By ALEXANDRA JAFFE | Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris will make history on Wednesday, when she becomes the country’s first female vice president – and the first black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that position. But it is only then that his role in breaking barriers begins.
With the confluence of crises confronting Joe Biden’s administration – and a uniformly divided Senate in which she would cast the tie – Harris is preparing to be a central player in addressing everything from the coronavirus pandemic to justice reform criminal.
Symone Sanders, Harris’ chief spokesman, said that while the vice president-elect’s portfolio has not yet been fully defined, she has a stake in all aspects of Biden’s agenda.
“There are pieces that Biden can specifically ask her to defend, but outside of that she is at the table for everything, involved in everything, giving suggestions and feedback and being a supportive partner for him in all the pieces,” she said.
The people who worked with Harris in the transition resist the idea of isolating her from any specific problem at the beginning, because the sheer number of challenges the Biden government faces means that “everything will be at hand” during the first few months. They say it will be involved in all four of the top priorities they have set: reversing the economy, fighting COVID-19 and addressing climate change and racial justice.
“She has a voice in all of this. She has an opinion in all of these areas. And it will probably come to a point where it will focus on some of the areas more specifically, ”said Sanders. “But now, I think what we face in this country is so big, it’s all hands on.”
Harris has been intimately involved with all of Biden’s biggest decisions since winning the November election, joining him at each of his major meetings focusing on cabinet choices, the COVID-19 relief bill, issues of security and more. The two speak on the phone almost every day, and she travels to Delaware sometimes several times a week for transition events and meetings.
Those involved in the transition say they both took Biden’s insistence that he wants Harris to be the “last voice in the room” in important decisions. Biden is known to address Harris first during meetings to ask for his opinion or perspective on the issue at hand.
Biden and Harris knew each other before the 2020 presidential campaign, in part because of Harris’ friendship with Biden’s deceased son, Beau. But they never worked together.
Since joining the list, and particularly since the election, Harris has struggled to deepen his relationship and has been in frequent contact with the president-elect, say people close to Harris. This personal relationship, according to presidential historian Joel Goldstein, will be the key to your success as working partners.
“The vice president’s relationship with the president is the most important relationship. Establishing mutual understanding and trust is really the key to a successful vice presidency, ”said Goldstein.
Goldstein pointed to the relationship between Biden and President Barack Obama as a potential model for the new team.
Biden and Obama had equally different backgrounds and generations and also entered the White House with a relatively new working relationship. But the relationship and mutual understanding grew during the presidency, and Obama entrusted Biden with some of his government’s greatest efforts, such as implementing the 2009 Recovery Act and withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Harris said he was looking at Biden’s vice presidency as a guide for her.
But unlike Biden during his first term, Harris will face constant questions about his political future. Although Biden has avoided doubts about whether he plans to run for re-election, at 78 he will be the oldest president in history, leaving doubts about whether he will retire at the end of his term. That would make Harris an immediate favorite in any 2024 Democratic presidential primary.
At the start of the vice presidential verification process, his potential presidential ambitions caused some Biden allies to hesitate. But since his choice, Harris has proven himself to be a loyal partner to Biden, rarely contradicting him publicly.
Still, Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California, who was the first member of the Caucus Black Congress to endorse in the primaries when she supported Harris, said the vice president-elect is not afraid to speak her mind.
“She is not a shrunken violet,” said Lee. “If she believes that one decision should be made against another, she will weigh in and give her ideas and opinions.”
Biden has a personal affection for the work of diplomacy and deep relationships with global leaders that Harris cannot match. But advisers say she will be deeply involved in the government’s diplomatic priorities simply because of the sheer number of issues that will occupy Biden’s time. She may also receive a specific aspect of the coronavirus response from the administration to supervise.
One of his top priorities is certainly the approval of the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that Biden announced on Thursday. Those who worked with Harris in the transition say that while Biden is closely involved with the approval of the package in the Senate because of his longstanding relationships with longest-serving lawmakers, Harris knows the newest members and can help build relationships new in Congress.
The first months of the Biden government will focus on COVID-19 and the economy. But Harris will certainly face scrutiny – and pressure – from defenders to ensure that the perspectives of black and brown Americans are reflected in these policies and the priorities of the Biden White House.
Leah Daughtry, a former Democratic National Committee chief of staff, said Harris will make a difference simply by being in the room.
“The fact that Kamala Harris is a black woman, a woman of Indian descent, a woman, automatically makes her different from all the other vice presidents this country has ever seen,” she said. “This combination of experiences brings a set of values and lived experiences to a room where they did not exist before. And that can only be good for American democracy. “
But, as Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said, “There will be a lot of weight on those shoulders.”
“Those of us who reach those positions, we go to them knowing full well that we have the burden of ensuring that we do it in such a way that there are people coming after us,” he said.
Clyburn also acknowledged that Harris may also be a focus of controversy among the part of President Donald Trump’s followers who are motivated by racial animosity, which Clyburn said contributed to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“They are still holding a lot of animosity about Barack Obama and are going to transfer it to her, just like they transferred it to other people here in this building,” said Clyburn. “And they will never get over it.”
But Harris’ allies say that, as the daughter of civil rights activists, and a black woman who has spent her life facing and trying to tackle racism and inequality, dealing with pressures as a vice president will come as second nature to her.
“Kamala Harris didn’t leave Harvard Law School just like Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz or someone like that,” said Bakari Sellers, referring to two Republican senators who opposed Biden’s congressional certification. (Hawley graduated from Yale Law School.)
Sellers, a former South Carolina lawmaker and one of Harris’s first endorsers, compared it to other civil rights pioneers.
“She comes from the same lineage as Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm and Ella Baker,” he said. “I mean, it was built for that.”