Kamala Harris takes her place at the debt limit negotiating table
Haisten Willis
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Tuesday’s debt ceiling negotiations had an extra member in the form of Vice President Kamala Harris, raising her profile as she attempts a reputation rebound.
President Joe Biden‘s second-in-command has endured a rocky tenure so far, but her presence at the high-level meeting was a vote of confidence from the president, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
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“She has been a partner in this,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a reporter’s question about Harris. “She has been consulted multiple times on the budget on preventing default. This is something where the president clearly respects her view.”
Biden is trekking off to Japan for a few days, which prompted the reporter to ask if Harris would be filling in for him during that time. Jean-Pierre added firmly that “this is not about the president’s trip to Asia.”
In either case, the mere presence of Harris in Washington’s biggest story of the moment could be seen as a victory for her.
Harris has had something of a low profile since taking office along with Biden in January 2021. But her polling consistently lags behind that of Biden, at just 39.8% approval in the latest RealClearPolitics average.
Including her in the debt ceiling negotiations in such a high-profile way is a sign of increasing confidence in her abilities, argues Democratic strategist Brad Bannon.
“The president sent her to the Munich Security Conference recently, where she gave a strong speech that blistered Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Bannon said. “The clearest sign of the president’s trust in Vice President Harris is her prominence in the reelection video that the campaign released a few weeks ago.”
Bannon dates that Feb. 18 Munich speech as the beginning of a newfound confidence Biden has in Harris, one that has only grown since.
That confidence will be tested both now and on the campaign trail. Harris has become the focus of questions about Biden’s age, since she’d take over should Biden be unable to complete a second term.
“This uncertainly about Biden’s mental competence means Americans must consider the actual competency of the vice president,” GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley wrote in a May 1 op-ed. “Kamala Harris is one of the most incompetent elected officials in the country. Her failures in foreign policy and managing the border are too numerous to mention — to say nothing of the word salad that defines her unscripted remarks.”
Harris will stay in Washington Wednesday and Thursday while Biden travels to Japan, though that trip has been cut short. He’ll now return to the U.S. on Sunday in order to focus on debt ceiling talks, three days earlier than originally scheduled. Harris herself is scheduled to be out of town on Friday as she speaks about maternal health in California.
Jean-Pierre attempted to emphasize Harris’s role while also downplaying the significance of Biden’s early return.
“The vice president is a close adviser. She’s a partner to the president that has been consistent the last two years,” she said. Jean-Pierre added later that “the president can be president anywhere. He can do the work of the American people abroad, and certainly, he does it every day here when we’re in the White House. So that’s not going to change.”
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Joel Goldstein, a Saint Louis University law professor emeritus, argues that it’s very much in the historical mode of vice presidents to assist with negotiations.
“Prior vice presidents have done so and played various roles in budget or deficit discussions,” said Goldstein, a vice presidential expert. “The primary role of modern vice presidents is to help presidents govern, so presidential foreign travel or similar presidential engagements often result in a modern vice president discharging some assignments that otherwise might be done by the president.”