Kamala Harris can’t do it. Or she doesn’t want to. Is it a matter of loyalty, or embarrassment? Recognition, or calculation? As the most important date of her life approaches, November 5, the day of the American presidential election, the Democratic candidate is unable to distinguish herself from Joe Biden. Yet the question comes up at every interview. It’s a legitimate one, but Harris sidesteps it, running the risk of appearing as a mere heiress, less experienced, with no independent plan for the country. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” the candidate replied on ABC on October 8, when asked to name one thing she would have done differently in the last four years.
During the campaign, she hasn’t been heard taking credit for the successes of the last four years, the 16 million jobs created or the massive investments in infrastructure. Nothing of the sort. Biden has played no role at her rallies, and there have been no joint performances either. The president has become a liability, Harris’s entourage believes, though they are not willing to break from his administration.
Biden’s gaffe on October 29 bears witness to this. While the vice president made a solemn appeal for an end to the chaos and divisions of the Trump era, at the Ellipse rally outside the White House, the president took part in a teleconference on the Latino vote. Asked about a comedian’s racist remarks about Puerto Ricans at a Donald Trump event in New York on October 27, Biden likened his predecessor’s supporters to “garbage.”
Despite a swift correction from the White House, this interference with the narrative set out by Harris only heightened the ambient tension. On the morning of Wednesday, October 30, the Democratic candidate showed signs of her irritation. “I strongly disagree with criticizing people based on their vote,” she said.
‘A new generation of leadership’
After her unexpected entry into the race at the end of July, the vice president opened with a heartfelt yet conventional tribute to the 81-year-old veteran Democrat. “Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring,” Harris said to the president during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 23.
In the televised debate with Trump on September 10, the candidate paid lip service to the contrast: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country. One who believes in what is possible, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people.” This message was both vague and based on a rejection of Trump. Questioned again on this point by Fox News on October 16, Harris promised that her presidency “will not be a continuation” of the current administration. Another answer in the negative.
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