From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris walked into her third fundraiser since President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate last week, he already had his routine mastered.
Yes, he admitted to a few dozen donors in San Francisco, the US president’s performance “was not at its best.” However, he said, “the outcome of this election cannot be determined by a day in June.”
It’s not the kind of two-step rhetorical argument any running mate would want to make just over four months before the election, but Harris had little choice. She is trying to help Biden avoid a deadly downward spiral in his campaign for a second term after the 81-year-old president’s stuttering debate appearance raised concerns about his ability to defeat Donald Trump and hold office for another four years.
Harris, Biden’s successor if the US president drops out of the race
The timing could hardly be more delicate for Kamala Harris, 59, that isShe is the first African-American woman and of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. While some Democrats have singled her out as the logical successor if Biden drops out of the race, others are drawing up lists of possible replacements that do not include her on their ticket.
Depending on how the next few days and weeks play out, her work on Biden’s behalf could either lead her into a political dead end — or secure her future in the party by giving her fresh opportunities to prove skeptics wrong.
Chad Griffin, a member of the campaign’s national finance committee, said the White House is fortunate to have a vice president who is “hard as steel” and he is “out there, defending the president and talking about what is at stake in this election.”
“They are a team,” he said. “And we are seeing more and more of the other half of that team.”
Biden and Harris had one of their occasional private lunches on Wednesday, and afterward, they had a call with campaign staff to pledge that they would move forward together.
“Joe Biden has dedicated his life to fighting for the people of our country,” Harris said, according to a campaign official who participated in the call.At that moment, I know we are all ready to fight for him.”.
