Ultimately, Harris signed on to be in charge of the White House push to protect abortion rights across the country. If history is any indication, the result will be a half-assed effort that accomplishes nothing and inevitably devolves into finger-pointing, recrimination, and anonymous leaks to the press. That is precisely what happened after the administration tasked her with leading the charge on the border crisis and on voting rights.

Harris was not thrilled when Biden in March 2021 put her in charge of the administration’s response to the ongoing immigration crisis on the border. The vice president “was resigned to the assignment, but she and her team wanted to make sure her role was depicted in the narrowest possible way,” according to the authors of This Will Not Pass.

At one point, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns recount in the book, Harris corrected Biden during a meeting with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus. When the president said she would do “a hell of job” handling immigration, Harris immediately chimed in to say that her role would be limited to U.S. relations with the so-called Northern Triangle countries in Central America. During a subsequent visit to Guatemala, the vice president fumbled a question from NBC anchor Lester Holt about why she hadn’t visited the U.S. southern border. “And I haven’t been to Europe,” she cackled.