Vice President Kamala Harris offered a chilling moment for the ages when she proudly declared that President Joe Biden, 80, was “alive and alive” during an interview with 60 Minutes reporter Bill Whitaker.
Asked whether she would be happy to step into the breach if Biden chose not to run for re-election in 2024, Harris, 59, replied awkwardly: “First of all, I’m not going to get involved in that hypothetical situation because Joe Biden is. very much alive and running for re-election. So here we are.”
When Whitaker asked the former California senator for an answer, Harris said she didn’t have time for “board games.”
‘I hear a lot of different things from a lot of different people. But let me tell you, I am focused on my work. I really am. Our democracy is at stake, Bill. And honestly, I don’t have time for board games in my head when we have a president running for re-election. That’s it,” Harris continued.
The conversation was followed by an awkward silence between the veep and Whitaker.
The reporter tried to ask Harris why the current administration is running neck and neck with ex-President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, despite the former Apprentice host facing 91 criminal cases across the country.
In an awkward exchange, Vice President Kamala Harris told 60 Minutes’ Ben Whitaker that President Joe Biden is ‘still very much alive’
The bizarre exchange led to an awkward silence between the vice president and the reporter
‘I’m not a political expert, so I’m not going to talk about that. But what I’m saying is this: When the American people can examine their options come election time, I think the choice will be clear. … We are going to win. And I’m not saying it will be easy. But we will win. I have no doubt about it,” Harris said.
Harris also blamed a lack of media coverage of the government’s performance as the reason for the low poll numbers.
The vice president was optimistic about why Biden’s message didn’t resonate with voters, saying, “I’m looking at it more, let’s keep coming out…And, as in any election, we have to make our case to the American people. That is part of our responsibility.’
Other issues Harris touched on included her advocacy for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban following the massacre in Lewiston, Maine, last week.
Harris also called on Congress to “invest in the root causes of migration” when speaking about the crisis at the southern border.
Speaking about the current conflict in Israel, Harris was confident that the US would not send combat troops to the region.
The vice president also compared her relationship to the wildly successful one that former President Barack Obama and Biden had between 2008 and 2016.
Biden is known to have said that he was regularly the last person left in the room with Obama.
“Do you have that relationship with President Biden?” Whitaker asked.
‘I do I do. And I take that responsibility very seriously.’
JL Partners surveyed 1,000 likely voters between September 15 and 20. The results have a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points and show Kamala Harris as the least popular vice president in recent memory
There have been calls from all sides for Biden to stop running in 2024
Biden is helped to his feet after a fall during the graduation ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy in June
A September DailyMail.com poll found Harris was seen as the worst vice president in decades.
About 40 percent of respondents ranked her ahead of Republicans Mike Pence and Dick Cheney as the worst recent holders of the office.
When asked to choose a word to sum up the vice president, respondents chose “incompetent,” far ahead of complimentary words like “smart” and “strong.”
And if that wasn’t clear enough, nearly half of the thousand people surveyed said Biden should trade his running mate before 2024 — including 27 percent of Democrats and a quarter of Black respondents.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted by JL Partners and has a margin of error of 3.1 points.
The results reflect Harris’ torrid time as vice president and the reservations of some senior Democrats who fear Biden’s advanced age means many voters will question whether his 58-year-old vice president should take the helm during a second term to take over.
“In the eyes of voters, if anyone is more incompetent than President Biden, it’s his vice president,” said James Johnson, co-founder of the Republican polling firm JLP.
“Honestly, this is one of the most brutal word clouds we’ve ever run. From ‘incompetent’ to ‘worthless,’ the public has written off Kamala Harris and there seems little way for her to improve her standing with them.”
It’s not just Republicans who think that, he added.
“Feelings are the same among independents, and one in four Black voters want Biden to choose someone else as his running mate, as do the majority of 18-29 year olds.
“Joe Biden’s re-election platform is already under serious pressure due to concerns about his age. Kamala Harris pushes it to the breaking point.”
The results will make reading the Biden-Harris campaign more difficult.
When voters were asked for words to describe Harris, the most common among all likely voters were “incompetent” and “idiot.”
While Republican hatred may have skewed the results, even people who described themselves as “independents” offered little encouragement. Words like “stupid,” “just kidding,” “unqualified,” and even “robot” dominated terms of approval like “strong” and “cool.”