Oh, here we go again. If you suggest that Joe Biden might not be all in on Kamala Harris’s presidential ambitions, some folks will roll their eyes and scoff. After all, we’re constantly told that Donald Trump is the greatest threat to democracy, and surely the president wouldn’t want anything but a Harris victory, right? But come on—how many times do we have to see these little “coincidences” before it starts to look like Biden is less than thrilled about her campaign?
The latest example came when Harris took a cheap shot at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday. With a massive hurricane barreling down on Florida, Harris accused DeSantis of “playing politics” for not taking her call. This, mind you, while DeSantis was knee-deep in managing what could be one of the biggest hurricanes Florida has ever seen. Timing is everything, but in this case, it seemed Harris’s timing was more about scoring political points than actually helping Floridians.
VP Kamala Harris responds to @NBCNews reporting that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is refusing to take her call on Hurricane Helene:
“Playing political games with this moment … is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish.” https://t.co/Cr3NXing2g pic.twitter.com/0XtfEItg5z
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) October 7, 2024
And really, what was she offering with that call, anyway? Her supporters love to remind us that the vice president has little real power, so why the sudden urge to get involved? DeSantis himself didn’t pull any punches in his response, calling out Harris for trying to use the disaster to boost her campaign.
Taking Kamala down a few notches, DeSantis responded, “And so for Kamala Harris to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional. She has no role in this. In fact, she has been vice president for three and a half years; I’ve dealt with a number of storms during this administration, and she has never contributed anything to these efforts. And so what I think is selfish is her trying to blunder into this…”
“And I will say this, I’ve had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I’ve worked well with both of them. She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm, and she’s doing that just because of her campaign. She’s trying to get some kind of an edge, she knows she doing poorly, and so she’s playing these political games. I don’t have time for political games. I’ve got people whose lives are on the line,” he continued.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. Not long after Harris’s little media moment, Biden himself stepped up and said he had a great conversation with DeSantis. He didn’t mention any of the drama Harris was trying to stir up. In other words, while she’s out there trying to paint DeSantis as a villain, Biden is busy praising their coordination. You can almost picture Harris hearing the news, chugging a glass of wine, and wondering why Biden can’t just play along for once.
Tonight, I spoke with Florida Governor DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Castor for firsthand reports on Hurricane Helene recovery and preparations for Hurricane Milton.
My Administration is ready to support both leaders and the people of Florida with any further resources they may need. pic.twitter.com/imXXVXQnoD
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 8, 2024
Maybe it’s just another “coincidence,” but it sure does seem like Biden has made a habit of undercutting Harris lately. Just in the past month, he’s contradicted her on a few key points where she’s tried to distance herself from their administration. Is he doing it on purpose? Hard to say for sure, but it definitely doesn’t look like he’s rolling out the red carpet for her campaign.
Back to DeSantis, the message is pretty clear. He wasn’t obligated to give up valuable time so Harris could stage a photo op. If she’s genuinely interested in leading, she could always invoke the 25th Amendment or try winning the election next November. But she doesn’t get to flip-flop between playing leader when it suits her and shrugging off responsibility when things go south.
So here we are: Kamala Harris trying to make political hay out of a hurricane, Biden playing his own game in the background, and DeSantis just focused on doing his job. It’s a little too obvious to be dismissed as mere happenstance, and you have to wonder how much more of this “support” Harris can take. At the end of the day, she might be wishing she’d made that pork roast instead.
