Kamala Harris Became US President: Another Feather in Harris’ Cap
For 85 minutes, Kamala Harris became the first-ever woman to become the acting president of the United States, as Biden took a small leave for his medical treatment under anesthesia for colonoscopy.
According to the Presidential Succession Act, the vice president is the second one in the line of the presidency, followed by the House speaker.
The procedure is mentioned in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the US, which boosted the profile of Kamala Harris to a great extent.
The event will also heal the relations between the White House and the office of Kamala Harris, which came into the limelight amid the recent reports of distrust.
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Kamala Harris made history by becoming the US president for 85 minutes as Biden took a break for his medical treatment.[/caption]
Biden Must Go Out of the Box to Save Democrats in 2024 Elections
The recent reports suggested that a sense of distrust is prevailing between the White House and Kamala Harris, who has accused Harris of not working in accordance with presidential commands.
According to some current and former aides of the VP’s office, Kamala’s presidential ambitions for the upcoming elections worried the highest office, which is one of the primary reasons why she came at cross purposes with the White House.
But the latest turn of events will allow Harris to feel the taste of the presidency, although for a short time. It will help her to launch her presidential campaign more zealously and invest in it on a large scale. This is perhaps the time for Joe Biden to clarify some revolving ambiguities around his second term ambitions.
If he is not planning to run for the presidency again in 2024, he needs to declare it at the latest by the midterm elections of 2022. Otherwise, Democratic candidates, whether Kamala Harris or any other, will not have a significant amount of time to campaign.
Biden can go out of the box to fix Democrats’ presidential elections for 2024. He can step down before some time, let’s say six months before the 2024 elections, to give Kamala Harris the authority, a step that would unprecedently make her bid stronger in the 2024 elections.
For this purpose, Biden needs to rely on data and be aware of the polls so that he can make a timely decision to step down before the expiry of his first term.
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The distrust between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s office were heaping up and Kamala Harris becoming the US President for 85 minutes can help ease these tensions.[/caption]
The Distance Between President and VP Office Will Reduce with Kamala Harris’ Presidential Episode
The recent reports suggested that Kamala Harris was at odds with some elements of the White House, as she was not happy with how her potential was utilized by the administration.
Some of these reports were true, as she started skipping some congressional activities, including a time when she went to a NASA event instead of being with the president when he convened House Democrats to get their votes on the infrastructure bill.
Upon inquiring, her team blatantly replied that the Vice President could not change her schedule due to the stupidity of House lawmakers. This was the pinnacle of the distrust which has grown over the course of time since January.
Now, the trust which Biden showed Kamala Harris can help heal the relations between them, which nosedived recently.
25th Amendment History: Times when Presidents Were “Unfit” for Their Jobs
Ratified in 1967, section 3 of the 25th amendment has been invoked three times before the Kamala Harris episode.
For the first time, former President Ronald Reagan transferred his powers to his Vice President George H. W. Bush for almost eight hours when he was under anesthesia for surgery for colon cancer.
After that, George W. Bush went to colonoscopy in 2002 and in 2007 and transferred his powers to his Vice President Dick Cheney.
The amendment was about to be invoked when Ronald Reagan was wounded, followed by his assassination attempt, but the letter was not sent to the concerned authorities.
Last year the talks about the amendment also surfaced when Trump contracted COVID, but he refrained from transferring his power to Mike Pence. Now the Kamal Harris episode marks the fourth time the amendment got invoked.
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If Biden does not want to run for 2024, he can step down some months ago to give Harris’s profile a boost for the 2024 elections.[/caption]
Final Thoughts
The immigration crisis was yet another issue on which the distances between the two top offices grew.
While Biden came under heavy criticism for not visiting the US-Mexico border, but he had assigned the duties to the Vice President.
However, since Democrats grabbed power, the voter apprehensions concerning the US-Mexico border have risen to a record-high, not to mention the illegal immigrants penetrating into the United States.
The same is the case with drug cartels and human traffickers. While the US did try to change the working relations with Mexico under Biden’s administration, no significant breakthrough has yet been achieved.
These crises supposedly increased the tensions between Harris and Biden’s offices, as both of them are about to advance into the second year of their tenure.
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