The White House’s desperate plan to improve Kamala’s image: The Biden administration sends VP to friendlies to try and raise her polling numbers so she isn’t a ‘impediment’ in the 2024 race
- Harris is prominently featured 16 times in Biden’s three-minute campaign video
- White House sends her to events popular with Democrats
- Comes amid her low grades and past grumbling from assistants
Advisors to President Joe Biden are unhappy with Vice President Kamala Harris’s plummeting polls, and have sent her to advocates who do well with Democrats and some Republicans to boost her popularity.
The effort is based on a concern from Harris, whose approval ratings have recently been underwater by 12 percentage points LA Times survey, could become a hindrance in a presidential race in which Biden and Harris will have to fight for every single electoral vote. Her grades plummeted in June 2021 after she was tasked with working on the migration crisis.
Biden’s longtime adviser Anita Dunn has directed White House planners to book Harris for events popular among Democrats, including feel-good infrastructure events and fiery abortion rights speeches. Axios reported.
The strategy comes after the launch of Biden’s video campaign featured 16 clips and images of Harris, including photos of her approvingly gazing at Biden and marching in a pride parade.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives Tuesday night to speak on reproductive freedom at Howard University in Washington. The administration books her at events popular with Democrats, in part as a way to boost its polls
The video left no doubt that Biden stayed with Harris, following his repeated public assurances that he would and reports of past White House staff frustrations with Harris.
The move appears to be an attempt to build Harris up, following a series of changes to her staff amid internal grumbling about her role. She was known for tackling the “root causes” of migration and focusing on the push for the right to vote, two intractable issues that did not lend themselves to easy victories.
Harris gave a sign of how she could try to make the most of such assignments Monday night when she spoke at an abortion-themed event at her alma mater Howard University just hours after Biden announced their reelection effort.
“These extremist so-called leaders would dare to tell us what is in our best interest. Well I say, I trust the women of America. I trust the people of America,” she said.
“So don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak out and we’re going to say we don’t have that, we’re not playing that!”
Biden’s new campaign video shows the collaboration between him and Harris. Both have bearing numbers that are underwater
Harris and husband Doug Emhoff march in a pride parade in Biden’s campaign launch video
The three-minute video repeatedly shows Biden and Harris working closely together, and shows her looking at Biden approvingly
Harris, like Biden, is holding events with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during his visit
The comments were in line with earlier fiery comments about the Supreme Court’s decision last summer Roe against Wade.
She also accepted a six-week abortion ban that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just signed into law.
“Well, obviously most don’t even know how a woman’s body works because most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at that stage of a pregnancy,” she said.
If she gets enough regular gigs, Harris could land an outsized campaign role. Biden, 80, has shown signs he could opt for a ‘Rose Garden strategy’, releasing his three-minute campaign video on Tuesday and his first campaign ad with flags Wednesday, with no immediate known plans yet to hold a political event in front of a large crowd.
The Cook political report predicts another tough race, with three potential Biden-Harris re-election paths running through Georgia, and another three through Pennsylvania.