Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she is "very clear" about her responsibility to take over the office of the chief executive for President Joe Biden, should the need arise.
"Let us also understand," she told the Associated Press, "that every vice president—every vice president—understands that when they take the oath that they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president. I am no different."
Most Americans have serious reservations about Harris taking over for Biden. Fifty-one percent of Americans disapprove of the vice president, compared with just under 40 percent who approve, according to FiveThirtyEight's polling average.
"Democrats just don't have any choice and it's so difficult," 86-year-old Dennis DeConcini, a Democratic former senator from Arizona, told NBC News on Tuesday. "He’s too old. So am I. What I tell people is in comparison to Trump, he’s a decent guy. He may be too old and stumble a little bit. The problem, in my opinion, is the Democrats really have a problem if he didn’t run because Kamala Harris—I don’t think she could be elected."
"We're kind of stuck with Biden because of that," DeConcini said.
Republican candidates for president have attempted to use Americans' dislike of Harris to attack Biden in the 2024 presidential campaign.
"A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris," former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said, "and the thought of a President Kamala Harris should send a chill up every American's spine, and I refuse to let that happen."