The Biden-Harris Rift
-
WSJ, so here you go.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-harris-relationship-trump-election-a94b08da?st=aLmMBZ
Biden’s Claim He Would Have Beaten Trump Opens Rift With Harris
Vice president has conveyed sadness to people close to her about Biden’s remarks and her election loss
Jan. 15, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Harris has been reluctant to distance herself from Biden or criticize him throughout her vice presidency. Even as several top Democrats pushed her to break from the unpopular president after she replaced him atop the ticket, Harris refused. She vocally supported Biden after his halting debate performance in June, when several Democrats were calling on him to step aside, and when a special counsel report on Biden’s handling of classified documents amplified concerns about his mental acuity.
Her fraying relationship with Biden comes at a challenging time for Harris, who is dealing with a crisis in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where wildfires have caused broad destruction, as she transitions out of her public role. Harris has expressed deep sadness to people close to her over losing the election and Biden’s comments, some of those people said. She and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are planning on splitting their time between Los Angeles and New York after President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20, they said.
Asked if he thought he could have defeated Trump, Biden said this month in an interview with USA Today, “It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling.”
Days later, he reiterated to reporters that he “could have beaten Trump, would have beaten Trump.” Biden also said that Harris “could have beaten Trump, would have beaten Trump.”
Biden added that despite his belief that he could have won, he dropped out of the race to keep Democrats together. “I didn’t want to be one who caused a party that wasn’t unified to lose an election,” he said. “And that’s why I stepped aside.”
Kirsten Allen, a spokeswoman for Harris, said Biden and Harris have “developed a close working relationship as governing partners, but they have also built a strong friendship that continues today.” Allen said that friendship extended to their spouses.
The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Biden had privately told people he thought he could have won the election. Biden doesn’t see that position as a critique of Harris’s campaign, people familiar with his thinking told the Journal at the time. He has told people he simply thinks that—as the candidate who triumphed over Trump in 2020—he could have done it again.
Some close to Harris said Biden’s assertion shows the “one-sided loyalty” of their relationship, which had turned into a warm, working one over the years but hit awkward patches when the vice president moved to the top of the ticket. Since the election, signs of frostiness have emerged.
As the five living U.S. presidents paid tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at his funeral this month, appearing chummy at times, Harris and Emhoff didn’t interact much with the Bidens, who were seated next to them. Both looked stone-faced ahead at the proceedings.
Harris had to preside in Congress on Jan. 6 over the certification of her election loss—a routine formality for a vice president that has become a test of democracy four years after the attack on the Capitol and Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The following morning, the devastating fires began tearing through Los Angeles, where she and Emhoff live when they aren’t in Washington. Harris, who represented California in the U.S. Senate and served as state attorney general, canceled her last foreign trip to help with Washington’s response to the fires.
Her home in the city’s Brentwood neighborhood came under evacuation orders last week. Two people were detained at her home after the Los Angeles Police Department received a call regarding a potential burglary, a spokeswoman for the police confirmed. The department said officers arrested the two for breaking curfew but found no evidence of a burglary or any other crime and released them.
Soon to be out of public office for the first time since 2004, Harris has been considering her next move, including a potential bid for California governor in 2026, according to people familiar with her thinking. She hasn’t ruled out another presidential campaign in 2028. Also on the table: another book or speaking opportunities that could be lucrative and keep her in the public eye.
Emhoff has held talks with white-shoe law firms and plans to return to practicing corporate law, some of the people said.
A White House official said the vice president has remained focused on the job, pointing to her recently announcing the completion of a rule to remove medical debt from credit scores.
As Harris and Emhoff prepare to move out of the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence, they haven’t invited Vice President-elect JD Vance for a visit. The two didn’t have a meeting with former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, during the last transition. Emhoff spoke with incoming second lady Usha Vance on the phone last week, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
I wonder what Dr. Jill thinks.
No, I don't. Not really.
