Alexandra Kashirina
November 17, 2021
-Sputnik
Since the new administration came into office, some couldn’t resist speculating that Harris may sooner or later become the next president given the questions surrounding Biden’s capability to perform his duties. As she is the first woman to hold the office, also a woman of color – for some she seemed even more popular than the incumbent president.
The relationship between the current US president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris may be bad enough to lead to her dismissal, despite the fact that the White House does not want to give the impression there is a split between the two, Fox News’ “The Five” suggested Tuesday.
“This is one of those things where the White House is expecting you to not believe what you’re seeing. You can tell there’s a problem here. We know it. They called a cabinet meeting for the first time in three months last Friday on the day when Kamala Harris was not even in the country,” anchor Dana Perino said, adding that the story about the controversy “started coming out” the subsequent weekend.
Other hosts noted that the White House has tried to tackle the rumors head on, with spokesperson Jen Psaki tweeting that the vice president is not only a vital partner to the president, “but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country – from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.”
A recent report by Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram was also mentioned, in which he said that “they’re preparing something in Congress that they have not done in many, many years – It’s about the process by which you go about confirming a new vice president.”
Later Pergram said in a podcast that he had received a letter with a call to “start to familiarize yourself with the confirmation process not just in the Senate, but in the House, for a vice president.”
Taking her post in January, Harris became not only the first female vice president, but also the first non-white woman to hold the position. As a reflection of the high hopes large circles of anxious Americans had for her, she was even placed on the cover of Time magazine.
Soon after the immigration crisis at the border began to take on an unprecedented urgency, Harris was designated as the president’s representative on the issue. Apart from that, she was assigned to address electoral issues, in particular, promoting controversial voting rights reform. The difficulty of these issues and measures undertaken was so unpopular among many Republicans and other parts of the political establishment that some even speculated that she purposely was being given difficult assignments to undermine her. Criticism also came after a number of Harris’ foreign policy initiatives, including her recent trip to France.
A poll showed last week that Harris’ approval ratings have hit the bottom with just 28 percent supporting the vice president, while Biden is currently at 38 percent.
Following a number of setbacks, especially regarding US immigration policy, a number of former and current Harris aides along with members of the administration, Democrats and other officials in interviews with CNN have criticized the vice president, saying that she is “not prepared” for her duties. The vice president herself also reportedly complained that she felt limited in her political activities, according to some sources.
