President Joe Biden handed Kamala Harris an opportunity to burnish her national profile when he directed a vice president with higher aspirations to forge a diplomatic solution to the migrant surge along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden last week announced Harris would lead the administration’s efforts to stem the flow of Central American migration at the southern border, the most prominent assignment yet for a vice president who has been looking to cement her role in the new administration. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday struggled to list the vice president’s other four roles after Biden recently said she was leading or heavily involved in five major issues.
WHITE HOUSE WILL BRIEF HOUSE LEADERS ON BORDER CRISIS WEDNESDAY
For Harris, a former California senator, attorney general, and San Francisco district attorney, it is the type of issue that could place her before a national audience who may only know a little about her, one senior Democratic strategist told the Washington Examiner.
“On the other hand,” the strategist said, “it’s fraught with political peril.”
“There are a lot of political careers in the graveyard of immigration policy, on both sides of the aisle,” this person added. “Marco Rubio hasn’t touched the issue in a long time. John McCain. George Bush. Even Ronald Reagan had his challenges with immigration.”
At an event, Harris was asked if she is concerned about taking on an issue that has vexed politicians for decades.
“No,” she said.
Officials are confronting multiple challenges tied to a spike in crossings at the southern border, which has overwhelmed federal capacity.
A surge in numbers is, in part, cyclical — and before Biden, the seasonal uptick also stymied former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
But Biden’s decision to stop immediately deporting unaccompanied minors and some families has added pressure to a system unprepared to handle the emergency of housing thousands of children.
The crisis has drawn national scrutiny, with both Republicans and Democrats voicing concerns.
“Biden handed her a political hand grenade, in that anyone who truly tries to find a common-ground solution gets vilified by the Right and the Left. Think of John McCain,” said Mike DuHaime, a Republican political strategist and campaign veteran. “That said, if she finds a solution that is applauded by the Left, she will solidify herself as the heir apparent to the president.”
Harris’s evolving role is under close attention by members of her party — and by Republicans who are sizing her up as a potential challenger. But Biden has sought to tamp down speculation that this term will be the only one he seeks.
During his first formal press conference at the White House last week, he said it is his “expectation” that he will run for reelection in 2024 — and with Harris by his side.
Still, the president has often sought to portray his vice president as his partner. For instance, at a meeting during which he announced her migrant diplomacy role, Biden said he had high confidence in Harris to do the job.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me — doesn’t have to check with me,” he said.
Her political fortunes are likely to be tied to how she handles her role, Democratic strategists said — for better or worse.
“There are risks and rewards that come as a price of leadership,” said T.J. Rooney, a former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman. “Biden knows what it’s like to have been empowered as vice president.”
Harris’s experience running point on the issue will serve her well in the future, Rooney said, adding: “As it did Joe Biden.”
One Democratic strategist said that as a former border state senator, Harris is well prepared and has been looking for an issue to call her own.
But the task is a “double-edged sword,” this person said. “It is one of those issues that has been kind of a third-rail political issue.”
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He added immigration is “hard to divorce” from a candidate’s political fortunes. “Her actions and her movements on this issue are going to very much be a part of the story.”
Harris aides did not return requests for comment.
