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Kamala Harris Isn’t Focused on 2024, But Those Around Her Should Be
The vice president hasn’t been set up to thrive in her position—and she’s done her public image no favors, either
Given we are slugging towards year three of living through a plague, it would not be politically expedient for any politician to openly tout their ambitions in this climate of exhaustion and frustration. That’s why it was unsurprising to read Vice President Kamala Harris stress to the Wall Street Journal in mid-December that she and President Biden have not discussed whether he plans to seek re-election. Harris noted they are too consumed with dealing with the litany of issues they were elected to help solve to focus on the political goals of tomorrow.
“I’m not going to talk about our conversations, but I will tell you this without any ambiguity: We do not talk about nor have we talked about re-election, because we haven’t completed our first year and we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” she explained. When asked if she assumed Biden would run again, Harris said, “I’ll be very honest: I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it.”
I believe that President Biden and Vice President Harris have not had a direct conversation about re-election yet, but certainly their staffs and all those in their respective political orbits have. And while I find it personally life-sucking to already be talking about another presidential election after the last one through which we collectively suffered in 2020, considering Biden’s age and his predecessor still dead set on successfully turning the United States into a subsidiary of Trump Org, it’s understandable why folks can’t help themselves.
What also likely sparks such early speculation about the next election is although we’re technically doing much, much better under the Biden-Harris administration than the Trump-Pence administration, America remains a chaotic, violent, and grossly unequal country. As a result, both their polling numbers are down as millions of Americans scramble to find PCR tests and avoid inhaling death — sometimes while trying to find a way home after a cancelled flight.
Perhaps those numbers will turn around in the coming months should both the pandemic and…
