Imagine a presidency that could be freed from the burden of what has been.
That’s the future that Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters are dreaming of, inspired by a meme referencing one of Harris’ favorite phrases: “what can be, not weighed down by what has been.”
Harris has faced criticism throughout her three years in office, with articles examining her handling of the border crisis and her struggle to define her tenure in the often thankless role of vice president. She has proven sufficiently unpopular with voters that she was not immediately seen as the obvious successor to President Biden, with Democratic stalwarts often pointing to governors like Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California as more appealing choices.
But now that Biden is being bombarded with questions about her age and mental acuity after her alarming debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump last week, Ms. Harris is enjoying a surge of support. It comes from leading Democratic politicians who indicate they are ready to close ranks around her, and from a crowd of social media supporters who call themselves the “KHive,” sharing posts calling attention to her sometimes outlandish quotes and videos of her dance moves.
“No coconut trees. Just context. Kamala for president,” posted Ian Sandler-Brown, a 22-year-old Detroit resident who works on political campaigns, in a nod to a semi-viral line from Harris last year.
(“I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people,” Harris said at a White House event, quoting her mother. “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of everything you’re living in and what came before you.”)
Suddenly, the coconut-tree emoji on X has become a sign of support, sometimes ironic, for Ms. Harris’s bid to succeed Mr. Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee. While her jovial side (she has a big laugh and is known for doing impersonations) was once mocked, many Democrats now see that quality as a sign of vitality, in contrast to Mr. Biden’s often faltering public performances.
“Khive’s ironic posts are, unironically, the most energetic the Democratic Twitter electorate has seen in about a year, and I think there’s probably something optimistic about that,” author and journalist Kelly Weill wrote on X.
Some social media posts have drawn comparisons between Harris and “Veep,” the political satire series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a fictional vice president who becomes president almost by accident.
“I think the explosion of memes right now is almost a relief for a left that hasn’t had a great time online,” Ms. Weill, a 30-year-old New Yorker, added in an interview. “The fact that there’s something to joke about, that there’s something to rally around, gives a sense of optimistic energy in a place where there really wasn’t anything before.”
Social media users posting pro-Harris memes appear to be a diverse group, including progressives like Chi Ossé, the 26-year-old New York City councilwoman who is heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s unclear who her base of support would be during the campaign.
In 2020, Ms. Harris struggled to define herself, as she campaigned for the presidency as a moderate while courting progressives. More recently, she has made inroads among Black voters, with polls consistently showing that group gives her higher marks for her job performance and in hypothetical matchups against Mr. Trump than white voters. Some of her recent campaign events have been aimed at Black and Hispanic voters, including a handful of stops in Las Vegas this spring, where she spoke with members of a local union and hosted an event on abortion rights alongside several prominent Black women.
For all the jokes, Ms. Harris does have some support from the establishment. Julián Castro, a former Obama administration official and 2020 presidential candidate, said on MSNBC on Tuesday that Mr. Biden should drop out of the race and allow Ms. Harris to run against Mr. Trump.
“We have a group of people who I think could do a better job, including Vice President Harris,” he said.
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a close and former Biden ally, also said Tuesday: “I would support her if he were to step down.”
At a White House news conference on Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary, said Mr. Biden chose Ms. Harris as his running mate because “she represents, indeed, the future of the party.” In a CNN poll released Tuesday, Ms. Harris was two percentage points behind Mr. Trump in a hypothetical matchup, while Mr. Biden was six points behind the former president.
Harris has remained loyal to the president. Asked about the prospect of leading the country on Tuesday, she told CBS News she was “proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”
Dan Morain, a veteran California journalist who wrote a biography of Ms. Harris, said the jokes surrounding the vice president, as well as her past firings, belied her political acumen.
“That’s the reality with Kamala Harris: She’s been underestimated throughout her career,” Morain said. “Is she a lightweight? I don’t think you can run three times in California and win if you have no political talent.”
In a preemptive bet that Ms. Harris could replace Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket, Republicans have stepped up their attacks on her, focusing primarily on her record on immigration.
MAGA Inc., a Trump-allied super PAC, has openly flirted with the idea of Harris taking the reins of power. “Is Kamala Harris, the Invasion Czar, the Best They’ve Ever Had?” read the headline of a press release issued Wednesday.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, released an ad Wednesday claiming Harris was the Biden administration’s “chief enabler.” “Vote Republican. Stop Kamala,” the ad concluded.
In a message posted on X, the committee wrote that its members “will sharpen their knives if the extremist Democrats in the House of Representatives abandon Joe Biden.”
Although KHivers fans found Ms Harris’s “no burden” line endearing, an official Trump campaign account, @TrumpWarRoom, posted a four-minute mash-up in which she repeats the phrase, teasing it for being repeated.
Mr Morain suggested that the attacks indicated that Ms Harris could be a formidable opponent for Mr Trump.
“She’s a talented politician. She’s not Bill Clinton. She’s not Barack Obama. But she’s a good politician, and that’s why she’s being attacked,” he said. “If you’re worried about Kamala Harris being your opponent, that’s the kind of thing you would do.”
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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