Kamala Harris is the president-in-waiting. Here's how the VP is balancing building her own brand against serving as a loyal soldier on Team Biden. https://t.co/2HTKlpmEd9 by @rbravender & @TinaSfon ($) @businessinsider

Kamala Harris is the president-in-waiting.

It's the awkward reality that has always come with being second-in-command. The vice president's principal job function is to be ready to step in if she's needed.
At the same time, Harris can't appear over-eager to get the top job, and Democrats bristle at questions about whether she's interested in a future White House run or whether Biden — the oldest president in US history at age 78 — intends to try for a second term in 2024.
So — just like (the male) veeps who came before her — Harris & her team must walk the fine line of protecting her image & building a brand while also portraying her as a loyal Biden soldier & dismissing any speculation that she's eyeing another presidential run of her own.
Harris was "an icon before she even set foot in the White House," said Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton's 16 campaign. "I think she's a bridge to the next generation of Democrats" and a bridge to progressives, women, and people of color, he added.
Fans and foes will be watching for whatever high-profile project Harris takes on as her signature issue to set her up for what will inevitably be seen as a future presidential run. Those close to her and the White House are not divulging anything. At least not yet.
Given Biden's own history as VP & Harris' historic role, the president & his team are trying to make it clear she is his full partner. That's in part b/c Biden wants to help her avoid the indignities that have historically come w/ the office, according to Dems close to the admin.
On top of that, Democratic insiders say, Biden has a lot to do, and he'll need her help.

"This is a two-person job. It's really a 2,000 person job," said Greg Simon, whom Biden hired to lead the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force during the Obama administration.
Simon pointed to the hefty workload: a pandemic, the economy, climate change, racial justice, etc. "You can no longer just treat the vice president as a president-in-waiting, they need to be as presidential as they can be the entire time," said Simon, also a former Gore adviser
Subscribe for the full @businessinsider story on the early days of the Biden-Harris relationship now that it's moved from the campaign to the transition and into the White House. Here's how: https://t.co/aC5iwU4Ch6

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This is partly what makes it impossible to have a constructive conversation nowadays. The stubborn refusal to accept that opposition to Trumpism and GOP nationalism is about more than simply holding different beliefs about things in and of itself. 👇


It's fine for people to hold different beliefs. But that doesn't mean all beliefs deserve equal treatment or tolerance and it doesn't mean intolerance of some beliefs makes a person intolerant of every belief which they don't share.

So if I said I don't think Trumpism deserves to be tolerated because it's just a fresh 21st century coat of cheap paint on a failed, dangerous 20th century ideology (fascism) that doesn't mean I'm intolerant of all beliefs with which I disagree. You'd think this would be obvious.

Another important facet. People who support fascist movements tend to give what they think are valid reasons for supporting them. That doesn't mean anyone is obliged to tolerate fascism or accept their proffered excuse.


Say you joined a neighborhood group that sets up community gardens and does roadside beautification projects. All good, right? Say one day you're having a meeting and you notice the President and exec board of this group are saying some bizarre things about certain neighbors.

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