‘Biden 2.0’: Harris to face attacks on White House’s record she defended

With Vice President Kamala Harris poised to assume the top slot on the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, her existing place in the Biden administration sets her up to face comparable assaults on the White House’s record to those against which President Joe Biden struggled to defend himself.

A heartbeat away from the presidency and his nominal point woman on key issues such as the southern border, Harris’s own record is inextricably linked to that of her outgoing former running mate. The point is not lost on her critics, who have already come to the realization that much of the material prepared against Biden may be easily repackaged and directed toward the Democrats’ new presumptive standard bearer.

Harris, for her part, has been a relatively circumspect figure throughout Biden’s tenure, with limited reports emerging about turnover on her staff and alleged friction between her and Biden over her assignments. She did, however, receive official policy assignments from the Biden White House. Among the most high-profile of Harris’s nominal responsibilities was her role as the administration’s “border czar,” an assignment that saw her take little initiative to address the ongoing situation at the southern border.

She first visited the border in El Paso, Texas in June of 2021, months after Biden gave her the assignment. In March, her then-chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders backpedaled, saying she was “not doing the border” but would instead "take on the diplomatic effort, with Mexico and countries in the northern triangle to address the root causes of migration." Years later, Republicans found themselves at the border asking where she was. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, in May of 2023 said “[s]he has completely betrayed the American people by blatantly disregarding her duties as Border Czar.”

In the wake of Biden’s announcement that he would not seek reelection, moreover, the Trump campaign has raced to tie Harris to Biden’s record, saying in a press release that “she was the copilot on some of Biden’s most egregious failures.” That statement pointed to Harris’s role as border czar, saying she “helped fuel the invasion at our southern border.” It further claimed that Harris supporters abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sought to decriminalize illegal entry into the U.S.

Harris and D.C. Democrats “are all just as complicit as Biden is in the destruction of our once-great Nation, and they must all be thrown out of office,” said Trump Campaign Senior Advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. “As we’ve been pointing out for weeks here at Team Trump, Kamala Harris is Joe Biden 2.0. In fact, her record is even worse and she is even further to the left,” the press release stated.

In a separate release, the MAGA War Room published an ad linking Harris to the Biden record, claiming that she “covered up Joe’s obvious mental decline, but Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job. So, she did it.” “Look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead. They created this mess. They – no, Kamala – owns this failed record.”

Conservative critics have been comparing her defending Biden's ability to remain the candidate to Watergate, asking what she knew and when she knew it. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called the revelations about Biden’s apparent decline “the Democrats’ Watergate” — and Harris “the number one defender and liar.”

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, whom Trump named as his running mate last week, moreover, joined in on the effort to tie Harris to Biden’s legacy. "Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way," he said in a statement following Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.

Harris, for her part, appears eager to own the Biden administration’s record. In her first public remarks since Biden dropped out of the race, she offered praise for his official tenure, saying that “[i]n one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office,” according to Politico. Harris further touted Biden’s “honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart and his deep love of the country.”

In the leadup to Biden’s announcement, moreover, Harris made extensive reference to “President [Joe Biden] and I” in her social media posts, repeatedly casting the pair as a team on key initiatives, including their advocacy for abortion rights. In a separate post this month, she vowed that “[Joe Biden] and I” would work to protect key entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

Bolstering Harris’s potential status as a stand-in for a second Biden candidacy is her use of the same campaign vehicle. The Biden for President campaign officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week to rebrand as “Harris for President,” though it remains somewhat unclear whether she will be able to access the existing war chest.

She has further inherited most of the same campaign infrastructure and on Monday traveled to Wilmington, Del., to visit campaign staff. “It's the first full day of our campaign, so I'm heading up to Wilmington, DE later to say 'hello' to our staff in HQ,” she announced. “One day down. 105 to go. Together, we're going to win this.”

Biden announced his intention to not seek reelection on Sunday, doing so by posting a screenshot of a letter to X and not addressing the nation directly. The decision followed weeks of pressure from high profile Democratic lawmakers for him to step aside in favor of another nominee. Ostensibly motivating such calls was Biden’s disastrous performance in a CNN presidential debate last month against former President Donald Trump in which the incumbent often stumbled over his answers or appeared lost and confused on stage. 

The spectacle reignited longstanding concerns over his age and fitness for office and resulted in them at last gaining traction within his own party who had to admit the truth of what voters saw on live TV. Biden resolutely insisted he would seek reelection for weeks, but he ultimately relented. His announcement reportedly caught campaign staff off guard and he has yet to publicly address the matter.

In posting his initial letter, Biden did not immediately endorse Harris to succeed him as the party’s nominee. He eventually posted an endorsement on X, saying “[m]y very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made.”

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” he added.

Notably,  President Obama has not yet endorsed Ms. Harris; in fact, according to The New York Times, he did not mention her once in an affectionate — if tautly written — tribute to President Biden that was posted on Medium shortly after he decided to bow out on Sunday.

The Democratic National Committee has indicated it will hold a "transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.