Sen. Kamala Harris has a ‘check yourself’ moment over suggestions she should run as Joe Biden’s running mate
Insiders of Sen. Kamala Harris presidential campaign are not happy with the suggestion she should play to be back up to former Vice President Joe Biden.
Those on staff working on the presidential campaign for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., are not pleased with suggestions that she would make an even better running mate to fellow Democratic candidate and former Vice President, Joe Biden.
Harris, 54, alluded to the slight during a town hall event on Wednesday in Nashua, N.H., a key campaign state. In a true “check yourself” moment, the Senator implied that Biden would actually make a good running mate for her campaign instead, according to Politico. She has a point; in recent polls, Harris has consistently ranked in the top five of all Democratic candidates for next year’s White House election.
“As vice president, he’s proven that he knows how to do the job,” Harris told reporters of Biden.
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But while Harris joked outwardly about the suggestion that she serve under Biden, elected officials and campaign staffers are not happy with that message circulating the field.
I asked Kamala Harris if she’s sick of all the talk of how she’s the perfect VP. She responded: I think that Joe Biden would be a great running mate. That as vice president he’s proven he knows how to do the job. pic.twitter.com/9wHwOlKoxw
— Emily Goodin (@Emilylgoodin) May 15, 2019
“It’s infuriating,” one Harris confidant told Politico.
“She’s running for president, period, and she intends to win,” said campaign spokesman Ian Sams.
Her husband, Douglas Emhof, tweeted a nearly identical message, showing Harris is running for the top job.
She’s running for President. Period. @KamalaHarris #KamalaForThePeople https://t.co/aLlyrmZaOq pic.twitter.com/lUYjWaLvWR
— Douglas Emhoff (@douglasemhoff) May 15, 2019
What made the situation even more uncomfortable is that one of them came from the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Harris is a member.
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A former CBC chairwoman, however, told Politico that she sees Harris as a White House candidate and no less.
“Kamala Harris is seeking the office of the presidency, period,” U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. “She is qualified, more than capable to lead this country and has never lost an election.”
These suggestions that Harris would make an ideal running mate to Biden have actually been swirling around political corners for years. Nonetheless, Harris’ campaign supporters and confidantes say it is too early to begin examining whether the second Black woman U.S. senator in history would make a good running mate since she is in fact polling so well.
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The debate echoes one that rose in recent months, when Stacey Abrams, another Black woman, who sought to become governor of Georgia, was the center of suggestions that circulated that she, also, would make an ideal running mate. Abrams told interviewers that if she did seek office, it would be for President.
