Kamala Harris Too ‘Worried About Hurting Biden’s Feelings’: Bush Adviser

Kamala Harris’ failure to criticize President Joe Biden is harming her own campaign, a former top White House official has suggested.
Karl Rove, who was Chief of Staff for George W. Bush, suggested that Harris’ apparent unwillingness to distance herself from unpopular Biden policies could be a question of misplaced loyalty.
“She needs to focus on what’s best for her, and not worry about hurting his feelings,” Karl Rove told Fox News on Tuesday morning.
Harris has attempted to frame her campaign as the “change” ticket, or a “new way forward” for the American people.
However, balancing this task with the customary loyalties of a sitting vice president has created a challenging balancing act for the candidate, which Rove believes may hurt her bid for the White House given the gloomy opinion most Americans hold about the direction of the country.
According to October polling by Gallup, only 22 percent of U.S. citizens are satisfied “with the way things are going” in the U.S., with 75 percent expressing dissatisfaction.
Rove said that the vice president had failed to adequately distinguish herself from Biden, and the legacy of his administration, in the minds of the American people. He referenced the instances in which Harris has declined to provide examples of when she has disagreed with the president.
During her Oct. 8 appearance on The View, Harris said that there was “not a thing that comes to mind,” when asked whether she would have done anything different than President Biden.
When asked the same question by NBC News reporter Peter Alexander on Oct. 18 during a Michigan campaign stop, Harris said: “vice presidents are not critical of their presidents,” adding that this “tradition” was necessary to ensure a harmonious relationship between the two offices.
“The candidate has got to find a way to say: ‘I’m my own person, and yes there would be things I would do differently, and let me tell you about the things I’m going to do in the future,” Rove said. “She needs to be the change candidate [because] if she’s more of the same, she’s going to be defeated.”
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign for a response to Rove’s statements.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked whether Harris had a “green light” to express differing stances from those adopted by the Biden administration while on the campaign trail, or whether she was required “to be a loyal vice president.”
Jean-Pierre responded by describing Harris as an “incredibly strong, very clear-eyed vice president,” and said that she had been “a partner with this president and these successes that we have seen from this administration.”
Rove acknowledged that Harris had made some efforts to distance herself from Biden during the campaign, and has proposed policies that are distinct from those of the incumbent
He cited her proposed ten-fold increase in the small business “startup tax deduction” from $5,000 to $50,000, as well as her pledge to provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
However, Rove said that Harris needs to be more confident in communicating how her administration would differ from Biden’s.
“She’s got to make a clean break,” Rove told Fox. “And the fact that she can’t causes people to say: ‘You know what, maybe she’s just going to be more of the same.”
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