Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been Biden’s loyal partner since 2020, is now trying to distance herself from the failed policies of her boss’s administration as she defines her own campaign, Harris advisers told Axios.
According to her campaign advisers, Harris is plotting how to break away from "Bidenomics" and other unpopular policies that brought the administration's approval ratings down to record lows. Distancing herself from the Biden-Harris record will be difficult given the vice president, as former Biden domestic policy adviser Susan Rice said it, is an "integral architect" of the Biden-Harris agenda.
"This has been the Biden-Harris agenda. Kamala Harris has been an integral architect and executor of the policies of the Biden-Harris administration," Rice said Tuesday. "This notion that she somehow doesn’t deserve credit for and isn’t part of and wasn’t an integral architect of the Biden-Harris administration agenda is not only false, it’s frankly somewhat bizarre and offensive," Rice said.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday that Harris's policy aims are "aligned" with Biden, stating, "There's not been any daylight" between the pair’s decisions. "She has been a critical partner for this president during this term," Jean-Pierre said.
Harris herself touted Biden’s "legacy of accomplishment over the past three years" as being "unmatched in modern history" during her first speech as the presumptive nominee on July 22.
Since pivoting from running mate to presidential nominee, Harris has kept her policy platform vague, but her top advisers say she wants to distance herself from Biden’s unpopular talking points like "Bidenomics."
Campaign advisers told Axios Harris wants to define herself as the "change agent in the race" to voters. She is making promises to fight inflation on "Day 1," despite having served in the White House for over three and a half years already. Since the administration took office in 2021, overall prices have increased by 20.2 percent, and Biden-era inflation peaked at about 9.1 percent.
"'Bidenomics' is working," Harris said just last August. "President Biden and I came into office with a plan to grow and strengthen America’s economy … ladies and gentlemen and everyone else, that is called 'Bidenomics.' And we are very proud of 'Bidenomics.'"
Campaign personnel have told the media that the vice president has changed her mind on numerous issues, including a ban on fracking and requiring Medicare for all.