Potential Biden-Harris rift growing amid plunging approval
'The Five' discusses whether Harris could be replaced or other potential changes in 2024
The panel on "The Five" on Tuesday discussed the possibility that the relationship between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could get to the point that the vice president could be replaced, either in the middle of the president's term or on his presumptive reelection ticket in 2024.
Host Dana Perino noted there is indeed a process for confirming a new vice president in the middle of a term, and it is not entirely unprecedented, though highly unusual and rare.
Nearly a dozen presidents have gone all or some of their tenure without a vice president or have gotten a new vice president mid-term.
In 1974, Congress completed a confirmation process for former New York Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to be President Gerald Ford's deputy following his ascension to the presidency amid Richard Nixon's resignation.
U.S. President Gerald Ford, First Lady Betty Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and vice presidential candidate Bob Dole celebrate winning the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Kansas City, Missouri, August 1976. REUTERS/John T. Bledsoe/U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection/Library of Congress/Handout
In another major example, President William Henry Harrison died only weeks into his 1841 term after battling pneumonia some believe he contracted at his inauguration. Vice President John Tyler assumed the presidency and completed his term without a formal vice president.
Presidents Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, and Chester Arthur, a Republican -- who succeeded assassinated presidents Lincoln and Garfield respectively -- had no official deputy. Nixon appointed Ford his new vice president under the then-fledgling 25th Amendment, after Spiro Agnew became embroiled in a bribery scandal and resigned in 1973.
The current administration does not want the American public to think there are problems between Biden and Harris, the panel on "The Five" argued.
"This is one of those things where the White House is expected you to not believe what you’re seeing," Perino said. "You can tell there’s a problem here. We know it. They called a cabinet meeting for the first time in three months last Friday on the day when Kamala Harris was not even in the country."
"And then that weekend is when the story started coming out [about their relationship]."
The host, however, noted that White House officials Jen Psaki and Ronald Klain have sought to pour cold water on theories of a rift between the two.
First lady Jill Biden is greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris before a Medal of Honor ceremony for retired U.S. Army Col. Ralph Puckett, in the East Room of the White House, Friday, May 21, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"Prime Minister Klain says he's quoted, and therefore everything is just fine," co-host Katie Pavlich remarked.
Later, Perino pointed to reporting from Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram, who appeared on "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier's "All-Star Panel Podcast" on Fox News Radio.
"Chad Pergram said they’re preparing something in Congress that they have not done in many, many years – It’s about the process by which you go about confirming a new vice president," she said.
Host Greg Gutfeld later added that he had "called" the projection that there is a rift and that there could be research going on into how to replace Harris.
On the podcast, Pergram said he received an email from a source who wrote that the reporter should "start to familiarize yourself with the confirmation process not just in the Senate, but in the House, for a vice president."
"I was very surprised to get that very cryptic email just a few weeks ago," Pergram added, further noting the process was most recently used by Ford and an also-then-Democratic Congress.
"The Five" noted that the presidential line of succession, which places House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and then Senate President Pro-Tempore Patrick Leahy of Vermont below Harris, does not come into play in this particular scenario.
UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 6: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, Rep John Lewis, D-Ga., left, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., attend a news conference on the Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Capitol on Friday, December 6, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Pelosi would not automatically become vice president nor would Leahy – who has announced his retirement in 2022 – ascend to any new role. The speaker and pro-tem only ascend to the presidency upon the simultaneous incapacitation of an incumbent president and vice president.
Host Jesse Watters suggested the only two Democrats left to lead a ticket in the case Biden and Harris are rejected by the party would be Sen. Bernie Sanders, also of Vermont, and former Georgia State Rep. Stacy Abrams of Atlanta.
Other members of the panel somewhat agreed that the Democrats could realistically unite behind California Gov. Gavin Newsom as well, if the then-82-year-old Biden decides not to run in 2024 – and if they do not want to support Harris.
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