Despite polling slightly better than her boss, Kamala Harris is historically unpopular for a vice president, and it seems that her allies think she’s been set up to fail by Joe Biden because of the “trash” assignments she’s been given—namely the border crisis and election reform.
“Her portfolio is trash,” Bakari Sellers, a friend of Harris, said during a virtual panel hosted by Washington’s Politics and Prose bookstore this week. “You give someone a portfolio that’s not meant for them to succeed.”
According to Sellers, Biden has prevented her from succeeding on these issues.
“The reason I call it trash, which is a colloquialism to describe a no-win situation, is because you did not give her something where she could be successful. You did not give her something that best used her talents to improve the plight of many people in this country, particularly people of color. For example, immigration, I mean, allow her to go to the border and have a conversation,” he added.
It’s quite possible there’s some truth to that. Despite Joe Biden’s campaign promise to pick a woman of color as his running mate, Kamala Harris’s clashes with Biden during the 2020 Democratic primary made her a surprise pick in many ways. Prior to Biden officially declaring his candidacy, Kamala said she believed the women who had accused him of sexual misconduct.
“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” she said.
During one of the primary debates, she all but accused him of being racist over his past statements on working with Democrat segregationists, particularly on the issue of busing.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” Harris said, in a moment that became the pinnacle of her presidential campaign.
Biden called Harris’s attack “a mischaracterization of my position across the board,” but still put him in the position of having to defend himself as not being racist.
“I did not praise racists,” he added. “If we want to have this litigated on who supports civil rights, I’m happy to do that.”
Harris’s attacks on Joe Biden had been pre-planned. Despite experiencing a temporary boost in the polls, she ultimately dropped out in December, citing racism and sexism for her failure.
Is it possible that Biden still holds a grudge against Kamala? Perhaps. Yes, he picked her as his running mate, but that may well have been a political decision, influenced by his advisors. Biden has also insisted that he will run for reelection, though that seems increasingly unlikely. given his poor polling and neverending gaffes. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Biden announce before the start of the 2024 primaries that he won’t seek reelection, but will serve out his term, denying Kamala the opportunity to ascend to the presidency via succession. Forcing her to run in a primary and defend the lackluster record of the Biden administration as a whole, as well as the issues she was tasked to handle specifically.
Now, I doubt Joe Biden is smart enough to concoct such a scheme, but nevertheless, I’m sure there are Biden loyalists who never liked Kamala Harris and are actively undermining her. Giving her “trash” assignments certainly woud contribute to that.
