During this election, Democrats never missed an opportunity to lecture about their commitment to the peaceful transfer of power, but Kamala Harris, still lingering in the shadow of her humiliating defeat, is proving those claims to be nothing more than empty rhetoric as she opts for a spiteful exit.
As Vice President-elect JD Vance and his family prepare to move into the Vice President’s residence, they’ve encountered an unexpected roadblock: Kamala Harris.
Apparently, Harris has declined to host a customary pre-move walkthrough or even a formal sit-down with Vance and his wife, Usha. The residence is typically handed off with professionalism and grace — two qualities seemingly absent in this case.
“When JD Vance, his wife Usha, and their three young children move into the Naval Observatory residence on Jan. 20, it will be their first time inside the white Queen Anne-style mansion that has been home to vice presidents since the 1970s,” reports CBS News. “Vice President Kamala Harris has not extended an invitation for a formal sit-down or tour, multiple Democratic and Republican sources told CBS News.”
In November, Usha Vance, via intermediaries, reached out to staff for the home's current occupants, Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, seeking details including what they would need to childproof it. Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel Vance are all under the age of eight.
The questions were initially rebuffed by a Harris political appointee. But there has since been communication between the Vance team and Navy aides who oversee the residence.
Before Christmas, Navy officials provided an overview of the house to discuss the layout of the residence, logistics and practicalities of the move-in, and to help answer any questions the Vances had, a person familiar with the call said.
Usha Vance spoke with Emhoff for about 40 minutes last week, sources said. Harris sources said that arrangements are underway to accommodate the Vance children.
Now the Vances will see their new home for the first time on January 20, the day of JD Vance’s swearing-in as vice president.
The contrast with previous transitions is stark. In 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, graciously welcomed the Pences to the Northwest Washington residence shortly after the election. In 2021, Mike Pence extended a quiet invitation for Harris and Emhoff to tour the residence during their transition. Although no formal meeting occurred, the Pences made the residence available while they traveled. That level of decency and professionalism is nowhere to be found in Harris’s handling of this transition.
Harris’s team has claimed her focus on California wildfires as the reason for not accommodating the Vances. It doesn’t take a genius to see that her refusal is less about pressing duties and more about bitterness over the 2024 election results.
Her actions here are as transparent as they are petty, showcasing a chilly indifference toward a family with three young children. Snubbing the Vances in this way is a fittingly graceless finale to Harris’s catastrophic tenure as vice president — a tenure defined by ineffectiveness, immaturity, and missed opportunities.
The American people deserve better, and so does the office of the vice president. Thankfully, she’ll be gone on Monday.
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