Vice President Kamala Harris has responded to a new poll in which most respondents rated her the worst second-in-command in the country’s history.
In a post-survey interview with ABC News reporter Linsey Davis, Harris refuted the findings and claimed that she had “great” approval ratings, the Daily Wire reported.
For her part, Davis framed the question — and Harris’ horrible ratings — in terms of “race” and “gender.”
“There are reports that say you have the lowest approval rating of any vice president,” Davis said. “I’m curious — how much of a role, if any, that you feel race and gender play in that?”
“Well, there are polls that also say I have great approval ratings,” Harris claimed as she smiled. “I think the point that has to be made is that there are attempts to create distractions away from the accomplishments of our administration.”
“We’ve created over 13 million jobs since we’ve been in office,” Harris added, without noting that a large portion — and perhaps even a majority — of them were due to people going back to work following the pandemic. “Joe Biden and I have been responsible for 800,000 new manufacturing jobs in the United States, not to mention what we have done to restore America’s integrity on the international stage.”
“There are reports that say you have the lowest approval rating of any vice president…”
KAMALA HARRIS: “Well, there are polls that also say I have great approval ratings!”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 31, 2023
The report went on to say that last month, Harris got the lowest-ever rating for a vice president in an NBC News poll.
“Data Download: The number of the day is … 32%,” the poll said. “That’s the share of registered voters in a new NBC News poll who say they have a positive view of Vice President Kamala Harris. That’s compared with 49% who have a negative view of her, including 39% who have a ‘very negative’ view.”
“Harris’ net-negative rating (-17) is the lowest for any vice president in the poll’s history,” the report noted further.
The Washington Examiner noted further: “Mike Pence managed to survive the entire coronavirus crisis without hitting Harris’s net negative 17 approval rating. Despite Democrats getting clobbered in the 2010 midterm elections, then-Vice President Joe Biden (barely) broke even in the NBC poll, with a plus 1% approval rating.”
“After the Bush administration invaded Iraq, Dick Cheney’s net approval was a whopping plus 23%. Even amid the war, shooting his friend in the face, and the White House’s lackluster response to the Great Recession, Cheney managed to outperform Harris, who is presiding over a peacetime country with a still-bustling economy,” the report continued.
“Pence, Biden, Cheney, and Al Gore all served essentially as liaisons to the Hill, helping out bosses who were all relatively new to the Swamp, having served as governors or, in the case of Barack Obama, fewer than three years in the Senate,” the report continued.
“Sure, those other four running mates did provide some perceived ‘electability’ for their electoral tickets. Rightly or wrongly, an old white man was added to Obama’s ticket out of fear of racial anxieties, and Pence’s evangelical credentials crucially solidified Trump’s support among college-educated conservatives skeptical of the thrice-married celebrity,” the Examiner noted further.
“But a good vice president has a purpose beyond carrying her boss over the finish line. Outside of fundraising, Harris still hasn’t found hers, and that’s reflected in the polling,” the outlet added.
In the NBC News poll, 39 percent of respondents said they have a “very negative” view of Harris.
Her dismal approval rating could be “a drag” on President Joe Biden’s ticket for the 2024 presidential election.
“There’s no doubt Harris is a drag on the ticket, but the extent to which she’ll pull down Biden will largely depend on who the Republican nominee is,” Thomas Gift, associate professor of Political Science at University College London (UCL) in the U.K., told Newsweek.
“If it’s Trump, then her impact will be near zero because the difference in the presidential choices will be so stark,” he said. “If it’s another GOP nominee, then the prospect of Harris in the White House may be enough to swing a few voters over to the opposing side.”
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