselves in public as an inseparable team, almost the same. What this means in everyday political life is not entirely clear.
The White House always talks about the “Biden Harris government”: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a virtual meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Photo: Keystone
Every night the White House sends an email with an overview of President Joe Biden’s appointments the next day. Shortly after, he submits another summary with the appointments of Vice President Kamala Harris. In most cases, though, the Office of the President could spare this second email: Harris is present at nearly every appearance, meeting, and conversation that Biden does. Professionally, the president and his vice president are practically inseparable.
It is no coincidence that the White House is so demonstrative. From what they hear about the relationship between the two, Biden Harris has promised to involve her closely in all decisions. Biden has known from his time as Barack Obama’s vice president how much Washington journalists like to speculate about whether the vice president has anything to report in government.
Biden usually speaks in the plural in the first person.
At that moment he himself saw how the president’s employees tried to emphasize their own importance by making fun of “Uncle Joe.” Biden doesn’t want to give the media ammunition for poking fun at reports about him and Kamala Harris.
The United States government is always referred to as the “Biden Harris government” in media statements. And when Biden talks about what he wants to achieve with a legislative proposal, he usually speaks in the first person plural: us. This is not a pluralis majestatis like Donald Trump, who never thought of his vice president Mike Pence. It is meant to show that Biden respects Harris as an equal.
President Biden has yet to give his deputy a political portfolio of her own.
However, what that means in everyday political life is not entirely clear. Just because Harris is everywhere doesn’t mean he really makes an impact. When Biden says that the vice president is always “the last person in the room” whose advice he will hear when everyone else has had to leave, that does not mean that he will follow Harris’s advice. In Washington, for example, there is a conjecture as to whether and when Harris will overtake the youngest. US airstrike in Syria Was informed.
The truth is that Biden Harris has not yet transferred his own political portfolio. This is what sets them apart from other powerful vice presidents. Biden, for example, was tasked by Obama with organizing the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and having the aid package approved by Congress after the financial crisis.
Harris does not have similar large-scale projects. Her office justifies it with the fact that the vice president is helping solve all the crises and problems facing the government, from the crown pandemic to revitalizing the economy and reconciliation between blacks and whites. “Right now everyone has to work,” says Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders. “She has a voice on all of these issues.”
She represents the future of the Democratic Party much better than her boss: Kamala Harris.
Photo: Keystone
Kamala Harris is both the first woman and the first black woman and the first American woman of Asian descentwho holds the position of Vice President. The 56-year-old Democrat represents the future of her party much better than Biden, a 78-year-old white man. That alone gives him political weight in government. Harris is also an experienced politician: She was a prosecutor and attorney general in California, then a senator in Washington.
A couple of missteps from the start
But: Harris’s own bid to become a presidential candidate failed miserably in 2019. That doesn’t have to mean much, Biden felt the same with his early nominations. But perhaps Harris’s unimpressive campaign performance was an omen. In any case, she started her tenure as vice president with a few missteps, nothing dramatic, but enough to raise eyebrows in Washington.
Harris quarreled with him a few days before she took office Fashion magazine «Vogue» on a supposedly unfavorable cover photo. Then, just in office, he annoyed a conservative Democratic senator for criticizing him in an interview in his home state. The White House had to apologize for this.
And recently Harris opposed Anthony Fauci, the self-confident infectious agent who advises Biden in the fight against the corona virus and was also jointly responsible for it under Trump. Harris’s claim that the new government had to start “from scratch” was incorrect, Fauci said. Judging by expectations, it wasn’t a particularly glamorous start for Harris.
If Biden didn’t run again in 2024, Harris would have the best chance of becoming a presidential candidate.
At the moment, Biden Harris seems primarily to want to help him gain foreign policy experience. The Vice President meets weekly for lunch with Secretary of State Tony Blinken. He has also started speaking by phone with foreign heads of state and government. Among them are politicians who would not necessarily rank in the top league of world politics.
But Harris has also spoken with some very important American allies, such as the French president and the prime ministers of Australia and Israel. If Biden plans to give Harris foreign policy powers in the future, then those talks would be a good start.
And Harris has one big advantage, namely his position. As vice president, she is a kind of natural political heir to the president. If Biden did not run again in 2024, his deputy would have the best chance of becoming a presidential candidate. Any politician who has anything to do with Harris knows he could see her again in four years. And then you will have to address her as “Madam President.”
