The possibility of a Kamala Harris-led Presidential ticket has generated cautious excitement for voters who felt badly burned by Joe Biden and his handling of the war in Gaza. Critically, Harris called for a ceasefire more forcefully than Biden and has consistently demonstrated more empathy for Palestinians in her public remarks. Outside of Harris’ approach toward Israel and Palestine, the Vice President has often struck a progressive tone, including by being one of the first to pledge to return to the Iran nuclear deal and being among the most forceful opponents of Trump’s Muslim ban.
Joe Biden’s diminishing electoral chances in the 2024 Presidential election did not start with his poor debate performance in late June. Rather, it began in October of 2023, when he embraced Benjamin Netanyahu’s war of revenge against the Palestinian people in Gaza and repeatedly failed to use American leverage to bring the war to a close. With social media feeds flooded with horror and carnage, Biden alienated young voters, his progressive base, the Arab-American community and other Americans of good conscience by continuing his bear hug approach of Israel as the death toll continued to rise and risks of regional war grew.
So it is fair to ask whether Vice President Kamala Harris – the presumptive Democratic nominee after receiving endorsements from Biden and many potential challengers for the nomination – can shift gears.
Right now, there are few data points to indicate one way or another. Notably, in March, she utilized a high profile speech marking the 59th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” – where segregationist police brutalized civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama – to address the war in Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire. Her remarks empathized with the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which the Biden administration has been criticized for doing all too rarely.
Critically, reports indicated that the original draft of Harris’ Selma speech was watered down by other administration officials. As NBC News reported, the original draft “was harsher on Israel about the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the need for more aid than were the remarks she ultimately delivered,” adding that it had “called out Israel more directly about the need to immediately allow additional aid trucks in.”
Similarly, a Politico article outlined how Harris has pushed the administration to be more sympathetic to Palestinians and more forceful in condemning the civilian harm caused by Israel’s mass bombing and displacement campaign. In that article, Harris is quoted as having discussed the human toll with an individual who lost family members in Gaza. “I have a friend, who I talked with recently, who has family in Gaza and has lost a number of the members of her family — innocent civilians,” Harris stated. “So, let me start by saying that it is absolutely tragic when there is ever, anywhere, any loss of innocent life, of innocent civilians, of children.”
As a well-connected member of the administration told Mehdi Hasan, Harris is “definitely better on Gaza” than President Biden. Likewise, one of the administration officials who resigned from the Biden administration in protest of its handling of the Gaza war, Lily Greenberg Call, noted her optimism that Harris will pursue a different approach. “I’ve worked for Kamala, and I know she’ll do the right thing,” Greenberg Call stated.
Of course, talk is talk, and there hasn’t been a major break between Harris and Biden despite the calamitous nature of the war in Gaza and the connected decline in the Biden-Harris campaign’s political fortunes. Administration officials have emphasized – as is to be expected – that Harris is on the same page as the rest of the administration. So, there is ample reason for voters to believe that Harris is no different and will just represent more of the same, and continue to fuel what many believe is a genocidal campaign.
This is why a shift in approach is needed now. Harris should capitalize on her role in the administration and as frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to demand that the war end now, and note publicly that she would be willing to utilize all policy levers – including by withholding all offensive military assistance to Israel until its leadership agrees to a ceasefire and allows a massive surge of aid into Gaza. President Biden and his advisors should welcome this shift, which would begin to allow for a true use of American leverage to secure the ceasefire that the administration has long claimed it is aiming for. While the ship of state wouldn’t turn on a dime, a bold and principled Harris position would help course correct, and better position Harris to win back the voters she needs to secure the Presidency and defeat a possible second term under Donald Trump.
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