So who’s on deck? Ms. Harris isn’t proving to be a compelling answer, hence the panic. Her approval rating is on a journey to the center of the Earth, with one poll lately pegging it at 28%. A CNN report this week aired griping from Ms. Harris’s circle that she isn’t being set up to succeed. Her communications director is on the way out.
It’s true that Mr. Biden has asked Ms. Harris to take the lead on tough issues: immigration and the border, plus the voting bills in Congress, which won’t pass. Other Vice Presidents have also struggled to find their role, especially when the man in the Oval Office knows his own way around town.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that criticism of Ms. Harris is tinged with sexism and racism, particularly from “some in the right wing who have gone after her because she is the first woman, the first woman of color” to serve as Vice President. Sorry, a vast right-wing conspiracy doesn’t produce a 28% approval rating. Only Ms. Harris can do that, and her struggles to appeal are hardly new.
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