by Frank Holmes, reporter
Advisers close to Joe Biden say the oldest president in American history is thinking about running for re-election for at least one reason: He thinks Republicans would beat Kamala Harris like a drum.
In fact, advisors have made it known that Biden thinks his entire party’s bench looks too thin for him to sit out the next election.
And, the story reveals, the fact that Harris would go down in flames against Donald Trump next year is only a small part of his grudge against his own vice president.
All eyes in the Democratic Party are fixed on the 80-year-old Joe Biden, who has not yet officially declared that he’s running for a second term.
Biden is unpopular with members of his own party… but he’s seen polls that show Kamala Harris is even less popular than he is.
And more importantly, his staffers say, Biden has seen Kamala Harris at work and knows she’s not up to the job.
The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Biden believes Kamala Harris frequently falls down on the job he hand-picked her to take.
“It is a question of consistently rising to the occasion,” a former White House official told Reuters news service.
She gets tongue-tied, can’t think on her feet, and her comments regularly add to the Biden administration’s headaches.
What’s worse: Biden isn’t the only one who has come to realize Harris isn’t fit to become the next president: Some of her closest “supporters” secretly believe Harris is hopeless.
“Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her,” The New York Times reported in February.
Biden isn’t just relying on voters: He’s got a beef with the veep himself. Biden complains that Kamala Harris doesn’t do the things most vice presidents—including himself—have usually done.
“A point of tension in their relationship is that I don’t think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate,” an unnamed Biden official told global news service Reuters.
Harris has lashed out at her aides, and in the media, that Biden gave her the hard tasks, like America’s uncontrolled border with Mexico. But Biden says he handled several of the tough issues under Barack Obama, and Cheney handled a lot of George W. Bush’s portfolio.
Harris’ refusal to work, and incompetence when she tries, has led President Biden to believe Harris will be a sure loser in 2024…and she wouldn’t be the only one. Biden thinks his whole party is full of politicians with the ability and work ethic of Kamala Harris.
The unnamed former aide said Biden’s contempt for members of his own party isn’t the only reason he’s running for a second term—he’s always wanted the job—but Harris “and the Democratic bench [are] a factor.”
For once, the polls are on Biden’s side. Last month’s Quinnipiac Poll showed Harris with a six-point net negative rating.
“Even with a press that does nothing but praise her, she has still managed to become one of the most unpopular politicians in history. That takes real skill,” said the conservative website RedState.com.
Things are so bad that Kamala Harris barely notches above Hillary Clinton in a poll asking Democrats what candidate they want to lead the party in 2024.
Conservatives haven’t exactly showered Biden with sympathy over Kamala Harris’ Veep-like performance.
“On the one hand, Biden is obviously right that Harris is a colossal do-nothing, who was only placed in her position because of the left’s cynical pursuit of identity politics,” said Red State. “On the other hand, Biden himself is a colossal do-nothing, who was only placed in his position because of the left’s cynical pursuit of power. So yeah, there are no good guys here.”
Republicans say Kamala Harris invested in the same inflation-driving, open borders, prosperity-destroying policies as Biden, and she’s dodging the American people as much as he is.
“If Harris is doing such a terrible job (she is), perhaps it is because she is merely following Joe’s lead,” wrote talk show host Grace Curley in the Boston Herald. Just like Biden, “Madame Vice President does not want to acknowledge the crisis on our southern border, visit East Palestine, talk to reporters or address the everyday struggles of the American people. If Biden won’t go near any of those things with a ten foot pole, then why should Harris?”
And there is at least one area where Harris is more electable than Biden: Her family doesn’t have a multimillion-dollar Chinese spy scandal hanging over it (as far as we know).
Curley has some advice for Harris: “The next time Joe and Kamala are in a room together, she should lean in and say, ‘Hey boss. A lot of reporters are asking me about your family’s multi-million dollar Chinese wire transfers. If you’d like me to talk to them, I’d be more than happy to take this one off of your plate.’”
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”