NASHUA, N.H. — U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris launched a broadside at 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, saying he’d make “a great running mate” — on her ticket — even as the former veep leapt ahead in polls.
The cutting jibe came as Harris addressed rampant speculation that she’d round out his presidential ticket nicely.
“Joe Biden would be a great running mate,” Harris told reporters after a campaign stop in Nashua Wednesday. Referring to Biden’s role as second fiddle to President Barack Obama, she added, “As vice president, he’s proven that he knows how to do the job.”
A new Reuters/Ipso monthly poll released Wednesday saw Biden rocketing to 29% in the primary from 24% in late April. Bernie Sanders was a distant second at 13%, with Harris and Elizabeth Warren tied for third at 6%t, under the category of support among “all Americans.” In Emerson’s latest national poll of likely Democratic voters, Biden led with 33% and Sanders placed second with 25%, while Harris and Warren tied for third with 10% each.
Political operatives said Harris was likely looking to bring attention back to her flagging campaign — while also nudging the older party elite to step aside.
Harris’ barb is “a great way” to point out that “it’s time for the old white dudes to move aside,” said Democratic strategist Scott Ferson.
“It puts in stark relief the difference between Kamala Harris and who she appeals to, and Joe Biden and who he appeals to. He’s an old white guy,” Ferson said. “Harris has sort of pointed out — in a clever way — the hypocrisy of thinking that women running for president are really running for vice president.”
Philadelphia-based consultant Neil Oxman said, “It’s a way, more than anything else, of trying to shake her campaign up.”
“Everyone in the world talks about how she’d be a great running mate for Biden. That’s the conventional wisdom. She tried to just turn it upside down, to say, ‘Hey, I’m not dropping out,’” Oxman said.
Republican strategist Rob Willington said, “It’s definitely a pithy comment that can help her get some press because it is targeting a front-runner. I think the target right now for all the Democrats running is Biden.”
Tony Cignoli, a Democratic strategist, said Harris’s comment shows she has a “fast wit” — a must-have on the campaign trail.
“The give-and-take is important. Banter on the campaign trail and having a thick skin is greatly important,” Cignoli said.
But, “I wouldn’t say it’s one of the major attacks,” so far, Cignoli said, instead pointing to criticism lobbed against Biden by Warren and Sanders that’s “been a lot more poignant.”
“This one from Kamala, this was more tongue-in-cheek. It was more fun,” he said.
New Hampshire Republican strategist Patrick Griffin said Harris had “to do something to get people’s attention,” and casting Biden as her vice president “was a clever turn.”
“The bottom line is, I don’t believe she is the nominee,” Griffin said. “But I do believe she’s going to be on the short list for vice president if she runs an effective campaign for the Democratic Party.”
Harris, a former prosecutor, also told reporters in Nashua that she disagreed with Biden’s stance on a 1994 crime bill. In a New Hampshire campaign stop a day prior, Biden said the bill had not generated mass incarceration.
“I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Joe Biden, but I disagree with him. That 1994 crime bill, it did contribute to mass incarceration in our country. It encouraged and was the first time that we had a federal three-strikes law. It funded the building of more prisons in the states,” Harris said. “So I disagree, sadly.”