Joe Biden’s allies are prepared to “escalate” and reveal unflattering stories about Kamala Harris should the former vice president decide to talk about the former president’s cognitive decline, according to a veteran political journalist.
The stories about Harris’ tenure as Biden’s No. 2 are “Palinesque,” 2WAY’s Mark Halperin said Friday, a reference to former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
“I will tell you, and this has never been reported, barely at all: if the Biden people decide that Kamala is coming after Joe Biden, wait till you hear the ‘Palinesque’ stories about how much they tried to help her be prepared to be vice president and be in a position to run. And how much they decided, ‘Not happening. She’s not up to this,’” Halperin said on “The Morning Meeting” show.
In the aftermath of late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, leaks from campaign staffers suggested that Palin, McCain’s running mate, was woefully unprepared for the job.
In one infamous report, campaign staffers claimed that Palin did not know Africa was a continent and that she could not name the three countries that formed the North American Free Trade Agreement – the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“If the Biden people feel threatened, you will hear stories about Kamala Harris as vice president that will not make her look good,” Halperin said.
“So there’s a closeness to the couples,” he added. “It’s not like they’re at war currently, but I’m telling you, if Joe Biden feels threatened, if his people feel threatened by her, this is gonna escalate in a big way.”
Halperin argued that Harris would have a “hard time defending against the stories if that dam bursts.”
Journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper detail some of the frustrations Biden loyalists had with the VP in their recent book, “Original Sin.”
In the book, Harris was described as a “regular headache” for the White House, according to Biden people.
“She often shied away from politically tough assignments when Biden had accepted such assignments as vice president,” the authors write. “She even turned down seemingly simple asks, such as headlining DC’s Gridiron Club dinner.“
“Many on the Biden team felt that Harris didn’t put in the work and was also just not a very nice person,” according to the book. “Several quietly expressed buyer’s remorse: They should have picked [Michigan Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer” as Biden’s running mate in 2020.
Halperin argued that Biden’s people “were extraordinary in trying to help her do the job of vice president.”
“They gave her every opportunity. And they did — they found in some instances that she had some issues.”
The House Oversight Committee has brought in several former top Biden White House aides to testify on the former president’s mental decline and his staff’s use of autopen to sign official documents.
It’s unclear if the GOP-led committee plans to ask or subpoena Harris for testimony.
