Created Equal: Who is VP Kamala Harris as a politician?
Atlantic staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro joined the show to discuss how the former prosecutor and presumptive Democratic nominee can embrace her law-enforcement record to compete against Trump this November.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris
Since Vice President Kamala Harris’ endorsement from President Joe Biden last Sunday, an overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats, governors and delegates have pledged their support for her as the Democratic Party nominee.
While this support is non-binding, it is significant for the start of her campaign for the official nomination.
But Harris’ vice presidency has not been without it’s criticism, as many question her efforts to secure the border — one of her frontline tasks during her time in office — at a time when immigration has become a central issue in Republican messaging.
Elaina Plott Calabro, a staff writer for The Atlantic who has written extensively about Harris’ vice presidency, joined Created Equal on Thursday to discuss her recent article about how the former prosecutor and presumptive Democratic nominee can embrace her law-enforcement record to compete against Trump this November.
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Guest:
Elaina Plott Calabro is a staff writer for The Atlantic. She has been reporting on Harris’s career both before and during her time as vice president of the United States. She says that Harris took a backseat as vice president because she was more comfortable in a supportive role after America’s response to her attempted immigration reform in Central America.
“I remember [Joe Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ron Klain] said to me in our interview that her response was: ‘I’m just terrified of doing something that sets back the administration, or distracts from the mission.’ She really took it seriously. Her mandate as vice president was to sort of support the president and make sure that people saw him as a really accomplished individual, [which was] an agenda that was working for them,” she said. “She was comfortable in that role, sort of working more behind the scenes – which is why I think I levy a lot of responsibility on Joe Biden for kind of freeing her from those inherent [or] structural inhibitions of the vice presidency, to let her be more of a star in her own right [with the endorsement].”
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