President Kamala Harris.
It’s an idea that keeps popping up on the campaign trail and in more Washington, DC conversations, as more people are wondering if there is a real possibility the vice president could be the 47th president of the United States.
Republicans continue warning that President Joe Biden, 81, might not make it to Election Day, but as the election draws closer, political strategists are turning their attention to Harris.
Former President Donald Trump, without being prompted, mentioned in an interview that Harris would soon become a ‘very big part’ of the 2024 campaign.
‘I think it’s going to end up being a big part of the campaign, because it would be, it’s surprising to me if he makes it to the gate,’ Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. ‘But if he does, how long is he going to stay? I don’t know. I think she becomes a very big part of the campaign.’
President Kamala Harris . It’s an idea that keeps popping up on the campaign trail and in more Washington, DC conversations, as more people are wondering if there is a real possibility the vice president could be the 47th president of the United States
Trump indicated he was very aware that his own choice of a running mate would offer a contrast with Harris.
‘It’s got to be somebody that can be a good president, which Biden doesn’t have,’ Trump said, referring to Harris. ‘Biden has one of the worst people. People can’t even believe it.’
The emerging image of Harris is not just the incompetent vice president skewered by Republicans for her word salads and bouts of awkward laughter, but someone who will be more radically left than Biden on issues that voters care about.
Harris spent the first part of the year repeatedly defending her ability to serve as president while also trying to reassure Americans that Biden still had the physical and mental abilities for reelection.
‘I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,’ Harris told the Wall Street Journal in February.
Former President Trump previewed that Harris would be a ‘very big part’ of the 2024 campaign
Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House
US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
On immigration, Harris has signaled zero movement on the issue, reminding reporters her job is only about working to solve the root causes of migration in countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
She repeatedly blames Congress in recent interviews for failing to pass any meaningful reforms on immigration.
‘We’re nine months away from an election, we could start fixing it right now,’ Harris said during an interview in February. ‘And real leaders should be about solutions.’
After she was branded as the ‘border czar’ by Republicans in 2021 and sent to Guatemala by the White House, Harris was tasked with telling migrants ‘do not come,’ a warning that was completely ignored.
She has also shrugged off questions about the border with denial.
When asked in December about the administration’s record on immigration, she replied, ‘The answer is that we are absolutely making it secure and putting resources into it to do that work.’
Republicans continue blaming Harris for failing to accomplish anything on the border, despite her attempt to dodge blame for the crisis.
A President Harris, in their judgement would be worse than Biden on the issue of immigration.
‘Just look at the California criminal justice system or our southern border to see what a disaster anything led by Kamala Harris will be,’ Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Indiana, said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
President Biden keeps his distance from some of the more hot-button campaign issues like abortion, legalizing marijuana, and criminals justice reform, but Harris has embraced her role in promoting those issues.
That prompts alarm from conservative activists.
‘With Biden’s out-of-control illegal immigration, crime, foreign corruption, wars, spending, inflation, and interest rates, Joe Biden’s America is a disaster for Americans. The only scenario that could be worse is Kamala Harris’ America,’ Mike Davis, the president of the Article III project said in a statement to the Daily Mail.
Whether voters take these attacks seriously, depends on whether they believe that Harris emerges as president of the United States with enough political power to move the country further left.
‘Other than getting herself elected, it is hard to point to anything of substance she has ever accomplished,’ Davis said, but at the same time said that, ‘it seems everything Kamala Harris attempts to lead, from the Kavanaugh opposition to Biden’s border czar, leads to disastrous results.’
Harris has also worried supporters of Israel with her insistence on criticizing the handling of the war in Gaza.
Vice President Kamala Harris used the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in 1965 to call for a cease-fire in Gaza
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with President Joe Biden at the White House
She called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during a Selma, Alabama speech in March, even though her demands were largely ignored by both Hamas and the Israelis.
As early as December, Harris pressed the White House to display more public concern for the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as Israel continued the war to wipe out Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7th terrorist attacks.
By the end of March, Harris warned directly that a major military option in Rafah would be a ‘huge mistake’ calling attention to the plight of civilians in the area.
‘I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,’ she said.
Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former White House aide, told the Daily Mail that Harris already represented a ‘frustratingly schizophrenic’ approach to the war.
‘Harris has been one of the Biden administration’s designated critics of Israel, and would probably maintain that orientation as president,’ he said.
Troy said that Harris did not have a long-standing understanding of the political relationship with Israel as Biden did, adding she would be more sympathetic to the more modern leftist approach to the issue.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to Capitol Hill for a joint meeting of Congress
Vice President Kamala Harris greets Sarah Traxler, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States, during a visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Harris’ comment about ‘the maps’ in Gaza, Troy said, ‘suggests a lack of confidence in her knowledge of the situation and a likelihood that she would defer to the anti-Israel voices of the Democratic foreign policy establishment.’
On the issue of abortion, Harris frequently demonstrates she is further to the left on the issue than Biden.
While Biden has publicly admitted that he is ‘not big on abortion’ Harris relishes the opportunity to advocate for women to have the right to an abortion at any point of her pregnancy until birth.
She made headlines in March after she was the first vice president to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic to demonstrate the administration’s support for abortion.
Her planned trip to Arizona on Friday to condemn the state Supreme Court’s 1864 ruling only cements her record as the Democrat most supportive and fiercely defensive of abortion rights.
Harris has another political problem, however, as she spends more time on the campaign trail: Extremely low job approval numbers, even worse than Biden.
A March 15 Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll showed Harris with only a 35 percent approval rating, which ticks up and down a few points but generally rests in the low to mid-30s, marking a historic low for the modern vice presidency.
Despite low approval ratings, Harris and her team continue workshopping her public image with a series of lighthearted interviews.
US Vice President Kamala Harris hugs Joe Biden during a political rally
Vice President Kamala Harris during an interview with the ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast
On Tuesday, the Harris interview with the ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast was published, where Harris joked about creating a ‘Department of Grievances’ to deal with issues like people taking their shoes off of planes and spoke about more serious issues like abortion rights and the danger of former President Trump returning to office.
She is also scheduled to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show, her first appearance on the show since 2019.
Harris also continues building up her foreign policy experience, repeatedly reminding interviewers she has met with over 150 world leaders, ‘presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and king.’
Most Democrat political figures are unwilling to engage in a conversation about a possible Harris presidency, either out of deference to Biden, or because they do not want the issue in voter’s minds ahead of the election in November.
The Biden-Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he was not concerned about Harris if she took ultimately took over for Biden in his second term.
‘We have a great Vice President and I don’t have any concerns,’ he said to DailyMail.com.
Fetterman said that Americans would reelect President Biden even though the margins would be tight.
‘Joe Biden is a great president and I believe it’s going to be very close,’ he said. ‘But at the end of the day America is turning their backs on Trump.’