OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are reportedly having contentious issues regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“Harris has been telling colleagues in the administration that she wants the White House to show more concern publicly for the humanitarian damage in Gaza, where Israel is locked in a bloody and prolonged battle with Hamas, according to three people familiar with Harris’ comments,” Politico reported.
One person “close to the vice president’s office” claimed that Harris wants the U.S. to be “tougher” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The vice president has reportedly asked that the U.S. government be “more forceful at seeking a long-term peace and two-state solution,” per Politico’s source.
According to Kirsten Allen, who is Harris’ press secretary, “there is no daylight between the president and the vice president, nor has there been.”
Allen claims that Biden and Harris do not have different views on the Israel-Hamas conflict and that the president and vice president “have been clear: Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself; humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza; innocent civilians must be protected; and the United States remains committed to a two-state solution.”
“I would caution the media about citing anonymous sources in the ‘orbit’ about sensitive national security conversations between the president and vice president that take place in the Oval Office,” Allen said.
Politico talked to another top official in the Biden administration who said that the president and vice president had very similar views on the war.
“No one needed to be convinced of that; there were no outliers. This has been the consensus view and remains the consensus view from the President on down, ” the person said. The official also said that “the President and Vice President have been consistent in public and private about these policy priorities.”
Other reports have surfaced regarding possible tensions between Biden and Harris as the 2024 election looms.
A recent report in the Daily Mail notes that Harris hired a new senior staffer who criticized Biden several times in the past for his age.
The Vice President’s hiring of an infamous Biden critic as a senior advisor has led many to believe that Kamala Harris is trying to dissuade Joe Biden from running for president in 2024 so that she, herself, can jump in.
To help her with her campaign communications in the next election, Vice President Harris recruited Brian Fallon. Before joining Senator Chuck Schumer’s staff in 2013, Fallon was Hillary Clinton’s national press secretary during her presidential campaign.
The seasoned assistant has been vocal about her ageism and her criticism of Joe Biden, the oldest president in American history at 81 years of age. Fallon was an outspoken supporter of the effort that succeeded in having Stephen Breyer, a sitting Supreme Court justice, retire due to advanced age.
“Biden trying to complete an answer is a tender moment,” Fallon wrote on X, mocking Biden for his cognitive state during the 2019 Democratic primary debate.
Meanwhile, Fallon wrote that he felt the then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was “passed” for his rambling response to the question of slavery in a 2019 debate.
In his post, he pointed out that many people were seemingly lenient toward Biden’s response regarding slavery.
Beyond his 2020 campaign, Fallon continued to publicly criticize President Biden in 2021 for allegedly ignoring the needs of black people.
He is taking Ford F-150s for a spin. According to what he told the Washington Post, his visit to Selma is not about discussing voting rights.
Many see Harris’s new hire as an attempt to displace Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate for 2024 and force him to drop out of the race.
In a recent report, Reuters stated that Democrats do not have a candidate in mind to replace Biden in 2024, clearing the way for the most apparent choice to take over as his vice president.
Democrats are understandably worried about their succession plan if the aging president becomes unable to serve due to her low approval ratings and dismal polling numbers.
A month after Biden and Harris acknowledged they would need to “earn” re-election, speculation has begun regarding Harris’s presidential aspirations.
