HARRIS APPROVAL RATINGS FALL
VICE-PRESIDENT WILL BE SENT ON FOREIGN TRIPS IN COMING MONTHS TO RAISE HER PROFILE
US VICE-PRESIDENT Kamala Harris has been rated as the most unpopular American vice president since at least the 1970s, according to a media report last Sunday (1). She has spent almost six months in her new role.
Citing two recent polls where it emerged that most Americans surveyed are not happy with her job performance, the Sunday Telegraph claimed that Harris’ “floundering” poll numbers show that she is “underwater”, implying more Americans disapprove of her than approve of her performance.
Surveys by The Economist/YouGov showed just 46 per cent of Americans approve of Harris. Most young Americans disapprove of her as 41 per cent of voters aged 18-29 had an “unfavourable” view of Harris, with only 36 per cent viewing her “favourably”, according to findings of the poll. By contrast, US president Joe Biden’s approval rating in an average of polls is 51.3 per cent, and disapproval is 44.9 per cent.
The only recent vice president to have similarly poor ratings after six months was 48th vice president Mike Pence, Harris’ predecessor, but he was also not “underwater”, the report said.
Harris is the first Indian African American female vice president of the US.
The revelations reportedly have been disappointing to Democrats who are said to have “high hopes” riding on Harris.
Reports claimed some strategists hoped she might be able to replace Biden in the next elections – either in 2024 or 2028. On her first overseas trip in office, Harris visited Mexico and Guatemala in June with the aim of lowering migration from the region. During her trip she focused on issues such as economic development, food insecurity and women’s issues.
However, Harris may have alienated some Hispanic voters by telling people from Central America “Do not come” to the US, the report said, adding she also infuriated conservatives and some independents by delaying her visits to the border.
The White House intends to deploy her in certain areas to campaign ahead of next year’s midterm Congressional elections, the report said, adding that she will be sent on foreign trips in the coming months in an attempt to raise her profile.
Harris will visit Vietnam and Singapore this month to discuss regional security issues and the global Covid-19 pandemic response, the White House announced last Friday (30).
The vice president heads to the southeast Asian nations “to strengthen relationships and expand economic cooperation with two critical Indo-Pacific partners of the United States,” senior advisor Symone Sanders said in a statement.
Harris will be the first US vice president to visit Vietnam, which has emerged as a key US partner and a vocal opponent of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Harris’ trip will follow one that defence secretary Lloyd Austin made this week to Hanoi.
Biden hopes to reset relations with Asian countries and build alliances to face China, after the turbulence and unpredictability of the Donald Trump era.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris have made it a top priority to rebuild our global partnerships and keep our nation secure, and this upcoming visit continues that work,” the White House said in a statement outlining Harris’s travel plans.
Analysts said Harris’s visit would be important to emphasise Washington’s commitment to southeast Asia, and several speculated it could result in more pledges of US vaccines to the region, which has been hit hard recently by Covid-19. Professor Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for
Politics, was quoted as saying: “Biden has given her some very tough assignments – immigration and voting rights – but she hasn’t helped herself, she’s made some mistakes, like not going to the border.”
Claiming that “outside of California nobody knew who she was” before being selected as Biden’s running mate, Sabato told the newspaper Harris needs to “take one of those two big issues Biden has given her and make it a big success” to transform her image.