“Even in dark times, we not only dream, but we dream. We don’t just see what was, we see what can be,” she said. “This is the American aspiration.”
The president and his number 2 had lunch together on Friday, with Biden writing on Facebook: “a new administration means a new lunch partner”. It is a tradition that the White House says it will continue and that Biden has deeply valued in his years alongside Obama.
Developing this relationship will be the key for the pair to forge their governmental path over the next four years. Although Biden spent more than four decades in the corridors of Congress and the White House, Harris – who served in the Senate for four years – is a newcomer to Washington’s corridors of power.
People close to the vice president who made history say she is navigating this new reality, familiarizing herself with the pace of the West Wing and the executive government, but eager to help resolve the country’s multiple crises.
“She wasn’t kidding when she said, ‘It’s time to work,'” a White House official told CNN.
Breaking the mold
On his first full day at the White House on Thursday, Harris sat in his office mid-morning to read the letter left by Vice President Mike Pence. The aides refused to detail the letter’s contents, calling it private. But Harris and his predecessor had a slightly more cordial, though still lengthy, relationship than Biden and Trump.
Harris and Pence spoke by phone the week before the inauguration and again on the Capitol stairs on Wednesday after the peaceful transfer of power. The two left open the possibility of speaking in the future, said a government official, similar to the conversations that Biden had with Pence when Pence took over as vice president.
But those close to Harris say she will lean on Biden himself as a plan for how to get the job done.
“This is not difficult for President Biden to do because he himself lived and knows the value of it. He knows that he added value to President Obama in many ways and will want that from Vice President Harris,” said Jay Carney, who has served as deputy director of presidential communications for Biden.
So far, Harris has spent most of his time working in his West Wing office. Although the Biden Oval Office is fully decorated, officials say Harris is still in progress, lacking relics and sentimental busts, but decorated with a deep navy blue wall and a handful of framed photos of his mother, husband, sister, niece and one of her and Biden.
The former prosecutor is adjusting to this new professional life, as her own lives a kind of convulsion. Instead of moving to the vice president’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff temporarily moved to Blair’s House on Thursday night, across the street from the White House. It’s a shorter ride, but an official cited increased security as the main benefit – an upgrade to the hard-to-fortify mega-unit condominium building that Harris occupied in DC.
Among the updates to the vice president’s home at the Naval Observatory include replacing the chimney liner and other domestic maintenance that would “be more easily done with the house unoccupied,” according to White House officials.
A White House official said it was the Navy that had managed the property for decades and ordered maintenance.
Other possible updates could include the kitchen, a source said. A self-proclaimed culinary aficionado, Harris shared cooking recipes and videos during the campaign. The new vice president said she hopes to return to offering Sunday night dinner with her family in an effort to create some normality.
Defining role
Officials and people close to Harris say that its portfolio and how it will define itself over time are directly linked to the pandemic and economic crises facing the Biden administration during its first term. At least initially, it will not have a specific portfolio while the pair defines which issues it should prioritize. It is an initial arrangement that allows her to have a hand in everything from the beginning.
“She is focused on how her office can support and broaden the government’s agenda,” said Symone Sanders, senior adviser and spokesperson for Harris.
Harris undertook some solo ventures as well, including contact with foreign and domestic allies. On Friday, she spoke at a meeting of the SEIU executive board, according to a source, a private call that came out of her official daily orientation schedule. The day before, she spoke with the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a call that confirmed that she is eager to reinforce her experience in foreign policy.
Days before Biden presented his massive $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, Harris was sent to call mayors across the country to see the legislation.
“At the moment, the president has presented four major challenges that require everyone to bring their best thinking to the table and she is committed to being the best partner she can for this president,” Minyon Moore, the veteran operative politician who managed the Harris transition, told CNN in an interview.
As the new White House navigates the complexities of Covid-19, Harris is not expected to travel abroad in the first six months of the new government, an official said, but domestic travel may come sooner.
Harris may also become a frequent face on Capitol Hill, as he holds the Senate tiebreaker for the tenuous majority of Democrats 50-50. She said she hoped not to vote, instead seeking “common ground” in legislation through bipartisanship.
“The goal is not to have to go through everything with 51 votes,” added a source. “If they are going to be votes in the Senate where the result is not known … It basically has to stay in DC. International travel, national travel for small businesses or wherever that may not be happening, which is a new dynamic with the which they will have to deal with. “
Another source spoke about it in more personal terms.
“It doesn’t help you make long-term friends, you know. If she is thinking about (running) in 2024 or 2028, she has to think about the senators she will need, ”said the source.