Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t bite.
“Joe Biden is our nominee,” she told a CBS News reporter outside a San Francisco fundraiser Tuesday night, amid signs that the president’s Democratic dam was breaking.
The reporter tried a different tactic, asking if she would be willing to lead the country if necessary. Nothing.
“I’m proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate,” she responded.
In the week since Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Harris has received more attention than at any time since her early years as his No. 2 candidate. Polls and her party’s infrastructure give her an edge over other potential replacements for Biden should he decide to drop out of the race against former President Trump.
But Harris finds herself in a delicate position — a magnified version of the political pressures she’s faced throughout her tenure. She can’t afford to give even a hint that she wants to replace Biden, the oldest president in history at 81. Still, she must be on guard, lest others leapfrog her when Biden’s job opens up.
“She absolutely, absolutely has to dance with whoever brought her in, and any daylight she allows between herself and the only person on earth who could be called her boss would be seen as disloyal,” said one former adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid angering fellow Democrats with his succession talk. “If the ground keeps shifting … she’s inevitably going to be put in a position where she may have to make a decision or maybe a decision is made for her.”
Read more: Harris ignores debate at San Francisco fundraiser, highlights Biden’s wins over ‘liar’ Trump
So far, she’s gotten relatively good marks from Democrats, who like her efforts to defend Biden. Republicans, however, continue to deride her public speech as a jumble of words.
“It’s been interesting to see people who have been critical of her for the last three and a half years say, ‘Oh, I would support her,’” said one ally who has been in regular contact with Harris and Biden’s inner circles, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid upsetting friends close to Biden. “People believe, and have always believed, that she can prosecute.”
Harris went on CNN within minutes of last week’s debate, when most Democrats were still in shock, and gave the first version of Biden’s defense. She acknowledged what she called a “slow start” but insisted: “I’m not going to spend the whole night talking to you about the last 90 minutes, when I’ve been watching for the last three and a half years.”
Harris has since made a similar case, attending speeches and fundraising events, including an event Tuesday night in San Francisco, where she called the debate and the prospect of another Trump presidency the “elephant in the room.”
“She’s doing her job, and to suggest that there’s someone waiting in the wings, someone who wants to get a head start on 2028 — no, that’s not Kamala Harris,” said Donna Brazile, an ally who wants Biden to remain at the top of the ticket.
Her former rival, Gov. Gavin Newsom, has taken a similar approach, positioning himself as a public defender for Biden, distancing himself from elements of the party that want the president to step aside. He would visit the White House on Wednesday night to “stand by the president,” he said in a fundraising email.
Harris had her regular lunch with Biden on Wednesday. She also joined Biden on a campaign call in which he assured staffers he was “in this race to the end,” according to a person familiar with the call who asked not to be identified. “We will not give up. We will follow the example of our president. We will fight and we will win,” Harris told staffers, the person said.
Although Biden promised her weekly lunches when she took office, the meetings have been inconsistent, an indication that Biden often relies more on his regular staff than his deputy.
But if she were to run for president, she could campaign on the administration’s legislative successes, including its environmental and infrastructure spending bills.
Republicans would embrace her role as a key player in Biden’s immigration policy: Early in his term, Biden tasked Harris with overseeing a strategy aimed at improving economic, security and political conditions in Central America to address the “root causes” of migration.
Harris, however, has never been comfortable with the assignment, and Republicans have happily cast her as the “border czar” while criticizing the Biden administration for record numbers of arrests at the border.
Harris gained political traction after the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights in 2022, leading the White House to respond. She failed to change the law or stop red states from passing sweeping restrictions on the procedure, but she has helped the Democratic Party use the issue to gain traction in the 2022 midterms. Democrats hope to use the issue again if they can get past concerns about Biden’s fitness for office.
Read more: Here’s Why It Would Be Tough for Democrats to Replace Joe Biden on the Presidential Ticket
A CNN poll released Tuesday found that three-quarters of American voters believed Democrats would have a better shot at the White House without Biden. Of the possible replacements, only Harris came within 2 percentage points of Trump. Allies have long said her name recognition and control of the party apparatus would put her in a better position to lead than potential rivals including Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), a leading Biden supporter, said Tuesday on MSNBC that he would support Harris as a replacement, but that his first preference is for Biden to remain the nominee.
“But I want to continue to support her in the future,” he said.
But deep concerns about Harris remain within the party. Even CNN polling showed her making up ground against Trump in a theoretical matchup, and that’s without the media attention and Republican onslaught that would come with leading the ticket. And her early struggles on the job — which led to high turnover and low poll numbers — have left many voters with a bad impression, even though her average approval rating in polls has improved slightly in recent months.
A USA Today/Suffolk poll in March found that 54% of voters said she is not qualified to serve as president, compared with 38% who said she is. Focus groups shared with The Times earlier this year by a pro-Biden Republican group showed that undecided voters and even black voters had negative impressions, some of which her allies said had to do with her race and gender.
But even if Harris had more work to do, no other potential replacement has received as much national attention, potentially making him a greater risk to the party.
“She’s been in that spotlight and she’s taken her beatings,” the former adviser said. “No one can say she’s unknown at this point.”
Bierman reported from Washington and Wiley from San Francisco.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
