With President Joe Biden facing low polling numbers, disastrous policy decisions, and a seemingly endless selection of bumbles, fumbles, and verbal missteps, it’s easy to forget who is next in line should he ultimately prove unable to complete his term. But Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t forgotten and has indicated she is “ready” to assume the role if Biden steps down.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently shared her “readiness” to step up in an interview with the Associated Press.
Speaking from Jakarta, Indonesia, where she was attending a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Harris reassured everyone that President Biden was in good health and that such a scenario was unlikely to occur. She emphasized, “Joe Biden is going to be fine, so that is not going to come to fruition.”
The idea of Harris as president is not a punchline in a dystopian fantasy novel. As the saying goes, she is “one heartbeat” away from the most powerful position in the world.
Some Republicans have suggested that due to President Biden’s age, he may not complete his term, and a vote for him in 2024 is essentially a vote for Kamala Harris. This viewpoint has been echoed by GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, who stated on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that, “A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris, you know that, and I know that.” She added, “There is no way Joe Biden is going to finish his term. I think Kamala Harris is going to be the next president, and that should send a chill up every American’s spine.”
Harris may see herself as ready to step in for the ailing and failing Biden, but Americans beg to differ.
In July, an SSRS poll conducted by CNN showed her with a 57% disapproval rating, earning her the dubious honor of achieving the lowest polling numbers among vice presidents in modern history. Despite the delusion she embraced during a July interview on ABC News, there are no “polls that also say” she has great approval ratings.
Harris’s statement that Biden “is going to be fine” carries a touch of irony given that Kamala Harris is currently standing in for him at the ASEAN. The summit schedule was aligned with Biden’s schedule to fit his plans of attending the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. Regional allies are angered and disappointed over the perceived snub, and Harris is hardly a suitable consolation prize for a meeting besieged with complex issues like the United States-China rivalry, disputes in the South China Sea, and civil uprisings in Myanmar.
Sending Harris in place of Biden, however, is like sending a circus clown in to replace a rodeo clown. Hard feelings from allies aside, little would be done either way other than both tripping over size 16 shoes.
And Harris has as much experience putting those oversized shoes in her mouth as her boss does. Whether it’s calling for “population control” to ease climate change or calling North Korea an ally, what a Harris speech lacks in information, it makes up for in entertainment value.
The idea of Harris filling in for Biden in an official capacity is terrifying. Her job performance is mostly about what she has failed to do, like visit areas affected by her party’s uncontrolled migrant crisis, more than what she has accomplished, which is misrepresenting voter’s laws and supporting abortion.
For the United States, it’s a no-win situation. When she doesn’t act, it’s bad. When she chooses to act, it’s even worse.
Biden, already spiraling the political drain, refuses to let go of Harris and claims that choosing her for a running mate was “one of the best decisions” he ever made, calling her “the perfect choice.”
It was a choice he made solely based on her ability to check boxes and garner support from several voting bases, especially Black and women voters. And it is a choice that haunts his current presidency as well as his hopes of achieving a second term.
Harris struggled in the 2020 presidential debates, except for a well-rehearsed attack on Biden. Her poll numbers stagnated, peaking at around 15% among Democrats in national polls in July 2019, only to plummet by September, where she found herself competing for fourth place with several other candidates of similar standing. By December, she exited the race before a single vote was cast. Now, she finds herself drowning in disapproval and outed for her political ineptitude.
But as part of the un-dynamic duo currently holding the reins of power, the presidency may be within her reach.
And to quote Haley, “That should send a chill up every American’s spine.”
