Harris has drawn more attention in the week following Biden’s abject performance in the debate than she has ever had since her early, difficult days as his No. 2. Her advantage over other potential Biden replacements, should he decide to withdraw from the race against former President Trump, comes from polls and party infrastructure.
Another ploy was the reporter’s questioning of her readiness to take the reins as leader of the nation if necessary. Nothing. She answered, “I am honored to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”
“She absolutely, positively has to dance with the one who brought her, and any daylight that she shows between herself and the only person on Earth who could be called her boss would be seen as disloyal,” said a former advisor, who requested anonymity. “If ground keeps shifting … inevitably she’s going to be put in a position of potentially having to make a decision or maybe a decision’s being made for her.”
Republicans haven’t stopped calling her public addresses word salads, but Democrats have given her comparatively high grades thus far for her efforts to stand up for Biden.
Shortly after the debate last week, when most Democrats were still in shock, Harris appeared on CNN and presented the initial iteration of Biden’s response. “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years,” she insisted, acknowledging what she called a “slow start.”
Since then, Harris has presented a similar argument at fundraisers and speeches across the country. At one such event on Tuesday night in San Francisco, she identified the discussion and the possibility of Donald Trump presidency as the “elephant in the room.”
