Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are at the heart of a “pretty insulting” incident that is reportedly emblematic of far deeper issues afflicting the Democratic party.
According to CNN, the Harris-Warren squabble began in late January, when Warren gave a decidedly non-supportive answer in regards to Harris.
“I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” Warren said during a local Boston radio interview when asked about President Joe Biden running for re-election in 2024 with Harris as his vice president again.
While Warren’s answer didn’t seem particularly vitriolic, it was also a far cry from a ringing endorsement.
According to one person close to Harris, the vice president interpreted those remarks as “pretty insulting.”
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So insulting, in fact, that Warren has called twice since that interview to apologize to Harris, and the vice president has not personally called back. Harris’s chief of staff eventually did call the Massachusetts senator back.
Warren’s inner circle has reportedly explained away that remark as a simple mistake and nothing more. They are painting the senator’s remarks as a poor attempt at avoiding stepping on any potential future campaign announcements by the Biden administration.
Had this been an isolated incident, perhaps Team Harris would’ve been more willing to chalk this up as an honest mistake, but according to CNN, they see it as part of a larger, and more worrying, trend.
There is a feeling among Harris’ inner circle that the vice president has never gotten the respect or support she deserves.
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Top Democrats fretted to CNN that, since Biden would be 82 years old at the start of a second hypothetical term, having an unpopular running mate could be especially damaging for re-election, given the line of succession should anything happen to the sitting president.
So concerned are these Democratic leaders that they are telling allies and fellow Democrats to stop being so mean to Harris — lest it pave the way for a Republican president come 2024.
One state Democratic Party chair implied that Harris is going to be the vice president again whether Democrats like it or not, so it just makes sense to “embrace her.”
“Right now, she seems to be an albatross,” the chair said. “She’s either going to be a liability or a help. And you better embrace her because it’s not like she’s going to be off the ticket.”
Harris’s allies are also concerned that the vice president is “trapped in a ‘word salad‘ caricature.”
General Democratic concern over Harris’ viability at the highest levels of elected office is hardly new.
Even in October, HBO’s Bill Maher, a well-documented liberal, didn’t mince words when it came to why he thought Biden should find a new vice president.
“Because [Kamala Harris is] just not very popular anywhere. And it didn’t seem to work out,” Maher said.
That is, apparently, the exact sort of rhetoric that top Democrats are trying to kill going into the 2024 election season.
