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As the 2024 elections draw closer, Vice President Kamala Harris stated during an interview that she is “ready to serve,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Democratic Party has faced mounting pressure from voters and political figures, with President Joe Biden running as the party’s nominee for his second term. Polls show that many voters do not favor the current president and have overwhelming concerns regarding his age and mental health.
However, amid concerns, Harris told The Wall Street Journal that she is “ready to serve” when asked about handling voters’ concerns regarding Biden.
“I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,” Harris told the outlet. The vice president noted that everyone who sees her on the job “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.”
Backlash against Biden escalated last week after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, in which he labeled the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory” during interviews.
While Hur declined to press further charges against the president, many political figures and voters echoed growing concerns over Biden’s mental health.
Following the report’s release, Biden attended a late-night press conference to address concerns regarding his mental faculties. However, during his speech meant to ease Americans about their growing concerns, Biden forgot the church parish where he obtained his rosary in memory of his late son, Beau, and mixed up foreign world leaders.
Democrats have since ramped up public support of the president, in which Harris reportedly is “on top of and in front of it all,” according to The WSJ.
While the outlet denied serious talks from the Democrat party of replacing Biden as the nominee, allies of Harris notably stated that the White House has poorly utilized her until now. Harris has reportedly honed in on a key voting issue for Democrats by making public appearances in support of abortion rights currently, according to the outlet.
As Democrats have grown frustrated over Biden’s stance on abortion, his refusal to not support “abortions on demand” only added to Democrats’ frustrations. Harris, however, told The WSJ that she believes a “majority of people have an empathy gene” for the issue and questioned if the government should be “telling a woman what to do.”
“I do believe that the majority of people have an empathy gene,” Harris told the outlet. “And the more they realize what has actually been happening since the Dobbs decision came down, the more open they are to consider the fundamental point, which is: Should the government be telling a woman what to do?”
While Harris has focused her efforts on key voting points for Democrats and helping support Biden, her approval ratings among voters is nearly as low as the president’s. A recent poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in mid-January showed that Biden sits at 47 percent of voters’ disapproval and Harris at 42 percent of voters’ disapproval.
