President Biden knows full well that Vice President Kamala Harris is “not up to the job” of commander in chief, and he preferred Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as his running mate in 2020 before bowing to public pressure , according to a new book. Tuesday.
Biden chose Harris days before that year’s virtual Democratic National Convention after promising to select a woman and after lobbying for Harris by former President Barack Obama, veteran Washington journalist Charlie Spiering writes in his book “ Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House.”
While Harris, 59, is just “one stroke away from the presidency,” her “many struggles and mistakes during her first years in office were top of mind” for the president, now 81, who is approaching to his presidency. re-election campaign, Spiering writes.
President Biden knows that Vice President Kamala Harris is “not up to the task” of commander in chief, and he preferred Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as his running mate in 2020. Getty Images Biden chose Harris under the pressure from former President Barack Obama. Veteran Washington journalist Charlie Spiering writes in his book “The Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House.” Simon and Shuster
Those problems included his “bullying” of White House staff and his “refusal to work as a team” with the rest of the administration, as well as his “artificial” public presence, his infamous laughter, and his near-constant “word salads.” that fails to convey any type of message.
A steady trickle of resignations from the vice president has come as a result of her “soul-destroying criticism,” a former Washington Post staffer complained in late 2021, an event that forced her to stop using her favorite dirty word: “mother.” -Hey.”
The “hilarious, incompetent, pioneering radical” suffered “disastrous and comical first years as vice president,” Spiering adds, noting her limited authority as the Biden administration’s border czar.
In the summer of 2020, Whitmer lobbied for Harris in the wake of racial justice protests, but Biden “called her out and urged her to stay in the mix as he weighed his options.” REUTERS
But nearly four years later, Biden is in the middle of another campaign with the same running mate and asks a question that has become something of a “popular parlor game in Washington”: “How do you fix Kamala Harris?”
The book relates that Harris was also not the choice of Biden’s wife, Jill, who favored former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice for the role and had angered her close supporters after a bitter primary debate. Democrats that the California senator should “fuck off.” herself.
Harris criticized Biden during that June 2019 debate for touting his ability to work with segregationist senators during the 1970s, adding that while she believed the veteran Delaware senator “wasn’t racist,” his comments were “hurtful.” ” given his personal experience. .
Four years later, Biden is in the middle of another campaign with the same running mate and asks a question that has become something of a “popular parlor game in Washington”: “How do you fix Kamala Harris?” AFP via Getty Images
“You also worked with them to oppose busing,” Harris said, explaining that she had been part of the second generation to integrate into her public school while growing up in Berkeley, California.
Although Harris suspended her presidential campaign months later, she remained the only Black woman in the US Senate and later “took the opportunity to raise her profile” following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 at the hands of Minneapolis police. .
The protests and riots that followed Floyd’s death and continued throughout the summer of 2020 began to tilt opinion toward the fact that Biden’s eventual running mate choice would be a black woman, not just a woman.
The widespread summer 2020 riots and protests that followed began to change the discussion that an eventual vice president pick for Biden should not just be a woman but a Black woman. AFP via Getty Images
Whitmer had lobbied for Harris in the wake of the Floyd riots, but Biden reportedly “called her and urged her to stay in the mix as he weighed his options.”
“While Biden remained undecided, a key Harris ally tried to reassure him about the idea of Vice President Harris: his former boss, President Barack Obama, who was already a fan,” Spiering writes.
“Behind the scenes, Obama patiently reminded Biden to put the past behind him when making his decision. One of Obama’s political advisors. [sic] “She assured me that the former president refrained from endorsing her completely, ensuring that the election would be Biden’s.”
In turn, “Harris barely suppressed his impatience and disdain for the president” during their time together in office, he adds, as he “read platitudes from the teleprompter” during public events. AFP via Getty Images
As a former vice president, Biden was aware that Harris “lacked” the necessary political skills, but ended up making “one of the most accommodating decisions of any vice presidential candidate in modern history,” in Spiering’s words.
In return, “Harris barely suppressed his impatience and disdain for the president” during their time in office together, he adds, as he “read platitudes off the teleprompter” during his own public events.
With less than 300 days until the general election, Harris “remains in the same place despite multiple attempts at narrative realignment and on-the-job training” and “is not in a position to replace Biden and lead the Democratic Party into the future” . .”
Harris was also not the choice of Biden’s wife, Jill, who favored former national security adviser Susan Rice for the job. AP
Additionally, there is “no way” the Biden-Harris ticket can be reshuffled without the president’s campaign “admitting a huge mistake,” according to Spiering.
“Once you are deemed unworthy, there is little you can do to change people’s minds,” he writes.
“Mistakes added to mistakes only cemented his reputation and there is little room for sympathy when you reach that level of power. There are many negative comments behind the scenes, but few dare to speak publicly for fear of being labeled racist or sexist.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn