It has been reported that aides and allies of Vice President Kamala Harris are upset that her name is not coming up in conversations about which Democrat might best replace President Joe Biden at the convention in late August, should it come to that. The part that adds insult to injury for the vice president and her close supporters is that these conversations are originating with fellow Democrats or liberal pundits.
Since Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump on June 27, we have consistently seen the names of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and even Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg thrown into the mix. Often absent from many of the lists of those who might replace Biden is his own vice president. Why?
It’s quite easy to understand, once one accepts the premise that many in the liberal mainstream media hate Trump with an unhinged passion and want anyone — anyone — to defeat him in November. Exhibit A in all of this being the New York Times. Time and again, they have rallied to the defense of Biden anytime anyone dared to raise the now obviously legitimate concern that his cognitive decline might render him unsuitable for a second term.
The Times — as recently highlighted in the Wall Street Journal — published a seemingly slanted defense of Biden by blaming concerns about his physical and mental frailties on a “distorted, online version of himself, a product of often misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his age and abilities.” In other words, the NYT was pushing the White House “cheap fake” smears … until it wasn’t.
What a difference one debate — that could not be stage managed by Biden’s White House handlers or liberal media outlets — makes. As if the editorial writers at the New York Times had just touched an electrified third rail with wet hands, they were instantly shocked into contorting their Biden-protecting selves into a call for Biden to drop out of the race.
What? Whiplash, anyone?
It makes perfect sense if you believe the Times and almost every left-of-center media outlet has little or no use for Biden. They were only willing to pretend to stay in his corner so long as he had a chance to fulfill the mission that consumes their minds: defeating Trump at any cost.
Because of Biden’s epic failure at the debate, many liberal news sites and pundits were more than happy to pull back the curtain to reveal that the Democrat’s “Wizard of Oz” was being managed by shadowy aides and needed to be replaced as fast as humanly possible. But — by whom?
Again, while multiple names are being bandied about, many seem to agree as to who should not replace Biden: Kamala Harris. First and foremost, because many believe she is simply and truly a lousy candidate. Back in 2020, her campaign for the Democratic nomination imploded so quickly that she didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucus.
Beyond that, it has been Democrats who have talked of Harris brow-beating staff members into quitting; of Harris dropping the ball of managing the Southern border; of Harris not being up to the demands of the vice presidency, let alone the presidency. Anyone who cares to take a minute to do an internet search will find those stories and more.
Such as late-night shows which regularly prop up Democrats — “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show” being but two — criticizing or lampooning Harris. For instance, soon after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, SNL’s Weekend Update reported: “Many of the members of Congress attending the State of the Union wore blue and yellow to show their support for Ukraine, while Kamala Harris wore all brown to do what she’s done for the last year: Disappear into the background.”
The Daily Show topped that by putting out a devastating video just last month mocking the Harris habit of turning policy statements into indecipherable “word salads” by featuring her “Holistic Thought Advisor.” Again, these are programs and personalities that continually attack Trump while seemingly parroting the lines of the Biden White House. Again … until they turned on a dime against Biden and Harris.
Every single Republican and conservative I know hopes against hope that Biden and Harris will be the ticket come November. Just as every single Democrat I know hopes it will be anyone but Biden and Harris.
None of this is complicated but all of it is political — and personal. All a dilemma of the Democrats’ making. They now have but a few weeks to convince Harris that, for the good of the party as well as herself, she must step aside for a more popular standard-bearer at the convention.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall for those conversations.
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.