WASHINGTON, United States.- The Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, running mate for the November elections of a Joe Biden weakened, she sounds like a possible candidate if the Democrat withdraws from the race and that is why she has been doing political balancing acts for days.
“The Democratic nominee in 2024 must be Kamala Harris,” writes former Democrat Tim Ryan in an article in Newsweek. But Biden has not yet made a move and insists he will not withdraw.
“Biden is our candidate, we defeated Donald Trump “We’re going to beat him once and we’re going to beat him again,” she told CBS News, adding that she is “proud” to campaign alongside the US president.
After Biden’s disastrous debate against Trump last Thursday, the 59-year-old Democrat immediately came to his defence, saying the US president had got off to a “slow start” but had “finished strong”.
Yesterday, Biden’s official calendar indicated a lunch with Harris, which is not very frequent, although it was a weekly ritual when he himself was vice president of Barack Obama.
“Racism and sexism”
The first woman, African-American and Asian to become US vice president would automatically replace the president in the event of the 81-year-old Democrat’s death or incapacity.
But this does not guarantee her replacement as a candidate for the White House if he withdraws from the race, something he has no intention of doing for the moment.
“For three and a half years there has always been a rumor that the Democratic candidate should be someone other than the vice president” for the presidential elections, he says. Ange-Marie Hancock, professor of political science at Ohio State University. “An undercurrent of racism and sexism” may be putting obstacles in Kamala’s way, she said.
The former California prosecutor has long had less good press than the governor of California, Gavin Newsomor the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.
Rivers of ink have flowed in the American press about the mistakes made at the start of his term, especially at the diplomatic level, and about the tensions within his teams.
Hancock believes, however, that the situation could change, particularly since Harris has been touring the most contested states on the electoral map for more than two years, in particular to promote abortion rights.
Sometimes considered an unconvincing speaker, the vice president nevertheless received an often enthusiastic audience on her tour of universities, focusing on establishments that welcome students from minorities.
Probe
On Tuesday, a poll released by the CNN news network showed her in a better position than Biden, but not ahead of Republican Trump. She obtained 45% of voting intentions compared to 47% for the 78-year-old Republican former president.
So far, Biden is only getting 43% compared to his predecessor’s 49%, the same percentage as in another poll published on Wednesday by the New York Times/Siena College.
Joe Biden is considering dropping his candidacy, according to US media
If Biden decides to withdraw, the vice president would play an important role during the Democratic convention in Chicago in August. In this hypothesis, which is still a long way off, she would probably not be the only option.
The vice president is already “very much on the Republican Party’s radar,” according to Hancock.
The 78-year-old billionaire has again released a video montage of Biden’s lapses and moments of confusion, which casts doubt on his ability to serve another term in the White House.
It concludes with the question: “And you know who’s waiting behind him, right?”, with images of a laughing Kamala Harris in the background.
