'The Five' wonders where Kamala Harris is
'The Five' panel reacts to the White House defending the vice president's job as border czar
This week, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki "Is Vice President [Kamala] Harris still in charge of addressing the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala?"
It wasn’t a trick question and yet the answer was clearly complicated. Harris has largely been out of the spotlight on the issue since being handed over the reins in March of 2021.
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Psaki responded that yes, Harris was still in charge. The problem was that a few days earlier Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei had told Fox News that neither Harris nor anyone from the Joe Biden White House has been in contact with him since June. If Harris is in charge, the buck should stop with her.
The conversation around Vice President Kamala Harris has always been how she is viewed. Joe Biden said he would nominate a woman and that’s exactly what he did. Whether she was the right woman for the role remains questionable.
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It’s true that Harris is not particularly popular with Americans. Her approval ratings are regularly under 30 percent.
With all the focus on whether Harris is likeable, not enough attention gets paid to the fact that she’s generally just not competent enough in the roles being assigned to her.
Being put in charge of stemming the flow of illegal immigrants at our southern border is not an easy assignment. But her dedication to the role is non-existent. Speaking to the Guatemalan president from time to time is a layup.
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A splashy story from the end of November about the infighting in the Biden White House, and Vice President Harris’s role in that, was focused on how Harris is perceived. "Many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined.
The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she's able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden's team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president." But the fact that she’s simply not doing the work largely goes unmentioned.
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Anyone daring to suggest the obvious, that Harris is not good at her job, is met with insults. In November, Jimmy Kimmel said Harris’ low approval ratings were due to sexism and racism.
It’s a layer of protection around an inadequate leader if pointing out her flaws is not allowed. But Democratic voters had made the same call in 2020 and Harris was forced to drop out of the presidential race before the Iowa caucuses. Maybe they knew first what we all know now.
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