Is Biden Setting Harris Up to Fail?
If you look at the assignments Kamala Harris has been given during her tenure as vice president, its pretty easy to think that shes getting the short end of the political stick. First, she was tasked with taking on immigration: After mostly staying in D.C. during the pandemic, Harris is on her first international trip, a visit aimed at helping Guatemala and Mexico stem migration. Shes also been assigned to help protect voting rights that are under attack across the country. Its hard to know what to call her job, why shes being saddled with the tasks shes been saddled with, and what this may portend for her future political prospects. On Tuesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere about why Harris vice presidency may feel simultaneously familiar and unlike anything youve seen before. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement  Advertisement  Advertisement  Mary Harris: Ive heard Harris rsum described as a high-risk, high-reward rsum, where she could take things that dont work outbut if she does work something out, it could be great for her. Edward-Isaac Dovere: I think being vice president is high-risk, high-reward. Running for president is also very much high-risk, high-reward. Shes going to need to show people that she has done some things, and those things are going to need to resonate if she wants to have a successful future campaign, almost certainly. Advertisement  The issue she has as a vice president is that she asked to not have one portfolio, and to be involved in everything, even as shes gotten these smaller, additional priorities. That makes it hard to shine a light on any one thing. I was one of the people who asked her questions when she was running for president. I said, there are a lot of people running saying that theyre identified with one big issueElizabeth Warren was very much about the economy, Pete Buttigieg was on the generational argument, Jay Inslee was running on climate change. She says, I dont want to be identified with just one thing, Im for all of these things. Thats correct, but its hard because voters need things to attach themselves to. Her campaign started to come apart because people felt like they didnt have anything to grab onto. Now she wants to give them a variety of hooks in addition to the fact that shes vice president and shell be associated with Joe Biden and she can get a lot of benefit from being connected to his brand if the presidency is successful. Advertisement  Advertisement  One of the advantages of taking on this immigration challenge is that it gives the vice president foreign policy experience. Shes meeting with heads of state. The question is whether taking on a problem shes unlikely to solve will help or hurt her. Right. John Cornyn, Republican senator from Texas, said to me that he feels like Biden handed her a grenade, pulled the pin, and walked away. Politically, no one wants to touch immigration. Its bad news to try to say that youre going to fix the problem because it is such a complicated and seemingly intractable problem. Thats unfortunate. Advertisement  The problem is, lets say theres some improvement, not that everythings all solved, but that things are starting to look better by 2024. For most people, it will look like Joe Biden made things better, and itll be hard for her to say no, that was me. She doesnt even get the credit. If there is success, its Bidens success, and if there is not success, its mostly Bidens lack of success. If she can say, well, we had productive conversations with the leaders of Guatemala and other countries, and that led to some incremental policy changes that hopefully over time will mitigate the migration crisisthats a lot harder to say. Advertisement  Advertisement  Thats what being a vice president is like. You are there to support the president, and so any success you have, the shine goes to him. The failures are on him too. But whats interesting to me about watching whats happening with Harris and immigration is that Republicans are trying to make a lack of action her problem. That may be because they have more trouble making things stick against Bidenhe doesnt rile up their base in the same way. Theres a little bit of it thats a vice president problem and theres a little bit of it that is just all about her and how shes perceived. I think theres a lot of it thats about her and how shes perceived. And theres an incentive for Republicans who think they will be facing her as a presidential candidate in 2024 or 2028. They can start taking shots at her now and building up negative impressions of her now. Biden has proved largely impervious to Republican attacks. Advertisement  Immigration isnt the only intractable issue Harris has on her plate. Shes also been tasked with protecting voting rights at the state and national level. The New York Times actually reported that she asked to be the lead on this topic. Advertisement  Well, she sees it as something that you could fail in, but she also sees it as something that she could have success with. It may not be success in getting state legislatures to change voting restrictions, or even in getting something like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act through Congressbut rather in rallying people to this cause. This connects to a woman who has long seen herself as fighting for civil rights, fighting for more political power for people of color. Theres a lot of reason to want to be associated with someone who has been fighting for this cause or will be fighting for this cause. How things will it get done if through a lot of political pressure that is created over this. That would probably be part of it. I think there you see the outside game is going to be a big piece of it. That means not just bucking up Democrats, but putting pressure on Republicans, like, How are you voting against the John Lewis Act? If they can create a level of pressure and shame, that is probably the only way this gets passed in the Senate. Its not going to be because she haggles over paragraphs in the bill. This public role, that seems to me where she could probably be more powerful, than in leaning on Senate relationships. Advertisement  Advertisement  Advertisement  I wonder a little bit if your perspective is that its kind of funny were asking these questions. But because of who Kamala Harris is, she bears this burden of inquiry about what shes doing and why shes doing it. I think that thats exactly right. These are not questions that were asked of Mike Pence or Joe Biden or Dick Cheney. There were other questions asked about Cheney as vice president. But are a lot of people who look to Harris and want things out of her, want her to be the vessel for progressive politics, want her to be the representative of people of color, want her to be the leader for women, want her to do all these things that they might not be getting out of the Biden administration. She is historic in her role. That pressure is reflected, I think, in the attention to it. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts  Get more news from Mary Harris every weekday.