GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said the quiet part out loud about Joe Biden and his advancing age.
“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” Haley, 51, said in an interview on Fox News.
The reaction was surprisingly understated. The White House didn’t even bother to correct Haley or argue with her. “As you know, we don’t directly respond to campaigns from here. But honestly, I forgot she was running,” said deputy press secretary Andrew Bates. And Democrats generally let the remark pass, perhaps thinking that drawing any more attention to the issue was bad for Biden.
But Biden’s biggest problem is that when people think of Vice President Kamala Harris, the last thing that comes to mind is “president of the United States.” And unless he can change the voters’ mindset — unless voters can see Kamala Harris as a viable president — he’s going to lose to any Republican the GOP throws at him.
Needless to say, the Biden campaign is gamely trying to come up with an answer. How do you portray someone obviously unfit for high office as presidential material?
“I know that the president sees the vice president as not only a historic leader, but a true partner to him, and she’s really been at the forefront of a lot of the work that we’ve done politically,” said Jaime Harrison, the chair of Democratic National Committee. “I really do believe that she’s going to be at the forefront and a crucial component of the re-election process.”
Related: White House Admits: Biden’s Age Has Diminished His Energy, Limited His Schedule
Biden’s dilemma is that what works for Democratic primary voters — Harris checking all the affirmative action boxes — won’t necessarily carry over to a general election. In 2020, competence wasn’t an issue for Harris. Her word salads were seen as an idiosyncrasy, not a sign of gross incompetence. Age was also not an issue for Biden in 2020.
But after four years of watching Kamala Harris cackle her way across the country and voters watching Biden decline before their eyes, the Biden team will have to figure out a way to flip the script and portray Kamala Harris as able to take control if Biden falls.
Still, others said the video was part of a concerted effort to include Harris as a critical part of the administration as the campaign gets underway.
Since the beginning of the administration, some Republicans have made her a target and some Democrats have quietly suggested that she is not up to the job and is not visible enough. Those close to Harris say such criticism is baseless and steeped in racism and sexism.
“They need her to be strong,” a person familiar with the conversations inside the White House said. “They know she is a target, and the attacks have always been intense, and the ante is going to be upped. So they want to make sure she is on the best possible footing.”
Republicans have a lot of ammunition in their haversacks to use against Harris — more than three years of gaffes and incomprehensible mouthings to counter whatever strategy the Democrats have.
Indeed, all they have is to accuse anyone who portrays Harris as she is of racism and sexism. Again, that might work with hardcore Democratic voters, but it’s an open question whether general election voters will buy into criticism of Harris being fit solely based on the idea that she’s a black woman.
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