A new report from the Washington Post details that Vice President Kamala Harris has undergone a complete political “reinvention,” with Harris and her team seemingly finding a way to inspire her confidence and make her acceptable to mainstream Americans.
Washington Post White House Reporter Cleve R. Wootson Jr. wrote: About how members of Harris’ team and Biden’s top aides were able to “remake” her from an awkward and hesitant figure into a compelling political force.
“Harris is now crisscrossing the country, electrifying rally crowds with one powerful speech after another,” the reporter wrote, adding that this represents “one of the most remarkable shifts in recent political history.”
Kamala Harris supporters unsure about VP’s policy accomplishments
A new report from The Washington Post details how Vice President Kamala Harris has gone from unpopular to “stunning” in politics. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
Wootson wrote that Harris’ “remake is unmistakable and no coincidence,” and that it’s the result of Biden/Harris staff giving her the right support.
The reporter quoted former Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn as explaining why the vice president has been so unpopular, saying it was mainly due to Biden’s small team and its allies.
“Initially, we felt like we didn’t serve her as well as we could have, not out of malice or because people didn’t want her to succeed, but because we didn’t understand that she was being viewed differently and covered differently,” she argued.
“Most vice presidents don’t face as much scrutiny as Harris has,” said a former Biden adviser who recently left the White House to join a Democratic super PAC supporting Harris, adding, “So I feel like I wasn’t as committed to Harris as I was initially.”
Ashley Etienne, Harris’ former communications director, who left her role in 2021 as the vice president’s “path became difficult,” told the Post that Harris’ “biggest weakness” was that she “didn’t have the infrastructure” at the time.
“There’s no one to advocate for her and help change the narrative. Something has to be done to change what’s on TV. Who do I call?” she said.
Seeing this lack of support, Etienne said his team helped introduce Harris to potential allies. “Harris’ associates say she began to find her footing as she spoke with her supporters and focused on issues she believes strongly in,” Wootson wrote.
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Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks at the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence on the Scott Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina, on August 16, 2024. (Alison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
The reporter noted that Harris’ move to focus on issues she cares about, rather than issues like the border, “played to her rhetorical strengths.”
“These steps have made her public statements far more confident and assured, whether it be her speech on reproductive rights or her speech in Jacksonville criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) stance on black history,” Wootson wrote.
The reporter said the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 created an “opportunity for Harris” and that she took advantage of it.
“At every event, Harris has sharpened her arguments, developing a compelling way of speaking about issues central to the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects,” he wrote, adding that “Harris has sought to replicate that agility in other arenas.”
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