Vice President Kamala Harris immediately pushed back against the idea that President Joe Biden step aside, after Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas called on him to leave the race in the wake of his unstable debate performance last week.
“Look, Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said in an exclusive interview with CBS News. “We beat Trump once, and we’re going to beat him again, period.”
Harris said she is “proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate” and declined to directly answer questions about whether she is ready to lead the country if needed.
Speaking to CBS News’ Nidia Cavazos after a fundraiser in San Francisco, Harris’ comments came as Democrats raised concerns about the president’s fitness for another four years of the grueling task of the presidency and his ability to defeat former president Donald Trump.
Doggett on Tuesday became the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race, and another group of lawmakers is also urging him to end his candidacy. Cavazos asked Harris for her response to Doggett and other concerned Democrats.
“Are you prepared to lead the country if necessary?” Cavazos asked.
“I’m proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate,” Harris responded.
The vice president has continued to campaign as the president’s team works to convince voters he is still the best choice. For his part, Mr. Biden is also raising money closer to home on Tuesday, in McLean, Virginia, where he apologized for his poor performance debate.
For the first time he attributed his achievements to his extensive foreign travels in early June.
“I wasn’t very smart,” he told donors, claiming he had been in at least 15 time zones. He said he should have listened to his staff, who warned him it might not have been a good idea, and he said he nearly fell asleep on stage during the 90-minute debate.
The president and vice president have maintained their usual rhythm of communication since the debate, according to a source familiar with their communications.
As the sitting vice president, Harris has been floated as a likely potential option to replace Mr. Biden if he leaves office. But that is something he would have to do voluntarily. Democratic Party officials cannot force him off the ticket now that primary voters have spoken.
On Tuesday, Harris also commented on the Supreme Court ruling On Monday, Trump will enjoy presidential immunity for his official acts as president.
“It is one of the fundamental principles of our legal system that no one is above the law,” Harris said.
“If we have a candidate in Donald Trump who has openly said that he will be a dictator from day one, that he will use the Justice Department against his political enemies, then there is a good chance that he is immune to those kinds of actions. We have to take the stakes of this election seriously. We could have a president in the White House who thinks that he is immune and that he can then make decisions in that office, including using the Justice Department against his political enemies.”
In its ruling, the Supreme Court did not grant former presidents absolute immunity from prosecution, but divided presidential conduct into three categories of immunity: official acts that are part of presidents’ “core constitutional powers”; other official acts that are outside their “exclusive authority”; and unofficial acts. Presidents have “absolute” immunity from the first category, “presumptive” immunity from the second, and no immunity from the third.
The Supreme Court gave an example of presumptive immunity in its ruling, citing prosecutors’ allegations that Trump pressured his Vice President, Mike Pence, to delay the certification of the Electoral College votes January 6, 2021while presiding over a joint session of Congress. The special counsel will now likely have to “rebut the presumption of immunity” to show that Trump is not entitled to legal protections for this conduct.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith Now bears the burden to prove that prosecuting Trump for allegedly pressuring Pence “would not create any danger of infringement on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.” Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will then have to decide the issue.
The court also pointed to “a broad range of conduct” that the lower court will have to examine, including Smith’s allegations that Trump conspired with state officials, private attorneys and his supporters outside the Capitol to undermine the transfer of presidential power.
Melissa Quinn, Robert Legare, Jenna Gibson, and Josh Gross contributed to this report.
