Vice President Kamala Harris has reportedly struggled to define herself as vice president after failing to fulfill political promises in 2021.
After conducting two difficult political resets in two months, Harris is taking heat for failing to enact the destruction of election integrity measures, among other “difficult” initiatives assigned by President Biden, the Associated Press reported.
In a rare rebuke from the establishment media, the AP printed and the Washington Post republished a story entitled, “Harris still struggling to define herself one year in VP job”:
Both White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Harris aides had no clear answer when asked why the vice president didn’t join Biden in the meeting.
It was yet another example of the difficulty Harris has faced throughout her first year in office, as she’s struggled to define herself and her role.
Harris has grappled with an expansive portfolio of difficult assignments, fielded questions about her relationship with the president and faced what allies say is unprecedented scrutiny for a vice president — without, some worry, adequate support from the White House.
The AP’s story slams Harris for failing at the administration’s “most thankless tasks,” such as preventing the deadly Afghan withdrawal in September, blocking the ever-flowing stream of migrants across the southern border, federalizing local election laws in states across the nation, and conveying the White House’s communication positions.
The article does, however, partially exonerate the vice president for failing at her assigned tasks due to “the constraints of a global pandemic and a duty to act as the tie-breaking vote in an evenly-divided Senate that have restricted her ability to travel beyond Washington.”
Of late, Harris seems to be the media’s favored scapegoat for the Biden administration’s failures. The Post published in January that Harris has begun to undergo a political reset, a reset followed by a reset in December.
Harris’s political rehabilitation came on the cusp of staff departures amid an “out of sync,” “poorly-managed,” and often “abusive environment” “shitshow” that reeks of an unhealthy environment, where people “often feel mistreated” like “shit.”
Despite the challenges in her current position, Harris, who earned the title of the least popular vice president since the 1970s, has been rumored to desire the presidency for herself in 2024. Harris has denied those claims multiple times.
When she was questioned in December if she speaks with Biden about presidential 2024 plans, she responded they have not spoken about the topic. “I’ll be very honest: I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it,” Harris said about their future.
In 2019, Harris left the Democrat primary as a failed presidential candidate with support among Democrats peaking at 15 percent.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø