San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Harris ready to take new role as key voice for White House
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — In the more than two months she’s been vice president, Kamala Harris has spent most of her time at President Biden’s side. Now, she’s beginning to command her own stage.
Harris’ role in the administration is emerging as one of salesperson and spokesperson, both at home and abroad. The opening months of the administration, in which Harris was seen and heard from mainly in the room with Biden, were probably intended to prepare her for that part, a vice presidential historian says.
On Friday, Harris wrapped
up a campaignstyle swing around the country to sell the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that Biden and Democrats enacted without GOP help, putting a particular focus on the bill’s provisions to combat child poverty. Here in Connecticut, in discussions with government leaders and in a classroom filled with excited preschoolers, Harris extolled the virtues of investing in children and warned of the harm to society of not doing so.
The trip came days after Harris was given her first clear portfolio assignment as vice president, when Biden tapped her to lead the administration’s efforts to address migration to the southern border. Diplomacy and working with foreign leaders — skills the former California senator, state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney will have to learn on the job — will be key to U.S. attempts to change conditions that drive Central American immigrants north.
Harris had a simple answer for reporters who asked Friday if she was worried about the risks of taking on a problem that has vexed generations of politicians: “No.”
But the reality is that Harris’ every move will be scrutinized as she becomes a more prominent figure in the administration, given that the 56yearold vice president is an obvious political heir to Biden, 78. Her spokesperson, Symone Sanders, emphasized that Harris is “not doing the border” — a fraught visual optic that is seen as dealing with the consequences of the problem, not the cause — and rather has been tasked with working with the nation’s southern neighbors to address the reasons thousands of their citizens are fleeing.
Sanders also said the vice president hasn’t scheduled a trip to Central America, though Harris “will be making a number of calls” to foreign leaders.
Last week showcased Harris’ new domestic role, as she pitched Democrats’ stimulus bill as a victory with generational impact. It had all the feel of a campaign trip: One of the Connecticut politicians who joined her, Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who led the effort to include an increased child tax credit in the bill, even repurposed Harris’ slogan from her presidential bid, saying the vice president was still “Kamala Harris, for the people.”
Sitting on the floor in a child care center full of rambunctious 4 and 5yearolds who peppered her with questions, Harris stayed on message.
“I love meeting our young leaders, and that’s why I’m here to meet you,” Harris said. “And I love to think about what we can do to make sure that all of our kids are like you, that they are smart and strong and have everything they need.”
Upstairs, Harris told child care staffers, parents and
local officials that the American Rescue Plan, as the stimulus bill is called, could cut child poverty by up to half, as estimated by Columbia University. She said that even as the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in “loss and devastation,” it has been a clarifying moment for Americans about the value of child care and educators.
“I believe in that saying that in every crisis there is an opportunity, if we see it for what it is,” Harris said. “Let’s not be incremental. Let’s leapfrog over the problems . ... We have a moment where we can see, kind of, a spring. So let’s go into this with all of the wounds we carry, but let’s go into it with a sense of optimism about what we are capable of doing when we do it together.”
The trip showed that the Biden administration plans to make use of Harris’ skills as a retail politician and communicator, deploying her to key constituencies and to sell the president’s plans to the public. In the days before coming to Connecticut, Harris visited Florida to highlight efforts to fight hunger, Las Vegas to promote vaccinations and Denver to spotlight relief for small businesses.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters at the child care center that the vice president was critical to driving Democrats’ message home to Americans.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Blumenthal said. “It’s not only her the vice president, it’s her as a person, as a role model and as a teacher, because what she’s doing is educating about what this American Rescue Plan means.”
He said politicians and pundits can “often take for granted” that the country understands the difference that the huge sums in the package will make.
“These numbers are very abstract,” Blumenthal said, adding Harris “embodies (the impact) in her person, in her connections to these kids, in her raising up the day care workers.”
It’s likely that Harris built up to her role representing Biden domestically and abroad during the relative quiet of the administration’s early days, said Joel Goldstein, an emeritus law professor and expert on the vice presidency at Saint Louis University. He said the modern role of the vice president as a powerful player in the administration started with Walter Mondale, who served under former President Jimmy Carter.
Mondale saw previous vice presidents be marginalized and ignored and realized that proximity to the president was key.
“He figures it out even before LinManuel Miranda, that the way to be important is to be in the room,” Goldstein said, referring to the creator of the musical “Hamilton.” It was also a lesson Biden learned at the outset of his time as Barack Obama’s vice president.
Being by Biden’s side nearly nonstop the past two months was an opportunity for Harris to build a relationship with the president and understand how to represent him, earn his trust, and signal to other leaders that she has that trust, Goldstein said.
“What’s happened so far has all made sense, and it’s all been sort of laying the groundwork for a potentially consequential vice presidency.” Goldstein said. “Biden, from the minute he announced her from the rollout, when he said she’s going to be the last person in the room, and when he said no one can handle an assignment like she can — he’s credentializing her, he’s empowering her.”
Biden projected that united front when he announced Harris’ assignment on migration.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me, doesn’t have to check with me,” Biden said. “She knows what she’s doing.”