(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Rumors are stirring that President Joe Biden, in a desperate bid for a second term, may dump Vice President Kamala Harris to boost his pre-2024 poll favorability.
According to Radar, a source inside the White House claimed that Biden was giving up on any hope that Harris could be an effective politician and blamed her for his weak polling numbers.
“Joe’s no fool,” said a party source. “He knows if he can add someone like Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama to the ticket instead of Kamala, his chances immediately improve against any Republican nominee.”
A secondary source from inside the Democrat party confirmed that Biden would likely look to recruit either Clinton or Obama, both of whom are married to former Democratic presidents who could bring added clout to the campaign.
“Joe’s also looking ahead,” the anonymous insider said. “If he wins the next election cycle, his running mate will be the front-runner in 2028. Kamala doesn’t seem to have the right stuff.”
Whether either woman would accept the offer to replace Harris remains to be seen. The path would be risky for Biden to move forward with Clinton—the failed 2016 presidential nominee—who has long been rumored to dispatch with those standing in the way of her ambition.
Moreover, the two would likely face calls of racism and lose the support of black women, a key constituency, who have largely stood behind Harris, despite her continual screw ups.
Obama—who may be plotting her own run—made clear that she had no interest in joining the ticket with Biden during his 2020 campaign and has refused to endorse him, instead taking thinly veiled potshots from time to time at his administration.
But some now speculate that Biden—if he does chose to run again and is able to win—may struggle to complete a second term given his declining physical and mental state. That would leave his vice president well-positioned for a run of her own.
Harris stated in September that she would “proudly” run again with Biden in 2024, indicating that she believes she is in the running for a second term as vice president.
“The president has been very clear that he intends to run again,” Harris told NBC News. “And if he does, I will be running with him proudly.”
She also compared herself to founding father and former president John Adams.
“So as vice president, I’m also the president of the United States Senate. And in that role—this is for the historians here—I broke John Adams’ record of casting the most tie-breaking votes in a single term,” she bragged.
Nonetheless, Biden’s frustration with Harris recently spilled out into the open.
A book detailing the inner-workings of the Biden administration, Chris Whipple’s The Fight Of His Life, revealed in December that the president had referred to Harris as a “work in progress” and had been annoyed by the constant complaining of second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
It was the latest in a long series of rumored strains between Harris and other White House staff, who have accused her of overseeing a tyrannical work environment while refusing to play second-fiddle to the president.
In his first months in the Oval Office, Biden tasked his veep with handling the crisis at the southern border—a task that she has more or less ignored since its assignment.
Harris’s failed attempts to get the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act through the Senate also drewn Biden’s ire.
“Joe gave her responsibility over these hot-button issues, and she’s done nothing but make a hash out of them,” the source said. “Combine that with the reports of her overseeing a toxic work environment in her office. The writing was on the wall—she had to go.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
