‘I Am Ready To Serve’: Kamala Harris Responds To Concerns Over Biden’s Age

I mean I would hope so. That's one of the biggest jobs of being vice president.

I hope that Biden gets reelected and then a few months in steps down and gives us the first female and black president. The maggats will lose their fucking minds and I'm going to have a trailer of popcorn ready for the show.
- I don't really like Kamala Harris much, but I really doubt she'd be substantially worse than Biden. And probably miles better than virtually any Republican.
- I'm not gonna say it would be wrong to happen that way, but I do feel like it would be a disservice to civil rights for the first woman president to be a matter of technicality, deigned to be given by an old white man. It would always be a bit marred by that.
- The thing is if Biden really did that, she would be able to run 2 more terms as president. I think Lyndon had that chance but didn't get reelected for a 2nd term. Outside of Roosevelt, she would have the chance to serve longer than 2 years as president.
- can you imagine if we had a strong African-American and Indian-American woman as president? so much shit would get done.
That’s one of the biggest jobs of being vice president

That's one of the only jobs of being VP. Be ready in case your boss dies, and cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. The position serves no other purpose. Just ask the first guy who took the job:

My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived

-- John Adams

Is this her answer to defending Biden’s age? I am patiently waiting to become president when he dies?

Isn't this what every vice president does? It's literally the job of the vice president.

I'm sure Pence was just waiting for Donnie to choke on a hamburger.
- From New York city conman to whack a doodle evangelical... There truly was no upside.
I mean for every president it's a valid concern. Not everyone can live to 95.
- Sure but this means the Biden administration is simultaneously saying that Biden is not too old to be president - but that if he does happen to die of old age then Kamala is ready to serve.
Reading the actual article, the context is not so awkward, at least not because she made it so.

The person asking the question specifically raised the "are you ready to serve if he can't?". The interviewer specifically took it there, rather than her voluntarily choosing to take the conversation there.

One of Biden's biggest mistakes was choosing Harris as his VP, she's been pretty much worthless as a VP, other than doing her tiebreaker votes, but I'm pretty sure anyone in that position would've done the same exact thing. Still though, apart from recent history, VP's have usually been pretty much ceremonial in that role, so maybe it's more a return to form having someone like her there, rather than a Cheney or a Biden actually being considered a key part of the administration.

Biden being a VP was the only other reason to vote for him besides his stated ability to negotiate with Senate Republicans...

They were both bullshit reasons. When a candidate the party likes can't win a primary, they make them a VP and then claim that makes them experienced.

Hell, with Biden they even said that wouldn't happen because of his age, then over a decade later he still became president.

There's an obsession about name recognition, ignorant of the fact that even the most politically disengaged Americans will know both candidates before the general even starts.
- Also, one of the critical qualities people seek for a VP is that they’re boring.
  
  You dont pick a vp that’s popular- they might get more popular than you- and you don’t pick a vo that’s “controversial”
  
  One might risk more, if the person is from a battleground state and is popular,

Can someone explain to me why I shouldn’t like Kamala Harris? And if someone says because she hasn’t been an effective VP, could someone show me an example of an effective VP in modern US history?

Peoples arguments stem from her political career before VP specifically due to her being a cop, her strong support for stop and frisk, and some terrible policies which harmed the black community by propagating their mass incarceration along with poor standards of education and access to public services. To be clear though, still better than the guy who states he'll be a dictator for "a day" whose lawyer claimed in court he could have his political opposition killed and as long as he wasn't impeached, it'd be legal
- Additionally, Biden is one of the biggest proponents of the drug war and was more than happy to destroy people's lives over cannabis, all based on his own anecdotal fear towards drugs.
  
  In 1986, then-Senator Joe Biden authored the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986–a critical component of the broader War on Drugs that devastated low-income communities of color through mass criminalization and systemic police violence.
  
  Biden and Harris are just a step below Hillary Clinton when it comes to how muddy and shady they are. They really need more progressive people within the party who have the ability to rally Democrats to change. Like what Bernie tried, but find someone young who can actually bring about the change.
  
  It's all better then Trump and the Republicans, but Harris and Biden are as right wing as you get from a democrat.
Cheney was pretty effective. Not that that was a good thing.
- He was part of the Nixon, Ford, and both Bush Whitehouses...served in Congress during Reagan.
  
  He knew where a lot of bodies went, which helps you get your things done.
As a VP backing up Biden, I think she's swell. As the candidate who has to beat Trump, I don't think she's strong enough. She shat the bed in the primary debates, and she has a complicated record as a prosecutor and previously supported policies that make it easy to criticize. She's either "evolved" on divisive issues, or she's on the wrong side of history.

The same could be said of Biden, but he has the decades of connections and experience, not to mention charisma, that helped him pull ahead in the primary and the general in 2020. I don't like him, and I think he's very beatable, but I think Harris would be much worse. In an open primary, I don't think Harris would win the nomination, even running as an incumbent (like if Biden stepped down). Maybe if Biden wins and then immediately steps down, giving her four years to establish herself, she could craft a new identity. But it is too late for that now.

If Biden were unavailable as a candidate, we'll get four more years of Trump.
To name a few:

-Championed and implemented legislation that put parents in prison if their child skipped school (truency)

-She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so

-Put 1900 people in prison for smoking weed, while giggling about smoking it herself

-Blocked access to 12$ DNA tests, to check if the preserved DNA from a crime is from the defendant.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/10/17/924766186/the-story-behind-kamala-harriss-truancy-program https://www.theblaze.com/news/kamala-harris-criminal-justice-record
Joe Biden.
She's such a non-presence that I genuinely don't understand the intense dislike of her. I have virtually no opinion on her. I wouldn't call that a good thing either in terms of someone who might be in the eventual position of running for president, but I also don't really get why she's so hated.

That is the big advantage of the Dems here. If Trump croaks before the election, the GOP has nothing but a field of debris. If Biden does, Harris is still there.

You say that like it’s a good thing. She is very very unpopular.
- Has she done something to earn that status? As far as I can tell, I just never hear about her. Over the last three presidents the only time I recall a VP being particularly prominent was when his president's followers called for his hanging.
- Of course the black lady is unpopular in politics. The only thing my mother in law can tell you about why she doesn't like VP Harris is that her husband is white.

Is she, though?

Right? Like, do we need to heat her up before she’s served or is she good at room temperature?

Has she even spoken about abortion rights yet? I remember this video where she doesn't even say the word lol

Kamala Harris' BIZARRE Answer To Abortion Question - TMR 2022

At least this authoritarian will have a big ol (D) next to their name! That's what's important right guys?!

God I can't wait for HiroCheeto to croak so I can go back to hating on Dems without immediately getting some schpeel about solidarity. Yes, I'll vote Democrat, but fuck do I want an actual progressive party.

Well done for confirming you’re ready to fulfill the most basic term of the agreement of your position. Here, have a medal. Wtf. Tomorrow I’m going to send an email company wide stating that I’m ready to come to be at work on time, should the situation demand it.

How dare she answer a question that was asked of her!
- You’re right. I was harsh. It just feels all so messed up.

I remember just about every single Democrat I knew in California DESPISED Kamala Harris...now, they love her...funny how that works.

Sure you did. Looks like she's been elected pretty handily in her various offices https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_history_of_Kamala_Harris
- She was HUGE on the war on drugs...threw just about anyone and everyone in jail for the simplest of things...so yea, she wasn't very liked during her reign in SF....