OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:55 AM – Wednesday, September 6, 2023
In light of President Biden’s deteriorating health and advanced age, Vice President Kamala Harris stated in an interview on Wednesday that she was prepared to carry out her constitutional responsibility to take over as president in any event where Biden would not be able to continue fulfilling his position.
Biden, who is 80 and will turn 81 in November, is still the oldest president to have ever led the United States.
If Democrats won the election again in 2024 and Biden is sworn in as president for a second time, he will be 86 at the very end of his term. Harris said it was “hypothetical” that she may take office as America’s new president, but also insisted that she was fully prepared if that occasion were to arise.
“Joe Biden is going to be fine, so that is not going to come to fruition,” Harris told The Associated Press in Indonesia, where she was attending a regional summit. “But let us also understand that every vice president, every vice president, understands that when they take the oath they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president.”
“I’m no different,” she added.
Despite the fact that the majority of people believe Biden is too old for government, including many Democrats who answered related polls, the vice president still rejected concerns about his age.
According to a recent AP/NORC survey, 69% of Democrats and 77% of Americans believe that Biden is too senile to serve a second term.
Republicans running for president have consistently made the case that voting for Biden would actually mean voting for Harris, including former South Carolina governor and GOP hopeful Nikki Haley.
“I see him every day,” Harris said, speaking of Biden. “A substantial amount of time we spend together is in the Oval Office, where I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can to make smart and important decisions on behalf of the American people have played out.”
“And so I will say to you that I think the American people ultimately want to know that their president delivers. And Joe Biden delivers,” she added.
In the past, Harris entered the 2020 presidential race but rapidly lost interest after the Democratic primary debates.
She eventually withdrew from the race in December and won less support from committed delegates than rivals Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Tulsi Gabbard.
After suggesting that former President Trump should be held completely accountable for the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, and his alleged attempts to rescind the results of the 2020 presidential election, Harris also highlighted her previous experience as a prosecutor.
From 2004 to 2011, Harris was the district attorney for San Francisco, and from 2011 to 2017, she was the attorney general of California.
“Let the evidence, the facts, take it where it may,” Harris said during the interview on Wednesday. “I spent the majority of my career as a prosecutor. I believe that people should be held accountable under the law. And when they break the law, there should be accountability.”
Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is being accused of trying to rig the 2020 election in Georgia, which is one of four federal charges against him.
Both Biden and Harris have already claimed that Trump is a threat to American democracy, with the 2024 presidential election cycle already under way and the likelihood that he will be the Republican nominee.
“Democracies are very fragile,” Harris said. “They will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it.”
Harris attended the recent summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on behalf of the U.S. since Biden decided to not attend.
“We as Americans, I believe, have a very significant interest, both in terms of our security but also our prosperity, today and in the future, in developing and strengthening these relationships,” she said.
Harris’ popularity has remained very low during her time serving as vice president, and according to an NBC News survey, she earned the lowest rating of any vice president ever.
Among registered voters, just 32% had a favorable opinion of Harris, compared to 49% who had an unfavorable opinion and 39% who had a “very negative view.”
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