WASHINGTON – President Biden was reciting a list of his priorities for a coronavirus relief bill at one of his first meetings with reporters as commander in chief when he stopped in mid-sentence to correct himself.
These items, said Mr. Biden, are what “we think are the priorities”, placing emphasis on the pronoun. Then, turning to face Vice President Kamala Harris, standing a few feet socially behind him, he apologized.
It was a rare lapse for the president, who worked to include Mrs. Harris in almost all of his public appearances, and emphasized that she is a full partner in the decisions he makes. These recurring scenes are the most tangible result of Biden’s efforts – and a presidential guideline – to treat Mrs. Harris, the first black woman and vice president, as an equal stakeholder, as he works to unite the nation’s political divisions. , address racial inequalities and reduce the coronavirus pandemic.
“The president gave us clear instructions,” said Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, in an interview. “Our goal is to take it as much as we can.”
Harris’ relationship with the president was shaped by the ruthless Democratic primary campaign policy, when she emerged as one of Biden’s most vehement opponents. Amazing chemistry with Biden has made them running buddies and now that relationship will be crucial to allow Harris to define himself in what historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said has proven to be “spectacular work and, I believe, incurable frustration.”
“She came out of this failed campaign to get the gold ticket, as the main substitute for a guy who appreciates the role of vice president and will put her in that historic position,” said Gil Duran, a former adviser to Ms. Harris when served as California’s attorney general. “So the question is, what does it do with this redefinition?”
The answer is a work in progress.
The vice president has already made her presence known, most recently on Friday morning, when she traveled to the Capitol before dawn to vote for the Senate tiebreaker, paving the way for the $ 1.9 coronavirus stimulus package trillion Biden advance without Republican support.
And as part of the partnership to break down barriers, Ms. Harris took on the burden of living up to the expectations of voters, especially people of color, who helped put Biden in the Oval Office. It is a burden that Klain says he has borne “with grace”, although he weighs a lot on it. Others say it will take time for it to chart its own course.
For now, the vice president’s staff advisors seem determined to cement and highlight his bond with Biden through their joint appearances, while trying to prevent Harris from becoming a rigid figure and mannequin alongside the president, as Vice President Mike Pence has done this for the past four years.
To get a model, Ms. Harris doesn’t have to go beyond Mr. Biden. In eight years as vice president, he achieved his own role alongside President Barack Obama, but not before overcoming a relationship that was, at first, rigid and formal.
Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris started faster. They spent much more time together than their predecessors – usually four to five hours a day at the White House, aides say – in part because the coronavirus pandemic limited their travels.
Mrs. Harris and Mr. Biden usually start the day by receiving the President’s Daily Summary together in the Oval Office, a tradition reinstated since the departure of President Donald J. Trump, who had little interest in him. They also quickly embraced the idea of a weekly lunch at the White House as a private opportunity to build trust and share thoughts.
In forming her own team, Ms. Harris selected people she knew had a good relationship with the president and his team. She chose Tina Flournoy, who has close ties to Klain, to run her office. Ashley Etienne, a former adviser to spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, is its director of communications.
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Ms. Harris also knew that the president had Symone Sanders, who served as press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016 before joining the Biden campaign, in high regard. Mrs. Sanders is now your press secretary.
Aides to the vice president repeatedly emphasized that all of her events and public messages were closely coordinated with members of Biden’s team. A visit by Mrs Harris last week to the National Institutes of Health to thank scientists and receive her second dose of the coronavirus vaccine was accompanied by a speech by Biden at the end of the day in which he announced the acquisition of 200 million doses additional vaccine.
This appearance left a lasting impression in the district of Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Ohio Democrat and President of Congressional Black Caucus. In an interview, Beatty said his phone lit up with calls from constituents who were curious about how to get the vaccine themselves after photos of Harris getting the injection hit the Internet.
Black Americans are almost three times more likely to die from coronavirus than white Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but white Americans are more likely to get the vaccine, in part because of racism systemic presence in health care institutions. The sight of a black woman receiving the vaccine, Beatty said, “gave people hope and education.”
These moments, when Ms. Harris connects with people across the country, are essential to any future she may have beyond the government. But they also agree with the messages that Biden hopes his vice president – as a woman, a minority and a younger generation – can deliver on behalf of his agenda.
But, as Biden is well aware, the more opportunities there are to create a separate identity as vice president, the more chances are likely to cause confusion. As vice president, Biden’s loquacity often caught Obama’s rigid White House off guard. Sometimes, including in 2012, when he expressed support for gay marriage before Obama, Biden threw the script out completely.
When Harris gave an interview last week to a West Virginia television station, his support for the president’s $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan was interpreted as an attempt to pressure state Democratic senator Joe Manchin III, who took offense and expressed annoyance that he had not been warned.
And in a minor flaw during the same interview, Ms. Harris promoted the removal of “abandoned landmines” in West Virginia – not “abandoned mines” – as an effort to create jobs in the state.
White House officials quickly contacted Manchin to do damage control, covering the lid by publicly praising Manchin’s value for the Biden-Harris agenda.
Ms. Harris also faced doubts about her family members profiting from her relationship with her. Reports that Harris’s stepdaughter received a model contract a week after Induction Day raised eyebrows even among the president’s allies. And a business run by Ms. Harris’ niece who sells Harris-themed merchandise has been an ethical issue for Biden’s advisers since the campaign. The White House said its name will not be used for commercial activities that “imply endorsement or support,” according to a spokeswoman.
This did not diminish the president’s opinion of Ms. Harris. White House officials said Biden was eager to put her to work, just as Obama put him in charge of the economic recovery program in early 2009. But the fact that the president does not intend to assign her a specific portfolio immediately inevitably raised questions about his role in the administration.
Instead, Biden gave Harris a barrage of high-level tasks in his first two weeks in office. A few hours after the president announced on the day of inauguration that the United States planned to return to the World Health Organization, the vice president was on the phone with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the group’s director general, reaffirming the support of the new government after Mr. Trump’s sustained attacks on the leading global health institution.
The call sent an initial message that she speaks on Biden’s behalf about some of her most critical priorities, but Ms. Harris is not afraid to pressure Biden on her own. In the past few weeks, advisers to the president and vice president have said that she has repeatedly insisted on more focus on how government policies would affect disadvantaged people in urban and rural communities, which are often overlooked.
During an Oval Office meeting with Biden and her advisers on the first Monday at the White House, Ms. Harris lobbied Jeffrey D. Zients, the coronavirus response coordinator, to provide more details on the use of mobile vaccination centers for ensure that poor people living in remote areas could be protected from the virus.
“Did the vice president put a lot of pressure on us, in a good way, if there are enough mobile units available? When the meeting ended, she pushed me: ‘Where are we at the mobile vaccination units? How many will we have, in what time frame? Will they be able to reach rural and urban communities? How much progress have you made? ‘”Said Zients.
That kind of persistence left a deep impression on Biden, his advisers say.
A few hours after Harris bombarded Zients with questions, the president found himself taking credit for his coronavirus relief plan on stage with Harris. Klain, who served two vice presidents as chief of staff, said the instance was further proof that Biden had an instinctive understanding of what those moments can be like.
“It starts with a president who’s been there and understands what it’s like to be the person behind you at a public event,” said Klain. “I think he has this empathy for her situation that is unique.”