THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"Kamala Harris is just bad at politics"
Zachary Faria
13 JULY 2021
Vice President Kamala Harris is an American success story.
After all, where else could such a mediocre politician see as astronomic a rise as to be the anointed president-in-waiting.
Harris’s latest blunder came in a BET interview on Friday.
Trying to come up with an excuse for Democrats to continue to oppose voter ID requirements, Harris came up with a doozy: Rural Americans don’t have access to photocopiers.
"There are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't — there's no Kinko's, there's no Office Max near them," Harris said.
"People have to understand that when we're talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they are."
It is a wonder that this is Harris’s view of rural America, given her lived experience in such rural enclaves as San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
It’s not clear if Harris knows that people in rural areas are not living on isolated farms hours from the nearest photocopier (or that Kinko’s stopped existing in 2008).
Perhaps Harris was boldly trying to chart a new course for Democrats in the voter ID debate, given that the previous argument that black Americans are somehow unable to acquire ID has been uprooted by polling showing that a sizable majority of black voters support voter ID laws.
All this does is reinforce what has been clear for some time: Harris is a terrible politician.
She is completely inept in any situation in which she is unable to stick to a rehearsed, scripted answer.
She is unable to stand up to the mildest of pushback in interviews, including being caught completely unprepared for a question about why she, the appointed point person for the border crisis, had not visited the border.
Her “debate” prowess doesn’t extend beyond her self-righteous interrogations from her days in the Senate.
She was easily dispatched by former Vice President Mike Pence, hand-waved away by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and utterly embarrassed by former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Harris hasn’t proven much better at retail politics either, given that she ended her presidential campaign in 2019 before Democratic primary voters even went to the polls.
She was the strongest candidate on paper, and her campaign looked like a powerhouse on the day it was announced.
In the end, she was nearly a nonfactor in the entire primary because the idea of Kamala Harris is stronger than the politician herself.
It’s no surprise that high-ranking Democrats are increasingly concerned that a Harris-led ticket in 2024 would be Hillary Clinton redux.
Truth be told, it’s not clear that Harris would be able to fend off primary challengers to even secure the nomination.
As a candidate, she is a paper tiger.
As a politician, she is an out-of-touch weather vane.
She has failed upward to this point, and it’s clear that she has hit her ceiling.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
KAMALA HARRIS
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
The Los Angeles Times.
"Column: Kamala Harris is making history again — as Republicans' prime campaign target"
Mark Z. Barabak
15 JULY 2021
In North Carolina, Senate hopeful Pat McCrory vows to take on the "Harris-Biden administration" and thwart the vice president and Democrats "who want to radically change America for years to come."
In Alabama, Jessica Taylor paints a dystopian portrait of "Kamala's America" — conspicuously mispronouncing Harris' first name — and promises to be "Kamala's worst nightmare" if she joins the Senate.
In Texas, George P. Bush says he will eagerly "take the fight" to President Biden and Vice President Harris, who pop up several times — in menacing slow motion — in the campaign spot launching his bid for state attorney general.
Harris ran a lousy presidential campaign, which flamed out well shy of the White House.
As vice president, she's put her ambitions in a blind trust, assuming the traditional role of understudy and dutifully tending the portfolio given her by the president.
But to hear Republicans tell it, it's not Biden but the former California senator who has her Chuck Taylors planted firmly in the Oval Office.
It's an extraordinary amount of attention for someone who's been in office a scant 174 days, less time than a Major League Baseball season, and who wields power only to the extent her boss allows.
Harris is, of course, a history-making figure: the first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.
She also comes from California (San Francisco, no less).
Never mind that Harris, a former prosecutor, was deemed too centrist for the taste of many Democratic primary voters.
To much of the country, that Left Coast pedigree suggests kooky liberal.
Biden, for his part, is precedent-setting in his own way.
At age 78, he is the oldest president ever to hold office, making his health and well-being a constant source of rumor and speculation, with Harris the proverbial heartbeat away from taking over.
All those factors combine to make her a groundbreaker in yet another way: the vice president destined to launch 1,000 negative campaign ads.
Most of her predecessors could have entered the witness protection program with few knowing or caring.
Ever since he emerged last year as the Democratic nominee, Biden has presented Republicans with a problem: People tend not to hate him in the visceral way they did Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or his wife, Hillary.
For many Republicans, the worst they have to say is that Biden is "a doddering albeit nice old man who is not necessarily in charge of his own administration," as one veteran GOP pollster put it.
Biden's approval rating, which hovers in the low to mid-50s, doesn't sparkle.
But it's quite decent given the country's deep and persistent polarization; President Trump never once hit 50% approval in any methodologically sound poll.
Since it's hard to demonize Biden, Republicans have tried another tack: diminishing the president.
They suggest Biden is a mere puppet with other, more liberal Democrats pulling the strings.
Enter Harris.
Voters see her more negatively than positively, according to polls, and view her in a notably harsher light than Biden.
Part of that is the nature of the vice presidency.
The job, which is inherently subservient, can't help but shrink whoever occupies the office.
Part of it is a concentrated Republican effort to paint Harris as the true power in the administration and hold her personally responsible for its "failed" immigration policy — one of the most thankless and knottiest assignments Biden has handed the vice president.
Some animosity obviously stems from the fact Harris is a woman and, in particular, a woman of color.
"It's unfortunately no surprise that her qualifications continue to be questioned," said Amanda Hunter, executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, an organization that seeks to boost the number of women in elected office.
Repeated studies have shown that women, and especially women of color, are judged more severely than their male counterparts.
In Harris' case, Hunter said, it's even easier "to drive a wedge or question the qualifications of someone who doesn't look like the people who have come before [her] for hundreds of years."
"Joe Biden not only had a long, established career in Washington, he looks like most" of the country's past presidents.
The contrast between Biden and Harris is stark.
(And part of what made her an appealing choice to help balance the Democratic ticket.)
Biden is not only a white male but one whose qualities — love of his close-knit family, a working-class background, religious devotion — are seen by many voters as "'average' American," said Keneshia Grant, a Howard University political scientist who has written a book on black voters and the Democratic Party.
"It's difficult to argue against that in an ad."
So it's little wonder that Jessica Taylor, the Alabama Senate hopeful, virtually ignores Biden and puts Harris at the center of a spot that sounds as if it were laboratory-tested to start conservative hormones raging, as it mashes up "the woke police" cancel culture, the "fake" news media, voter fraud, critical race theory and welfare cheats.
("God, grace and grit" is the tagline of the ad, which describes Taylor as a product of rural Alabama raised to love "God, guns, family, fishing and four-wheeling." Clearly she believes alliteration is a major qualification for elected office.)
There is one consolation in the early and unusual barrage of attack ads the vice president faces.
If, as widely expected, Harris seeks the White House again in 2024, or thereafter, she'll be fully aware of what's in store.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
"Column: Kamala Harris is making history again — as Republicans' prime campaign target"
Mark Z. Barabak
15 JULY 2021
In North Carolina, Senate hopeful Pat McCrory vows to take on the "Harris-Biden administration" and thwart the vice president and Democrats "who want to radically change America for years to come."
In Alabama, Jessica Taylor paints a dystopian portrait of "Kamala's America" — conspicuously mispronouncing Harris' first name — and promises to be "Kamala's worst nightmare" if she joins the Senate.
In Texas, George P. Bush says he will eagerly "take the fight" to President Biden and Vice President Harris, who pop up several times — in menacing slow motion — in the campaign spot launching his bid for state attorney general.
Harris ran a lousy presidential campaign, which flamed out well shy of the White House.
As vice president, she's put her ambitions in a blind trust, assuming the traditional role of understudy and dutifully tending the portfolio given her by the president.
But to hear Republicans tell it, it's not Biden but the former California senator who has her Chuck Taylors planted firmly in the Oval Office.
It's an extraordinary amount of attention for someone who's been in office a scant 174 days, less time than a Major League Baseball season, and who wields power only to the extent her boss allows.
Harris is, of course, a history-making figure: the first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.
She also comes from California (San Francisco, no less).
Never mind that Harris, a former prosecutor, was deemed too centrist for the taste of many Democratic primary voters.
To much of the country, that Left Coast pedigree suggests kooky liberal.
Biden, for his part, is precedent-setting in his own way.
At age 78, he is the oldest president ever to hold office, making his health and well-being a constant source of rumor and speculation, with Harris the proverbial heartbeat away from taking over.
All those factors combine to make her a groundbreaker in yet another way: the vice president destined to launch 1,000 negative campaign ads.
Most of her predecessors could have entered the witness protection program with few knowing or caring.
Ever since he emerged last year as the Democratic nominee, Biden has presented Republicans with a problem: People tend not to hate him in the visceral way they did Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or his wife, Hillary.
For many Republicans, the worst they have to say is that Biden is "a doddering albeit nice old man who is not necessarily in charge of his own administration," as one veteran GOP pollster put it.
Biden's approval rating, which hovers in the low to mid-50s, doesn't sparkle.
But it's quite decent given the country's deep and persistent polarization; President Trump never once hit 50% approval in any methodologically sound poll.
Since it's hard to demonize Biden, Republicans have tried another tack: diminishing the president.
They suggest Biden is a mere puppet with other, more liberal Democrats pulling the strings.
Enter Harris.
Voters see her more negatively than positively, according to polls, and view her in a notably harsher light than Biden.
Part of that is the nature of the vice presidency.
The job, which is inherently subservient, can't help but shrink whoever occupies the office.
Part of it is a concentrated Republican effort to paint Harris as the true power in the administration and hold her personally responsible for its "failed" immigration policy — one of the most thankless and knottiest assignments Biden has handed the vice president.
Some animosity obviously stems from the fact Harris is a woman and, in particular, a woman of color.
"It's unfortunately no surprise that her qualifications continue to be questioned," said Amanda Hunter, executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, an organization that seeks to boost the number of women in elected office.
Repeated studies have shown that women, and especially women of color, are judged more severely than their male counterparts.
In Harris' case, Hunter said, it's even easier "to drive a wedge or question the qualifications of someone who doesn't look like the people who have come before [her] for hundreds of years."
"Joe Biden not only had a long, established career in Washington, he looks like most" of the country's past presidents.
The contrast between Biden and Harris is stark.
(And part of what made her an appealing choice to help balance the Democratic ticket.)
Biden is not only a white male but one whose qualities — love of his close-knit family, a working-class background, religious devotion — are seen by many voters as "'average' American," said Keneshia Grant, a Howard University political scientist who has written a book on black voters and the Democratic Party.
"It's difficult to argue against that in an ad."
So it's little wonder that Jessica Taylor, the Alabama Senate hopeful, virtually ignores Biden and puts Harris at the center of a spot that sounds as if it were laboratory-tested to start conservative hormones raging, as it mashes up "the woke police" cancel culture, the "fake" news media, voter fraud, critical race theory and welfare cheats.
("God, grace and grit" is the tagline of the ad, which describes Taylor as a product of rural Alabama raised to love "God, guns, family, fishing and four-wheeling." Clearly she believes alliteration is a major qualification for elected office.)
There is one consolation in the early and unusual barrage of attack ads the vice president faces.
If, as widely expected, Harris seeks the White House again in 2024, or thereafter, she'll be fully aware of what's in store.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"'Consistent thread': Harris staff complaints predate her vice presidency"
Katherine Doyle
19 JULY 2021
Former aides to Vice President Kamala Harris charge that she terrorized them in a hostile work environment, continuing a pattern that dates back to her time as San Fransico district attorney.
The criticisms of Harris's management did not stop her rise from prosecutor to California attorney general to U.S. senator from the nation's most populous state to presidential candidate all the way up through the vice presidency.
Two senior advance staffers in her vice presidential office recently announced their departures, in a manner some former employees say is familiar to them.
“Look, this is a bottom-line business,” one senior Democratic operative told the Washington Examiner after the recent allegations broke.
“And the bottom line is the vice president has challenges with staff wherever she is.”
The criticisms of Harris's management style have taken on new relevance, however, as she is well positioned to be the Democratic presidential nominee at some point in the future.
President Joe Biden, already the oldest person to ever hold the office, will be 81 in 2024.
Presidential historian David Greenberg, who wrote Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency, said it’s too early to tell whether the claims will weigh on Harris’s future electoral prospects.
“Nothing in the news now will matter in 2024."
"If these reports are well founded, Harris has lots of time to fix them, and other more significant things will happen before then,” Greenberg said, calling the allegations “pure inside baseball.”
According to Business Insider, however, these issues have been cropping up for years.
Barbara O’Connor, a communications professor at California State University, Sacramento, told the outlet that at least 20 interns who had worked in Harris’s attorney general and Senate offices sought her advice in tears.
O’Connor said that she helped several of them transfer out of Harris’s offices at the time.
There have also been high-dollar settlements linked to the veep's former staff.
In 2011, a settlement was reached between the California Justice Department and a top aide to then-Attorney General Harris.
Upon leaving, Terri Carbaugh, chief deputy attorney general, signed a nondisclosure agreement and received a $34,900 settlement, an amount just below the $35,000 limit that would have necessitated approval by the state Department of Finance.
A spokesperson for Harris said last July that Harris would support releasing Carbaugh from the nondisclosure agreement if the former staffer desired.
After the Sacramento Bee inquired in 2018 about $400,000 the California Justice Department paid to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit involving a longtime aide, the staffer resigned.
Harris's office declined to respond to specific claims, but in a statement to Insider, a spokeswoman for Harris, Sabrina Singh, said:
"The Vice President and her office are focused on the Biden-Harris Administration's agenda to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down," Singh said.
"To making sure racial equity is at the core of everything the Administration does, to combatting the existential threat of climate change, and to continue protecting the American people from the Covid-19 pandemic."
After Politico described “a tense and at times dour office atmosphere” in which “ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out,” one ex-staffer said the story traveled “like wildfire.”
This person sent the report to their therapist, accompanied by a note that read, “Rarely in life are we publicly vindicated,” according to Insider.
They told the publication that they sought therapy to “resolve trauma from the on-the-job abuse” after discovering that Harris would be Biden’s vice presidential nominee.
Earlier this month, there were reports of deep frustration with Harris’s current chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, a longtime Democratic operative who served in the White House under former President Bill Clinton.
Flournoy reportedly walled off Harris from donors and longtime friends.
Democrats and former aides have defended Flournoy, telling the Washington Examiner, “It does feel like the intentions of Tina Flournoy are good, which are to kind of clean up some of the mess and keep the hanger-ons away.”
This person zeroed in on the executive: “The consistent thread with all of the infighting and dissension, with all of the different power centers of Kamala Harris, is Vice President Harris.”
The news was “not surprising,” the person added.
“The Harris inner circles, and I’ll use that plural because they’ve been different inner circles in California, in her Senate office, on her presidential campaign, and now in her vice presidential campaign [and] in office, they’ve always been rife with a lot of dissension and a lot of infighting."
"It’s probably a little unfair to say it’s just her."
"But she is a common denominator in all of these situations.”
According to Insider, an ex-staffer reached out to another to say, “Poor Tina.”
Replied another, “I know lol that everyone is pointing to her when it’s obvi KDH,” using the vice president’s initials.
One former Harris aide recently told the Washington Examiner that he wasn’t surprised to see the vice president under a microscope.
“Hopefully, this is a wake-up call,” he said, pointing to what he called “self-inflicted wounds.”
“She’s taking on incredibly complex issues and is under the microscope like never before in her career."
"So this sort of treatment comes with the territory,” he added.
“But she really can’t afford any self-inflicted wounds as they will distract from the important work she has in front of her.”
Biden vowed early on to terminate employees if he learned they treated others poorly.
“I’ll fire you on the spot,” Biden told staff at a swearing-in ceremony soon after he took office.
He stood by this when a top White House communications aide verbally abused a reporter.
Asked about some of the charges during a press briefing this month, press secretary Jen Psaki demurred.
“I try not to speak to or engage on anonymous reports or anonymous sources,” she said, adding, “I will say that the vice president is an incredibly important partner to the president."
“She has a challenging job, a hard job."
"And she has a great, supportive team of people around her," Psaki said.
"But other than that, I’m not going to have any more comments on those reports.”
Speaking to Axios, Cedric Richmond, a top Biden adviser, blamed the stories on a “whisper campaign designed to sabotage her.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp
"'Consistent thread': Harris staff complaints predate her vice presidency"
Katherine Doyle
19 JULY 2021
Former aides to Vice President Kamala Harris charge that she terrorized them in a hostile work environment, continuing a pattern that dates back to her time as San Fransico district attorney.
The criticisms of Harris's management did not stop her rise from prosecutor to California attorney general to U.S. senator from the nation's most populous state to presidential candidate all the way up through the vice presidency.
Two senior advance staffers in her vice presidential office recently announced their departures, in a manner some former employees say is familiar to them.
“Look, this is a bottom-line business,” one senior Democratic operative told the Washington Examiner after the recent allegations broke.
“And the bottom line is the vice president has challenges with staff wherever she is.”
The criticisms of Harris's management style have taken on new relevance, however, as she is well positioned to be the Democratic presidential nominee at some point in the future.
President Joe Biden, already the oldest person to ever hold the office, will be 81 in 2024.
Presidential historian David Greenberg, who wrote Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency, said it’s too early to tell whether the claims will weigh on Harris’s future electoral prospects.
“Nothing in the news now will matter in 2024."
"If these reports are well founded, Harris has lots of time to fix them, and other more significant things will happen before then,” Greenberg said, calling the allegations “pure inside baseball.”
According to Business Insider, however, these issues have been cropping up for years.
Barbara O’Connor, a communications professor at California State University, Sacramento, told the outlet that at least 20 interns who had worked in Harris’s attorney general and Senate offices sought her advice in tears.
O’Connor said that she helped several of them transfer out of Harris’s offices at the time.
There have also been high-dollar settlements linked to the veep's former staff.
In 2011, a settlement was reached between the California Justice Department and a top aide to then-Attorney General Harris.
Upon leaving, Terri Carbaugh, chief deputy attorney general, signed a nondisclosure agreement and received a $34,900 settlement, an amount just below the $35,000 limit that would have necessitated approval by the state Department of Finance.
A spokesperson for Harris said last July that Harris would support releasing Carbaugh from the nondisclosure agreement if the former staffer desired.
After the Sacramento Bee inquired in 2018 about $400,000 the California Justice Department paid to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit involving a longtime aide, the staffer resigned.
Harris's office declined to respond to specific claims, but in a statement to Insider, a spokeswoman for Harris, Sabrina Singh, said:
"The Vice President and her office are focused on the Biden-Harris Administration's agenda to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down," Singh said.
"To making sure racial equity is at the core of everything the Administration does, to combatting the existential threat of climate change, and to continue protecting the American people from the Covid-19 pandemic."
After Politico described “a tense and at times dour office atmosphere” in which “ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out,” one ex-staffer said the story traveled “like wildfire.”
This person sent the report to their therapist, accompanied by a note that read, “Rarely in life are we publicly vindicated,” according to Insider.
They told the publication that they sought therapy to “resolve trauma from the on-the-job abuse” after discovering that Harris would be Biden’s vice presidential nominee.
Earlier this month, there were reports of deep frustration with Harris’s current chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, a longtime Democratic operative who served in the White House under former President Bill Clinton.
Flournoy reportedly walled off Harris from donors and longtime friends.
Democrats and former aides have defended Flournoy, telling the Washington Examiner, “It does feel like the intentions of Tina Flournoy are good, which are to kind of clean up some of the mess and keep the hanger-ons away.”
This person zeroed in on the executive: “The consistent thread with all of the infighting and dissension, with all of the different power centers of Kamala Harris, is Vice President Harris.”
The news was “not surprising,” the person added.
“The Harris inner circles, and I’ll use that plural because they’ve been different inner circles in California, in her Senate office, on her presidential campaign, and now in her vice presidential campaign [and] in office, they’ve always been rife with a lot of dissension and a lot of infighting."
"It’s probably a little unfair to say it’s just her."
"But she is a common denominator in all of these situations.”
According to Insider, an ex-staffer reached out to another to say, “Poor Tina.”
Replied another, “I know lol that everyone is pointing to her when it’s obvi KDH,” using the vice president’s initials.
One former Harris aide recently told the Washington Examiner that he wasn’t surprised to see the vice president under a microscope.
“Hopefully, this is a wake-up call,” he said, pointing to what he called “self-inflicted wounds.”
“She’s taking on incredibly complex issues and is under the microscope like never before in her career."
"So this sort of treatment comes with the territory,” he added.
“But she really can’t afford any self-inflicted wounds as they will distract from the important work she has in front of her.”
Biden vowed early on to terminate employees if he learned they treated others poorly.
“I’ll fire you on the spot,” Biden told staff at a swearing-in ceremony soon after he took office.
He stood by this when a top White House communications aide verbally abused a reporter.
Asked about some of the charges during a press briefing this month, press secretary Jen Psaki demurred.
“I try not to speak to or engage on anonymous reports or anonymous sources,” she said, adding, “I will say that the vice president is an incredibly important partner to the president."
“She has a challenging job, a hard job."
"And she has a great, supportive team of people around her," Psaki said.
"But other than that, I’m not going to have any more comments on those reports.”
Speaking to Axios, Cedric Richmond, a top Biden adviser, blamed the stories on a “whisper campaign designed to sabotage her.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE HILL
"Harris's bad polls trigger Democratic worries"
Hanna Trudo and Amie Parnes
30 JULY 2021
Vice President Harris has some ground to make up in order to be perceived more favorably by the public, a complicating factor for the Biden administration as it maps out its midterm strategy.
Six months into office, polls indicate Harris is viewed less favorably than President Biden.
She has also made some tactical missteps outside of the White House that Democrats say show she hasn't quite yet found her bearings.
Vice presidents historically do not outperform the leader at the top of the ticket.
But her lower ratings haven't gone unnoticed.
In a trio of recent surveys, Harris earned a combined unfavorable rating of 46 percent, according to an aggregate average compiled by RealClearPolitics.
That number is 3 points below Biden's 43 percent in the same category.
In an Economist-YouGov poll conducted from July 24 to 27, Harris's unfavorable figure reached 48 percent.
A midterm visit by the vice president to a congressional district is generally a way to create crowds and win attention for candidates, but Harris's polling numbers are raising questions about how she might be used as Democrats seek to hold on to slim majorities in the House and Senate.
"As of right now, I think she has the potential of doing more harm than good for some of these candidates," said one Democratic strategist.
"My sense is she'll probably raise a lot of money and maybe she'll go to some specific districts, but they'll have to be really strategic with her."
"She doesn't have the standing at this moment to go to a lot of these tighter districts," the strategist added.
Even some Harris allies are skeptical that she will have a seamless go as a surrogate leading up to next year's midterm elections.
"No one is coming out and saying she's doing an amazing job, because the first question would be 'On what?'" acknowledged one Harris ally.
"She's made a bunch of mistakes and she's made herself a story for good and bad."
A spokesperson for Harris declined to comment.
Harris has faced blowback in particular over the border, one of two areas, along with voting rights, that are a part of her policy portfolio.
She attracted negative press for comments about asylum-seekers attempting to enter the United States during a trip south of the Mexican border, telling immigrants "don't come here" during a press conference, which triggered criticism from some progressives.
"I don't think someone like Mark Kelly would want her anywhere around him," the Harris ally said.
Kelly, a moderate Democratic senator, is up for reelection in Arizona.
Republicans have identified the state as one of their richest pickup opportunities, due in part to the swingy nature of Arizona's voters.
Several GOP primary candidates have already entered the race.
Harris was part of the winning ticket with Biden in Arizona last year, though the party won it narrowly, by some 10,000 votes, over former President Trump.
Some say Harris could be an asset on the ground in a state like Georgia, where Democrats will be fighting to help Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) win a full term in the Senate.
Warnock was elected in a January runoff, defeating former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), a close Trump ally.
Harris campaigned twice in the state ahead of the November election.
Georgia is ground zero for the voting rights issue, and Harris traveled to Atlanta late last month to promote anti-voter suppression messaging, as well as to help persuade Georgia residents to get vaccinated amid rising coronavirus cases.
"You're going to use your vice president strategically," Joel Benenson, former President Obama's chief pollster, told The Hill.
"She's going to be popular in many places that will matter."
"She may be popular in Georgia."
As officials look to plan out travel itineraries for 2022, Democrats like Benenson express confidence that Harris will rise from today's poll numbers.
They argue that fluctuations are normal for a vice president who is less well-known than the boss.
"She's not the person who's out front day in and day out," Benenson said.
"It's a lot harder to break through as vice president."
While Harris was a senator from California and recently ran for president herself, they say she's still somewhat of a national neophyte, especially when compared to Biden, who enjoys high visibility from his service in Washington for decades as a senator and vice president.
There's also a widely discussed notion in Democratic circles that the country's right-wing apparatus - from Trump to Republicans in Congress and prominent partisan media outlets - have worked for years to negatively brand Harris, oftentimes relying on racist and sexist stereotypes to minimize her standing as the first female, Black and Asian American vice president.
"The reason that Harris is unpopular is that they haven't been able to make headway against Joe Biden personally, so they really have switched their messaging strategy to focus on Harris and attack him indirectly," said political analyst Rachel Bitecofer.
"If Democrats buy into the old-school political book and make the same mistakes that they've made in the past and try to shelf her, hide her, run away from her, all they're doing is reasserting the right's negative frame against her," Bitecofer added.
That conservative effort against Harris is unlikely to let up anytime soon, Democrats say, and further adds to her overall negative rating in some national polls.
But there is one area where some say she can make traction.
Cornell Belcher, another member of Obama's campaign polling team, said the administration would be wise to focus on the group of voters who are still unfamiliar with Harris as a way to bring up the overall number, especially among the younger segment of the population.
In the Economist-YouGov poll, 24 percent of voters surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 expressed no opinion of the vice president when asked if they view her favorably.
Only 15 percent of respondents in that same age group, meanwhile, had no formed opinion of Biden.
"Where is an opportunity group where, long-term and short-term, she's got to move that unfamiliar or neutral towards more positive?"
"It is among the ascending American electorate where Joe Biden is gangbusters," Belcher said.
--Abigail Goldberg-Zelizer contributed to this report
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
"Harris's bad polls trigger Democratic worries"
Hanna Trudo and Amie Parnes
30 JULY 2021
Vice President Harris has some ground to make up in order to be perceived more favorably by the public, a complicating factor for the Biden administration as it maps out its midterm strategy.
Six months into office, polls indicate Harris is viewed less favorably than President Biden.
She has also made some tactical missteps outside of the White House that Democrats say show she hasn't quite yet found her bearings.
Vice presidents historically do not outperform the leader at the top of the ticket.
But her lower ratings haven't gone unnoticed.
In a trio of recent surveys, Harris earned a combined unfavorable rating of 46 percent, according to an aggregate average compiled by RealClearPolitics.
That number is 3 points below Biden's 43 percent in the same category.
In an Economist-YouGov poll conducted from July 24 to 27, Harris's unfavorable figure reached 48 percent.
A midterm visit by the vice president to a congressional district is generally a way to create crowds and win attention for candidates, but Harris's polling numbers are raising questions about how she might be used as Democrats seek to hold on to slim majorities in the House and Senate.
"As of right now, I think she has the potential of doing more harm than good for some of these candidates," said one Democratic strategist.
"My sense is she'll probably raise a lot of money and maybe she'll go to some specific districts, but they'll have to be really strategic with her."
"She doesn't have the standing at this moment to go to a lot of these tighter districts," the strategist added.
Even some Harris allies are skeptical that she will have a seamless go as a surrogate leading up to next year's midterm elections.
"No one is coming out and saying she's doing an amazing job, because the first question would be 'On what?'" acknowledged one Harris ally.
"She's made a bunch of mistakes and she's made herself a story for good and bad."
A spokesperson for Harris declined to comment.
Harris has faced blowback in particular over the border, one of two areas, along with voting rights, that are a part of her policy portfolio.
She attracted negative press for comments about asylum-seekers attempting to enter the United States during a trip south of the Mexican border, telling immigrants "don't come here" during a press conference, which triggered criticism from some progressives.
"I don't think someone like Mark Kelly would want her anywhere around him," the Harris ally said.
Kelly, a moderate Democratic senator, is up for reelection in Arizona.
Republicans have identified the state as one of their richest pickup opportunities, due in part to the swingy nature of Arizona's voters.
Several GOP primary candidates have already entered the race.
Harris was part of the winning ticket with Biden in Arizona last year, though the party won it narrowly, by some 10,000 votes, over former President Trump.
Some say Harris could be an asset on the ground in a state like Georgia, where Democrats will be fighting to help Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) win a full term in the Senate.
Warnock was elected in a January runoff, defeating former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), a close Trump ally.
Harris campaigned twice in the state ahead of the November election.
Georgia is ground zero for the voting rights issue, and Harris traveled to Atlanta late last month to promote anti-voter suppression messaging, as well as to help persuade Georgia residents to get vaccinated amid rising coronavirus cases.
"You're going to use your vice president strategically," Joel Benenson, former President Obama's chief pollster, told The Hill.
"She's going to be popular in many places that will matter."
"She may be popular in Georgia."
As officials look to plan out travel itineraries for 2022, Democrats like Benenson express confidence that Harris will rise from today's poll numbers.
They argue that fluctuations are normal for a vice president who is less well-known than the boss.
"She's not the person who's out front day in and day out," Benenson said.
"It's a lot harder to break through as vice president."
While Harris was a senator from California and recently ran for president herself, they say she's still somewhat of a national neophyte, especially when compared to Biden, who enjoys high visibility from his service in Washington for decades as a senator and vice president.
There's also a widely discussed notion in Democratic circles that the country's right-wing apparatus - from Trump to Republicans in Congress and prominent partisan media outlets - have worked for years to negatively brand Harris, oftentimes relying on racist and sexist stereotypes to minimize her standing as the first female, Black and Asian American vice president.
"The reason that Harris is unpopular is that they haven't been able to make headway against Joe Biden personally, so they really have switched their messaging strategy to focus on Harris and attack him indirectly," said political analyst Rachel Bitecofer.
"If Democrats buy into the old-school political book and make the same mistakes that they've made in the past and try to shelf her, hide her, run away from her, all they're doing is reasserting the right's negative frame against her," Bitecofer added.
That conservative effort against Harris is unlikely to let up anytime soon, Democrats say, and further adds to her overall negative rating in some national polls.
But there is one area where some say she can make traction.
Cornell Belcher, another member of Obama's campaign polling team, said the administration would be wise to focus on the group of voters who are still unfamiliar with Harris as a way to bring up the overall number, especially among the younger segment of the population.
In the Economist-YouGov poll, 24 percent of voters surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 expressed no opinion of the vice president when asked if they view her favorably.
Only 15 percent of respondents in that same age group, meanwhile, had no formed opinion of Biden.
"Where is an opportunity group where, long-term and short-term, she's got to move that unfamiliar or neutral towards more positive?"
"It is among the ascending American electorate where Joe Biden is gangbusters," Belcher said.
--Abigail Goldberg-Zelizer contributed to this report
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"Biden is paying the price for his Harris mistake"
Tom Joyce
30 JULY 2021
President Joe Biden made a promise — and the result of that promise isn’t looking great right now.
Biden vowed that he would pick a female vice president, pigeonholing himself into having limited options for his running mate.
There are plenty of women out there who would make great vice presidents.
However, Biden selected Kamala Harris, and his party may pay for that.
If Democrats suffer politically as a result, it will be well deserved.
Harris is not doing well in opinion polls as of late.
She’s not as unpopular as, say, former President Donald Trump, but she’s also less popular than Biden.
Her RealClearPolitics polling average this week shows that she has a 45% approval rating and a 46% disapproval rating.
Compare that to Biden himself, who has a 51.3% approval rating and a 44.6% disapproval rating.
The public previously rejected Harris.
She ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary and dropped out before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
She got fewer delegates than former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat, someone who played a role in killing the Harris campaign.
Gabbard exposed how Harris prosecuted people for using marijuana and school truancy, tried to block evidence that would have freed someone on death row, and kept people in prison beyond their sentencing and used them as cheap labor while serving as attorney general of California.
That says a lot about Harris’s character.
Why couldn’t Biden have picked Gabbard as his running mate instead?
It’s not hard to imagine why the public dislikes Harris.
She tried smearing Biden as a racist in the Democratic primaries and laughed it off (like she does with a lot of serious questions) when asked about it at a later date.
Biden’s offense: He dared to oppose busing that forced children to trek across cities into dangerous neighborhoods where they were subjected to violence and riots in the name of racial equity.
Harris also wobbled back and forth on "Medicare for all," which would be the biggest entitlement program in U.S. history and said that she wanted to decriminalize illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The latter is a policy that would result in more illegal immigration.
Now, she’s rightfully telling people from countries such as Guatemala not to come to the already overwhelmed U.S. border.
Props to her for doing the right thing in the end, but she makes herself hard to trust.
Not to mention, people should have little faith in the Biden administration to secure the U.S.-Mexico border since it’s not advocating for any serious restrictions on illegal immigration — but does want a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Not to mention, like much of the modern-day Democratic Party, Harris is a pro-abortion extremist.
She supports unpopular second- and third-trimester elective abortions, as well as commonsense requirements such as parental notification, waiting periods, and informed consent laws.
Informed consent often tells women about all of their choices — including how they can get public assistance to support their child, as well as their respective state’s safe haven law, which may not be common knowledge.
If Biden’s party suffers because he got Harris instead of an honest centrist, that’s on Biden.
If he does seek reelection — hopefully, he doesn’t — let’s hope it’s at least with a different running mate.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp
"Biden is paying the price for his Harris mistake"
Tom Joyce
30 JULY 2021
President Joe Biden made a promise — and the result of that promise isn’t looking great right now.
Biden vowed that he would pick a female vice president, pigeonholing himself into having limited options for his running mate.
There are plenty of women out there who would make great vice presidents.
However, Biden selected Kamala Harris, and his party may pay for that.
If Democrats suffer politically as a result, it will be well deserved.
Harris is not doing well in opinion polls as of late.
She’s not as unpopular as, say, former President Donald Trump, but she’s also less popular than Biden.
Her RealClearPolitics polling average this week shows that she has a 45% approval rating and a 46% disapproval rating.
Compare that to Biden himself, who has a 51.3% approval rating and a 44.6% disapproval rating.
The public previously rejected Harris.
She ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary and dropped out before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
She got fewer delegates than former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat, someone who played a role in killing the Harris campaign.
Gabbard exposed how Harris prosecuted people for using marijuana and school truancy, tried to block evidence that would have freed someone on death row, and kept people in prison beyond their sentencing and used them as cheap labor while serving as attorney general of California.
That says a lot about Harris’s character.
Why couldn’t Biden have picked Gabbard as his running mate instead?
It’s not hard to imagine why the public dislikes Harris.
She tried smearing Biden as a racist in the Democratic primaries and laughed it off (like she does with a lot of serious questions) when asked about it at a later date.
Biden’s offense: He dared to oppose busing that forced children to trek across cities into dangerous neighborhoods where they were subjected to violence and riots in the name of racial equity.
Harris also wobbled back and forth on "Medicare for all," which would be the biggest entitlement program in U.S. history and said that she wanted to decriminalize illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The latter is a policy that would result in more illegal immigration.
Now, she’s rightfully telling people from countries such as Guatemala not to come to the already overwhelmed U.S. border.
Props to her for doing the right thing in the end, but she makes herself hard to trust.
Not to mention, people should have little faith in the Biden administration to secure the U.S.-Mexico border since it’s not advocating for any serious restrictions on illegal immigration — but does want a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Not to mention, like much of the modern-day Democratic Party, Harris is a pro-abortion extremist.
She supports unpopular second- and third-trimester elective abortions, as well as commonsense requirements such as parental notification, waiting periods, and informed consent laws.
Informed consent often tells women about all of their choices — including how they can get public assistance to support their child, as well as their respective state’s safe haven law, which may not be common knowledge.
If Biden’s party suffers because he got Harris instead of an honest centrist, that’s on Biden.
If he does seek reelection — hopefully, he doesn’t — let’s hope it’s at least with a different running mate.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
BUSINESS INSIDER
"Harris allies convened a 'crisis dinner' to strategize defending the VP against negative stories about her office, report says"
gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)
5 AUGUST 2021
Top female Democratic operatives held a dinner to strategize on defending VP Harris, Axios reports.
Numerous news stories have detailed chaos and dysfunction in Harris' office.
Many Harris allies argue she faces undue scrutiny and criticism because she's a powerful woman of color.
A powerhouse group of female Democratic strategists and communications professionals recently convened a "crisis dinner" to strategize on how to best defend Vice President Kamala Harris against a barrage of negative news coverage, Axios reports.
The dinner, organized by Democratic communications strategist Kiki McLean, included former White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri, top Biden adviser Stephanie Cutter, former 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign spokeswomen Karen Finney and Adrienne Elrod, strategist Minyon Moore, and former top DNC officials Donna Brazile and Leah Daughtry, according to Axios.
The crisis dinner was not focused on changing the workplace culture of the VP's office, but on how the women could use their communications expertise to defend Harris and her chief of staff Tina Flournoy from unflattering stories and "be supportive from the outside."
"It was less about how do you sort out the infrastructure [of Harris' operation], and it was more how can this group contribute to make sure that not only is her team making the most of this moment - as the first woman of color in the White House - but how can we help from the outside?," one attendee told Axios.
The group of women at the dinner discussed how to flip the script on the criticism Harris has faced for her handling of difficult assignments she's taken on as VP, particularly immigration.
Long-simmering discord in Harris' office and tensions between her staff and Biden's boiled over in an explosive June report from Politico.
The story, which drew on interviews with 22 sources, including current and former Harris staffers, detailed poor morale, dysfunction, communication breakdowns within the vice president's office.
"We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day."
"What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I'm like 'welcome to the club,'" Harris' chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders told Politico in response.
Axios previously reported that many officials in Bidenworld, well-known for maintaining an ultra-disciplined and leakproof press operation, privately refer to Harris' office as a "s---show."
Insider's Robin Bravender spoke with 12 former Harris staffers who worked under her in California and Washington who described a toxic workplace, a culture of paranoia, and pervasive burnout accompanied by high staff turnover among those working for a highly demanding and often tough boss.
One former Harris staffer, who sought therapy for "on-the-job abuse" after working for Harris, told Insider that she sent the Politico story to her therapist with a note: "Rarely in life are we publicly vindicated."
Top officials from the White House and from Biden's operation have also publicly stepped up to defend Harris, an unusual dynamic so early into an administration.
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, and Cedric Richmond, a senior advisor, previously defended Harris and her office's operation to Axios, with Richmond charging that Harris was the victim of "a whisper campaign designed to sabotage her."
Many Harris supporters and allies have argued that Harris faces disproportionate and unduly harsh criticism rooted in sexism because she is a woman of color in the second most powerful job in the United States.
"Many of us lived through the Clinton campaign, and want to help curb some of the gendered dynamics in press coverage that impacted HRC," a source told Axios.
"It was like: 'We've seen this before.'"
"It's subtle."
"But when things aren't going well for a male politician, we ask very different questions, and they're not held to account the way a woman leader is."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
"Harris allies convened a 'crisis dinner' to strategize defending the VP against negative stories about her office, report says"
gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)
5 AUGUST 2021
Top female Democratic operatives held a dinner to strategize on defending VP Harris, Axios reports.
Numerous news stories have detailed chaos and dysfunction in Harris' office.
Many Harris allies argue she faces undue scrutiny and criticism because she's a powerful woman of color.
A powerhouse group of female Democratic strategists and communications professionals recently convened a "crisis dinner" to strategize on how to best defend Vice President Kamala Harris against a barrage of negative news coverage, Axios reports.
The dinner, organized by Democratic communications strategist Kiki McLean, included former White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri, top Biden adviser Stephanie Cutter, former 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign spokeswomen Karen Finney and Adrienne Elrod, strategist Minyon Moore, and former top DNC officials Donna Brazile and Leah Daughtry, according to Axios.
The crisis dinner was not focused on changing the workplace culture of the VP's office, but on how the women could use their communications expertise to defend Harris and her chief of staff Tina Flournoy from unflattering stories and "be supportive from the outside."
"It was less about how do you sort out the infrastructure [of Harris' operation], and it was more how can this group contribute to make sure that not only is her team making the most of this moment - as the first woman of color in the White House - but how can we help from the outside?," one attendee told Axios.
The group of women at the dinner discussed how to flip the script on the criticism Harris has faced for her handling of difficult assignments she's taken on as VP, particularly immigration.
Long-simmering discord in Harris' office and tensions between her staff and Biden's boiled over in an explosive June report from Politico.
The story, which drew on interviews with 22 sources, including current and former Harris staffers, detailed poor morale, dysfunction, communication breakdowns within the vice president's office.
"We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day."
"What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I'm like 'welcome to the club,'" Harris' chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders told Politico in response.
Axios previously reported that many officials in Bidenworld, well-known for maintaining an ultra-disciplined and leakproof press operation, privately refer to Harris' office as a "s---show."
Insider's Robin Bravender spoke with 12 former Harris staffers who worked under her in California and Washington who described a toxic workplace, a culture of paranoia, and pervasive burnout accompanied by high staff turnover among those working for a highly demanding and often tough boss.
One former Harris staffer, who sought therapy for "on-the-job abuse" after working for Harris, told Insider that she sent the Politico story to her therapist with a note: "Rarely in life are we publicly vindicated."
Top officials from the White House and from Biden's operation have also publicly stepped up to defend Harris, an unusual dynamic so early into an administration.
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, and Cedric Richmond, a senior advisor, previously defended Harris and her office's operation to Axios, with Richmond charging that Harris was the victim of "a whisper campaign designed to sabotage her."
Many Harris supporters and allies have argued that Harris faces disproportionate and unduly harsh criticism rooted in sexism because she is a woman of color in the second most powerful job in the United States.
"Many of us lived through the Clinton campaign, and want to help curb some of the gendered dynamics in press coverage that impacted HRC," a source told Axios.
"It was like: 'We've seen this before.'"
"It's subtle."
"But when things aren't going well for a male politician, we ask very different questions, and they're not held to account the way a woman leader is."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
BLOOMBERG
"Harris Urges More China Pressure in Meeting With Vietnam Leader"
Jenny Leonard and Derek Wallbank
25 August 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris urged countries in the region to apply more pressure on China in a meeting with Vietnam’s president, stepping up her criticism of Beijing on a visit to Asia.
“We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims,” Harris said at the start of a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Harris said the U.S. wants to upgrade its relationship with Vietnam to a strategic partnership, and said the Biden administration strongly supports the former U.S. adversary’s request for a third former U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
Harris also said the U.S. would donate an additional 1 million Pfizer vaccines to Vietnam, which would start arriving within the next 24 hours, bringing the total to 6 million so far.
Vaccines have been at the forefront of an American diplomatic offensive in Southeast Asia, with the region accounting for about a fifth of all doses the U.S. has given globally.
The Biden administration is aiming to bolster ties with countries in China’s backyard, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and now Harris visiting the region over the past few weeks.
Phuc, who spoke before Harris, said U.S. assistance on vaccinations “is truly valuable and meaningful to Vietnam at a time when we are faced with ample difficulties posed by the COVID 19 pandemic.”
Press were escorted out of their meeting room before any Vietnamese officials commented on her suggested diplomatic upgrades.
Phuc didn’t mention China in his remarks.
While Vietnam has become increasingly worried about China’s assertiveness over disputed territory, it has avoided overtly siding against Beijing along with other Southeast Asian nations keen to balance ties between the world’s biggest economies.
Vietnam announced Tuesday that China would give it another 2 million vaccine doses, with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh telling Beijing’s envoy that his country maintains an independent foreign policy and wouldn’t join an alliance against another country.
Vaccine diplomacy is also a critical part of China’s political calculus.
President Xi Jinping earlier this month announced plans to expand vaccine exports to two billion doses this year, matching commitments by Group of Seven nations.
Just 1.9% of Vietnam’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, among the lowest vaccination rates anywhere in Asia.
‘Huge Opportunities’
Harris later on Wednesday will hold a discussion with Southeast Asian officials on health security, before launching the Southeast Asia regional office for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. agencies including the CDC committed another $23 million to Vietnam’s pandemic response, bringing the total to about $44 million so far, according to the White House.
The Department of Defense has also committed to provide 77 ultra-low temperature vaccine freezers to assist vaccination distribution efforts in all 63 provinces.
These freezers are specially designed to accommodate the most extreme vaccine storage requirements, significantly enhancing Vietnam’s national vaccine distribution network.
In Vietnam, Harris stopped at a memorial for John McCain, the late U.S. senator whose plane was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
Harris’s trip to Singapore and Vietnam has been overshadowed by Afghanistan, where a rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed government has left the Biden administration rushing to evacuate Americans and those who assisted their 20-year war effort against the Taliban, which now controls almost all of the country.
Photographs of helicopters over Kabul evoked images of air rescues from Saigon -- now known as Ho Chi Minh City -- more than 45 years ago, lending Harris’s previously scheduled visit to Vietnam an unplanned historical echo.
“U.S. businesses and other businesses from the other parts of the world see huge opportunities for growth,” Ted Osius, president and CEO of the U.S.-Asean Business Council, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“Security is really about more than ships and planes, it’s also about ties between nations, and what I think the vice president is doing is cementing those ties in multiple areas on the two stops of her trip.”
Harris’s departure from Singapore on Tuesday was delayed for more than three hours because of concerns about “an anomalous health incident” in Hanoi, the State Department said.
The phrase “anomalous health incidents” describes so-called Havana Syndrome, which has afflicted dozens of U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials who describe feeling ill and other unusual physical sensations after hearing strange sounds.
The U.S. has not determined a cause for the affliction.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ha ... d=msedgntp
"Harris Urges More China Pressure in Meeting With Vietnam Leader"
Jenny Leonard and Derek Wallbank
25 August 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris urged countries in the region to apply more pressure on China in a meeting with Vietnam’s president, stepping up her criticism of Beijing on a visit to Asia.
“We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims,” Harris said at the start of a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Harris said the U.S. wants to upgrade its relationship with Vietnam to a strategic partnership, and said the Biden administration strongly supports the former U.S. adversary’s request for a third former U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
Harris also said the U.S. would donate an additional 1 million Pfizer vaccines to Vietnam, which would start arriving within the next 24 hours, bringing the total to 6 million so far.
Vaccines have been at the forefront of an American diplomatic offensive in Southeast Asia, with the region accounting for about a fifth of all doses the U.S. has given globally.
The Biden administration is aiming to bolster ties with countries in China’s backyard, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and now Harris visiting the region over the past few weeks.
Phuc, who spoke before Harris, said U.S. assistance on vaccinations “is truly valuable and meaningful to Vietnam at a time when we are faced with ample difficulties posed by the COVID 19 pandemic.”
Press were escorted out of their meeting room before any Vietnamese officials commented on her suggested diplomatic upgrades.
Phuc didn’t mention China in his remarks.
While Vietnam has become increasingly worried about China’s assertiveness over disputed territory, it has avoided overtly siding against Beijing along with other Southeast Asian nations keen to balance ties between the world’s biggest economies.
Vietnam announced Tuesday that China would give it another 2 million vaccine doses, with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh telling Beijing’s envoy that his country maintains an independent foreign policy and wouldn’t join an alliance against another country.
Vaccine diplomacy is also a critical part of China’s political calculus.
President Xi Jinping earlier this month announced plans to expand vaccine exports to two billion doses this year, matching commitments by Group of Seven nations.
Just 1.9% of Vietnam’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, among the lowest vaccination rates anywhere in Asia.
‘Huge Opportunities’
Harris later on Wednesday will hold a discussion with Southeast Asian officials on health security, before launching the Southeast Asia regional office for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. agencies including the CDC committed another $23 million to Vietnam’s pandemic response, bringing the total to about $44 million so far, according to the White House.
The Department of Defense has also committed to provide 77 ultra-low temperature vaccine freezers to assist vaccination distribution efforts in all 63 provinces.
These freezers are specially designed to accommodate the most extreme vaccine storage requirements, significantly enhancing Vietnam’s national vaccine distribution network.
In Vietnam, Harris stopped at a memorial for John McCain, the late U.S. senator whose plane was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
Harris’s trip to Singapore and Vietnam has been overshadowed by Afghanistan, where a rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed government has left the Biden administration rushing to evacuate Americans and those who assisted their 20-year war effort against the Taliban, which now controls almost all of the country.
Photographs of helicopters over Kabul evoked images of air rescues from Saigon -- now known as Ho Chi Minh City -- more than 45 years ago, lending Harris’s previously scheduled visit to Vietnam an unplanned historical echo.
“U.S. businesses and other businesses from the other parts of the world see huge opportunities for growth,” Ted Osius, president and CEO of the U.S.-Asean Business Council, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
“Security is really about more than ships and planes, it’s also about ties between nations, and what I think the vice president is doing is cementing those ties in multiple areas on the two stops of her trip.”
Harris’s departure from Singapore on Tuesday was delayed for more than three hours because of concerns about “an anomalous health incident” in Hanoi, the State Department said.
The phrase “anomalous health incidents” describes so-called Havana Syndrome, which has afflicted dozens of U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials who describe feeling ill and other unusual physical sensations after hearing strange sounds.
The U.S. has not determined a cause for the affliction.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ha ... d=msedgntp
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"US closes Del Rio border crossing as thousands of migrants illegally cross"
Anna Giaritelli
18 SEPTEMBER 2021
The federal agency that oversees U.S. borders made the unprecedented move to shut down a port of entry between Mexico and Texas in response to an unmanageable flow of migrants, arriving in the thousands overnight.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Trade announced Friday evening that the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, would immediately stop operating, not allowing traffic north into the United States or south into Mexico.
All vehicular traffic will have to travel an hour's drive to the next closest open port of entry between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico.
As of Friday morning, approximately 12,000 people had illegally crossed the border beneath the port of entry, wading through the border river to get into the U.S., and were waiting under the bridge to be taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-cl ... hp&pc=U531
"US closes Del Rio border crossing as thousands of migrants illegally cross"
Anna Giaritelli
18 SEPTEMBER 2021
The federal agency that oversees U.S. borders made the unprecedented move to shut down a port of entry between Mexico and Texas in response to an unmanageable flow of migrants, arriving in the thousands overnight.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Trade announced Friday evening that the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, would immediately stop operating, not allowing traffic north into the United States or south into Mexico.
All vehicular traffic will have to travel an hour's drive to the next closest open port of entry between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico.
As of Friday morning, approximately 12,000 people had illegally crossed the border beneath the port of entry, wading through the border river to get into the U.S., and were waiting under the bridge to be taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-cl ... hp&pc=U531
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
CNBC
"Biden condemns Border Patrol agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants, vows they will face consequences"
Annika Kim Constantino @ANNIKAKIMC
KEY POINTS
* President Joe Biden on Friday condemned Border Patrol agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, as “outrageous.”
* “I promise you, those people will pay. There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences,” Biden said.
* Vice President Kamala Harris compared the treatment of Haitian migrants by Border Patrol agents on horseback to the oppression of indigenous people and African Americans during slavery.
President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the U.S. Border Patrol’s treatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, calling the behavior of agents on horseback “outrageous” and vowing they will face consequences for their actions.
“It’s horrible what you saw."
"To see people like they did, with horses, running them over, people being strapped, it’s outrageous,” Biden said at the White House, referencing a series of photos and video showing mounted Border Patrol agents grabbing Haitian migrants trying to cross into the U.S.
“I promise you, those people will pay."
"There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences,” he said.
It was the president’s first substantive comment on the situation in Del Rio, where more than 10,000 Haitian migrants have tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico since mid-September.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Friday, compared the agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants to the oppression of indigenous people and African Americans during slavery.
“As we all know it evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country, has been used against African Americans during times of slavery,” Harris said.
“There needs to be consequences and accountability."
"Human beings should not be treated that way,” the vice president said, noting that she fully supports the investigation being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Biden administration’s handling of the influx of migrants has drawn sharp criticism from immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
Amid public outcry, the administration on Thursday halted agents’ use of horses in Del Rio.
However, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on Monday rejected allegations that whips were used by agents in the images and videos that fueled public outrage.
They said the agents were wielding reins to control their horses.
Biden said he took responsibility for the crisis unfolding at the border and the actions of the Border Patrol depicted in the images.
“Of course I take responsibility,” Biden said.
“I’m president.”
“It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message at home,” he said. “It’s simply not who we are.”
The U.S. special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned Thursday over the Biden administration’s Haiti policy after only two months in the position.
In a scathing letter, Foote condemned the administration’s deportations of Haitian migrants as inhumane.
“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,” Foote said in his resignation letter Wednesday obtained by NBC News.
More than 3,000 Haitian nationals have been moved to Customs and Border Protection custody to be placed in removal proceedings or expelled through a health law called Title 42, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
Title 42 is a controversial provision, first implemented by the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic, that denies certain migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum.
In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Title 42 will remain in effect until there’s no longer a danger of people who aren’t U.S. citizens bringing Covid-19 into the country when they cross the border.
Unaccompanied children are exempt from Title 42.
And a total of 1,401 Haitians have been flown back to Haiti on repatriation flights that began Sunday, leaving fewer than 5,000 Haitian migrants under a bridge in Del Rio.
-- CNBC’s Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/24/biden-c ... l-rio.html
"Biden condemns Border Patrol agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants, vows they will face consequences"
Annika Kim Constantino @ANNIKAKIMC
KEY POINTS
* President Joe Biden on Friday condemned Border Patrol agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, as “outrageous.”
* “I promise you, those people will pay. There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences,” Biden said.
* Vice President Kamala Harris compared the treatment of Haitian migrants by Border Patrol agents on horseback to the oppression of indigenous people and African Americans during slavery.
President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the U.S. Border Patrol’s treatment of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, calling the behavior of agents on horseback “outrageous” and vowing they will face consequences for their actions.
“It’s horrible what you saw."
"To see people like they did, with horses, running them over, people being strapped, it’s outrageous,” Biden said at the White House, referencing a series of photos and video showing mounted Border Patrol agents grabbing Haitian migrants trying to cross into the U.S.
“I promise you, those people will pay."
"There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences,” he said.
It was the president’s first substantive comment on the situation in Del Rio, where more than 10,000 Haitian migrants have tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico since mid-September.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Friday, compared the agents’ treatment of Haitian migrants to the oppression of indigenous people and African Americans during slavery.
“As we all know it evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country, has been used against African Americans during times of slavery,” Harris said.
“There needs to be consequences and accountability."
"Human beings should not be treated that way,” the vice president said, noting that she fully supports the investigation being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Biden administration’s handling of the influx of migrants has drawn sharp criticism from immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
Amid public outcry, the administration on Thursday halted agents’ use of horses in Del Rio.
However, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on Monday rejected allegations that whips were used by agents in the images and videos that fueled public outrage.
They said the agents were wielding reins to control their horses.
Biden said he took responsibility for the crisis unfolding at the border and the actions of the Border Patrol depicted in the images.
“Of course I take responsibility,” Biden said.
“I’m president.”
“It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message at home,” he said. “It’s simply not who we are.”
The U.S. special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned Thursday over the Biden administration’s Haiti policy after only two months in the position.
In a scathing letter, Foote condemned the administration’s deportations of Haitian migrants as inhumane.
“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,” Foote said in his resignation letter Wednesday obtained by NBC News.
More than 3,000 Haitian nationals have been moved to Customs and Border Protection custody to be placed in removal proceedings or expelled through a health law called Title 42, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
Title 42 is a controversial provision, first implemented by the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic, that denies certain migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum.
In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Title 42 will remain in effect until there’s no longer a danger of people who aren’t U.S. citizens bringing Covid-19 into the country when they cross the border.
Unaccompanied children are exempt from Title 42.
And a total of 1,401 Haitians have been flown back to Haiti on repatriation flights that began Sunday, leaving fewer than 5,000 Haitian migrants under a bridge in Del Rio.
-- CNBC’s Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/24/biden-c ... l-rio.html
Re: KAMALA HARRIS
BUSINESS INSIDER
"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Kamala Harris after a report about 'exasperation and dysfunction' in the vice president's office"
kvlamis@insider.com (Kelsey Vlamis)
15 NOVEMBER 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Vice President Kamala Harris is a "vital partner" to Biden.
Psaki's tweet came after a CNN report that claimed Harris' aides feel she is being sidelined by Biden.
A Harris spokesperson dismissed the CNN report as "gossip."
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted in defense of Vice President Kamala Harris hours after a critical report alleged "exasperation and dysfunction" going on in her office.
"For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country-from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband," Psaki wrote in a tweet Sunday night.
The tweet followed a report from CNN that said many of Harris' aides feel she is being sidelined by President Joe Biden and that the vice president herself feels "constrained in what she's able to do politically."
Symone Sanders, a spokesperson for Harris, dismissed the report as "gossip" in a statement shared with the outlet and posted to Twitter.
"It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America's oldest ally and demonstrated U.S. leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip - not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered," Sanders said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531
"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Kamala Harris after a report about 'exasperation and dysfunction' in the vice president's office"
kvlamis@insider.com (Kelsey Vlamis)
15 NOVEMBER 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Vice President Kamala Harris is a "vital partner" to Biden.
Psaki's tweet came after a CNN report that claimed Harris' aides feel she is being sidelined by Biden.
A Harris spokesperson dismissed the CNN report as "gossip."
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted in defense of Vice President Kamala Harris hours after a critical report alleged "exasperation and dysfunction" going on in her office.
"For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country-from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband," Psaki wrote in a tweet Sunday night.
The tweet followed a report from CNN that said many of Harris' aides feel she is being sidelined by President Joe Biden and that the vice president herself feels "constrained in what she's able to do politically."
Symone Sanders, a spokesperson for Harris, dismissed the report as "gossip" in a statement shared with the outlet and posted to Twitter.
"It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America's oldest ally and demonstrated U.S. leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip - not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered," Sanders said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... hp&pc=U531