A damning New York Times profile claims Democrats around Washington have “lost hope” in Kamala Harris, raising doubts that she’d be valuable on the 2024 ticket as either a presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
“I can’t think of one thing she’s done except stay out of the way and stand beside him at certain ceremonies,” John Morgan, a prominent fund-raiser for Democrats, told the paper.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton privately expressed the belief that Ms Harris couldn’t win a primary race in 2024, though Ms Clinton denied this, according to the profile.
“Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her,” read another line from the story.
It’s a sentiment that’s cropped up in various political circles in recent weeks.
“People are poised to pounce on anything – any misstep, any gaffe, anything she says – and so she’s probably not getting the benefit of the doubt,” Jacquelyn Bettadapur, leader of Georgia’s Cobb County Democrats, told the Washington Post, arguing most Americans “don’t know enough about what she’s doing” and that “it doesn’t help that she’s not [that] adept as a communicator”.
Vice president Harris has an approval level below 40 per cent, according to FiveThirtyEight, down from 55 at the beginning of the Biden administration, and is less popular than the president.
The Independent has contacted the vice president’s office for comment.
Even the president dubbed vice president Harris a “work in progress”, according to the recent book The Fight of His Life by Chris Whipple.
“We respect that there will be no shortage of books written about the administration containing a wide variety of claims,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said of the book in a statement.
“We don’t plan to engage in confirmations or denials when it comes to the specifics of those claims. The author did not give us a chance to verify the materials that are attributed here.”
The negative portrayal of Ms Harris was met with cheers in some corners of the political world and criticisms in others.
In National Review, conservative journalist Rich Lowry wrote, “I can’t remember the last time I haven’t wanted a New York Times piece to end, but this report on Kamala Harris is much too short.”
Sophia Nelson, a contributing editor at theGrio, argued on Twitter that Ms Harris is “such an accomplished woman. Next in line to the presidency. And they treat her like a nobody!”
