Kamala Harris’s ironic endorsement of Joe Biden

Kamala Harris really believes in Joe Biden. At least, that’s what she told Democratic voters on Sunday when she endorsed the former vice president.

A bitter irony underlies Harris’s endorsement. After all, Biden was the candidate the California senator sought to depose when she first launched her presidential campaign. By taking him down, Harris sought to set herself apart. And her strategy did work, albeit briefly. She called into question Biden’s civil rights record and positioned herself as one of the leading liberals in the stacked field.

Outside of the internet, however, support for Harris failed to materialize. She struggled to gain in the polls and was forced to end her campaign before the key primaries had even taken place. And now, in an attempt to regain some of the political notoriety she had found on the campaign trail, she is endorsing the man she tried to turn into a villain.

The irony of Harris’s reconciliation with Biden is rich, but so too is Harris’s drift toward moderation. On the campaign trail, Harris ran in the same liberal lane as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. She claimed to support “Medicare for all,” though she failed to provide a coherent explanation for her many healthcare flip-flops, and she advocated for certain student loan debt forgiveness programs, as well as reparations for African Americans.

By endorsing Biden, Harris is essentially abandoning this liberal platform in favor of a more centrist one, and what they hope will be a more electable message.

Politically, this is a smart move. Harris now has a good chance at being named Biden’s running mate — he’s already said he would like to pick a female vice president — or she could land a Cabinet position in his administration.

But Harris’s uncanny ability to adapt and her willingness to throw out her core policies for a candidate she initially rejected should force voters to question her seriousness. Or, at the very least, Harris’s flip-flop should help voters realize that politics and self-interest go hand-in-hand, and Harris is no different from the rest.