VP Kamala Harris has blamed bad press coverage for not properly grasping her “depth and thought,” as reported on Thursday by The Atlantic.
The article goes over how Harris is the likely next in line to run for President after President Biden, who may choose not to run again. The issue is her approval rating, which is around 45% – seven points under Biden’s. Many Democrats are also questioning Harris’ ability to beat former President Trump.
One senior Biden Admin. official told reporters that Kamala Harris was struggling with approval ratings due to “vice presidents not being as well known,” but the outlet discovered that her current approval rating was under that of Dick Cheney, Biden, and Al Gore during this same time frame in their vice presidencies.
“The easiest explanation for the current President-VP approval gap is racism and sexism,” The Atlantic article reported. “Men see Harris unfavorably with an 18-point difference, and that Harris is a proxy for conservative reporters who demeaned her using sexist tropes.”
Patti Solis Doyle, who was the manager of Clinton’s campaign back in 2008, reported that VP Harris has not done any worse than other VPs in recent history, but said that “there is simply a different benchmark for women.” Other people said that being given the role of handling the border – which the writer of the article says is “maybe the most divisive topic in politics” – also harmed her chances of greater approval ratings.
Harris said in the news article that reporter’s stories about her is frustrating to handle.
“Part of my issue is the way this system rewards small sound clips” instead of “thought and depth,” she said. But, as the article stresses, she is not against using sound clips when it is in her favor. After she went for Joe Biden over the topic of using busses during a 2019 debate, she sold t-shirts using the phrase, “I was that little girl.”
Axios reported this Thursday that operatives went to a meeting where they created a plan to “ensure the press understands” about sexist overtones within the media pieces about Harris. Coverage of the VP was so bad that White House adviser Cedric Richmond said that “a whisper campaign is ongoing and created to sabotage” Harris.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
