Biden team using 'public staging' to boost Kamala Harris ahead of 2024: Report
The Washington Post reported that Harris was 'symbolically positioned at the center' of Biden and McCarthy during the debt talks
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden and the White House are reportedly publicly "staging" Vice President Kamala Harris alongside the president in an effort to bolster Harris heading into the 2024 election.
The report said Harris was "symbolically positioned at the center" between Biden and House Speaker McCarthy during the debt limit negotiations at the White House.
"The public staging of those moments, Democratic operatives say, is part of a concerted effort to bolster Harris’s image in the weeks since Biden announced his reelection," The Washington Post reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Anita Dunn, a close Biden ally, has been reportedly tasked with scheduling events for Harris, the Post reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on abortion at Howard University on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
KAMALA HARRIS' TOP MEDIA MISSTEPS, GAFFES AND DEBACLES SINCE BECOMING VICE PRESIDENT
Dunn told the White House teams to schedule events for Harris focused on abortion and infrastructure spending, according to the Washington Post.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Harris’s stumbles over the past two years have vexed Democrats across the country and inside the White House, and aides say there is a nuanced but determined effort at reputational reform," the Post's report said.
Joel Goldstein, a professor at University of St. Louis' law school, told the outlet that her early "sound bites" continue to define her.
"We very much deal with sound bites, and her sound bites ended up being Lester Holt and border security … staff turnover, that sort of thing," he said. "And you don’t have a second chance to make a first impression. Those sort of early sound bites are what continue to define her."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Joe Biden speaks about border security in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris stands at left. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) ((AP Photo/Patrick Semansky))
BIDEN SAYS VP HARRIS NEEDS MORE ‘CREDIT’, DEFLECTS QUESTION ON WHETHER HE'LL SERVE A FULL TERM
Democrats have repeatedly criticized Harris throughout her vice presidency over lacking "basic political skills."
"People are poised to pounce on anything — any misstep, any gaffe, anything she says — and so she’s probably not getting the benefit of the doubt," former Cobb County Democrats Chair Jacquelyn Bettadapur, a Harris supporter, told the Washington Post in January.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She added, "it doesn’t help that she’s not [that] adept as a communicator."
Vice President Kamala Harris gives remarks, alongside President Joe Biden, at an event celebrating the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 13, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Biden argued that Harris deserved more credit in early May.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Look, I just think that Vice President Harris hasn't gotten the credit she deserves," Biden said. "She was an attorney general of the state of California. She has been a United States senator, she is really very, very good. And with everything going on, she hasn't gotten the attention she deserves."