Harris may prove to be highimpact in VP role
WASHINGTON — The vice presidency may be the most loosely defined job in American politics. But all indications point to Sen. Kamala Harris being a consequential second in the White House.
Mockery of the role of America’s vice president abounds. John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first vice president, famously called the job “the spare tire on the automobile of government” and “not worth a bucket of warm spit.” HBO built a hit show, “Veep,” around Julia LouisDreyfus’ comical portrayal of a hapless, irrelevant and powerhungry vice president.
But those who know Presidentelect Joe Biden and his running mate say
Harris is poised to be a key piece of the new administration, with a healthy set of responsibilities and influence. The model? Biden himself. Barack Obama was a young firstterm senator when he picked Biden as his running mate in 2008, adding to his team the perspective and experience of a senior senator with decades of service. Biden brought not just institutional knowledge but an army of former staffers, allies and friends who had worked in Congress and the federal government.
Obama entrusted Biden with key pieces of his agenda, including coordinating a massive stimulus bill at the beginning of his administration, as well as with managing significant foreign policy relationships.
Biden referred to his partnership with Obama in introducing Harris as his vice presidential candidate in August.
“When I agreed to serve as President Obama’s running mate, he asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted to be the last person in the room before he made his most important decisions,” Biden said. “That’s what I ask of Kamala — to be the last voice in the room. To always tell me the truth. To ask the hard questions.”
In this election, Biden was the old hand, with Harris being the junior, firstterm senator. But the California Democrat also knows a Senate that has changed since Biden last served in it 12 years ago, a Senate that has rarely passed significant legislation and has been focused narrowly by its Republican leader on confirming conservative judges.
Harris also brings experience at a state and local level, including her work as California attorney general to coordinate a settlement with banks over the 2008 mortgage crisis that brought millions of dollars to the state. That experience in particular had Harris working closely with Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, who was the attorney general in Delaware at the time.
Those who know Biden say they expect him to make good on his promise to include Harris in governing and listen to her perspective.
“I’ve had discussions with Joe Biden when he was vice president, and I know what his feelings were about some of the experiences he had, and I would think that he plans to employ much of that with his vice president,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn, DS. C., a close ally of Biden. “I would suspect that he would do what Barack Obama did with him, use her strengths in such a way that it would help give substance to the vice presidency.”
Clyburn said he believed Harris would complement Biden well, including by virtue of her viewpoint as the first woman and first woman of color to be vice president.
Under the Constitution, the vice president has a narrowly defined job. If the president dies, leaves office or is incapacitated, the vice president is next in line. Vice presidents also serve as president of the Senate, but the only time they vote is if there is a tie.
Each administration, then, has the ability to set its own version of the job. Biden has already signaled that he intends to feature Harris as a partner, including her in briefings on coronavirus in the early days of his presidential transition. Chris Lu was the director of Obama’s presidential transition and served as his Cabinet secretary and later as a deputy secretary of labor. He said Biden became an important force in the early days of the administration by communicating with Obama’s Cabinet and governors around the country about the economic recovery. Lu expects Biden to entrust
Harris with similar projects.
“That’s entirely consistent with the way he approached his job as vice president, and he will also want someone who will give him the unvarnished truth and be the last one in the room on major decisions,” Lu said. “In many ways, Biden had a closer working relationship with Obama’s Cabinet than Obama did. Particularly in those first couple of years, because we were doing these Recovery Act meetings.”
As Biden prepares to take office, he faces a nation in crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic, which is worsening rather than fading away. On Monday, he and Harris convened a meeting of their newly announced task force to advise them on a strategy to combat the virus.
It’s an area where Harris has a head start. Before she was named to the ticket, Harris was focused in the Senate on the virus, proposing a number of policies aimed at Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
“Joe Biden is going to be faced with some significant challenges, some of which she is very well equipped to deal with,” said Clyburn, Biden’s confidant. “Getting control of this virus, what I call making this country’s greatness accessible and affordable to all — I think she will be a tremendous asset. ... These things call for someone who can carry a message and who can articulate these things in such a way that people will understand and accept, and I think that’s her long suit.”