You Had One Job: Voters Don't Believe Kamala Harris Is Qualified to Assume the Presidency

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Beginning on Inauguration Day 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris had one job. That job was to demonstrate to Americans that she is qualified and capable of assuming the role of president of the United States should the unthinkable happen. When a vice president is called on to take the presidency, it is during a time of crisis following the unexpected or violent death of the president, as President Lyndon Baines Johnson did after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Or another national crisis, as President Gerald Ford had to do following the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

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As it turns out, Harris struggles to step in when her boss, President Joe Biden, is reportedly feeling under the weather. When Biden was a no-show to greet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House, her performance was haltingly cringeworthy:

Harris has also been put in charge of solving the crisis at the southern border. Our facilities remain inadequate, and the flow of migrant families and unaccompanied minors is expected to hit another record in April. She has not visited the border, even to feign leadership or understand what is going on the ground. Journalists who have seen the situation report exhausted agents, a burgeoning hot war between rival cartels just over the border, and children packed like cattle into detention facilities meant to hold a fraction of the current number. The lack of enforcement is the subject of lawsuits from the Texas and Arizona attorneys general.

When Harris appeared on CNN’s State of the Union last Sunday, she confirmed that she has no intention of going to the border. Instead, she is working on “root causes” and blames climate change for the crisis. The droughts and hurricane damage she cites as the root causes of the migration have been present for several years. The “root cause” of the current border crisis is the lack of enforcement and the rhetoric from the Biden administration. Even the migrants say it is the Biden policy when reporters ask them.

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Harris intends to visit Guatemala in June without articulating too many other plans other than funding “civil society” organizations. These are a bunch of left-wing groups where funds go into a black hole with no accountability. Harris blames COVID-19 concerns for all the delays, but the administration lets migrants flow over the border without screening for the virus and sends them throughout the United States.

As it becomes increasingly apparent that Biden is not energetic or in full command of his faculties, it forces Americans to consider the idea of a President Kamala Harris. According to a new Rasmussen poll, the enthusiasm for that outcome is lower than Biden’s disappointing approval numbers:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters have an unfavorable impression of Harris, including 43% who have a Very Unfavorable impression of Joe Biden’s vice president. Forty-six percent (46%) of Likely Voters have a favorable impression of Harris, including 28% who have a Very Favorable view of her.

Forty-six percent (46%) of voters believe Harris is qualified to assume the responsibilities of the presidency, including 31% who say she is Very Qualified. However, a majority (50%) say Harris is not qualified to become president, including 41% who say she is Not At All qualified.

It is the extremes that are astonishing. When assessing likely voters with strong emotions one way or another, she is -15 on favorability and -10 on qualifications for the presidency. It is the high approval among Democrats that is keeping the top line around 50%. Only 25% of Republicans and 36% of independents believe Harris is qualified to assume the presidency. These numbers are a sharp contrast to the view of Vice President Mike Pence in April of 2017:

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Harris’s ratings as vice president are lower than Mike Pence’s four years ago. In April 2017, 63% of voters said Pence was qualified to assume the responsibilities of the presidency, including 86% of Republicans, 40% of Democrats and 65% of unaffiliated voters.

Harris only pulls 80% of Democrats when they are asked if she is qualified. These results should not come as a shock. During the Democrat primary, Harris had a brief polling surge following her staged attack on Biden regarding busing. Her polling tanked again immediately after being savaged by Tulsi Gabbard on her record as a prosecutor. Harris dropped out of the race in December before a single primary vote was cast.

Presumably, she went for an image makeover. She emerged with a new haircut and better wardrobe after Biden became the presumptive nominee. For a while, there was no cackle and no condescending tone. But much like Hillary Clinton, she appears to be skilled at politicking within the Democrat establishment. However, she is a horrible retail candidate. And the cackle is back. Here she is pushing her boss’s jobs and infrastructure plan.

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Can you imagine this woman leading the country during a crisis? Perhaps our leaders should be less concerned with what boxes a person checks and more concerned with capability.

 

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