Staff Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris once thought she struck gold by touting President Biden’s grand idea of pulling troops out of Afghanistan. It’s somewhat ironic that her main claim to fame might also be the political equivalent of stepping on a rake. During a commencement speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in May 2021, she boasted about being the last person in the room before the historic withdrawal decision was made. Fast forward a few months, and those bravado-filled moments were crumbling into chaos as her boss’s much-lauded “success” turned into a fiasco of epic proportions.
By August of the same year, instead of basking in a victory lap, Ms. Harris was on a pre-planned trip to Asia—looking more like a confused tourist than a confident leader. As things in Afghanistan fell apart faster than a house of cards, she dodged reporters like a game of political dodgeball, hoping to align her portable “talking points” with party dictates. The only phrases she could muster involved sympathy for troops in danger and efforts to evacuate as many Afghans as possible before the Taliban came crashing back into the scene with their outdated mindset. It was performance art at its finest—or saddest, depending on how one views that grand scene.
FLASHBACK: Harris says she had key role in Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal decision https://t.co/g0kbWIgyp9
— GOP (@GOP) August 15, 2024
An adviser tried to pitch the narrative that Harris was fully on board with Biden’s decision—100%, in fact—but whenever the situation demanded more than minimal public interaction, she promptly stepped back. When tragedy struck at Kabul airport, resulting in the deaths of 13 American heroes and many Afghans, she’d surprisingly left the heavy lifting to Biden himself. So far, the fallout from that catastrophic withdrawal has somehow left her largely unscathed politically, leading many to wonder how anyone could achieve such a feat in today’s blame-happy climate.
While Republicans had hoped that Harris’s involvement would become a juicy target for political jabs, it turns out Biden’s blunders appear to overshadow her role in the disaster. Political pundits have tossed around the idea that any blame directed at the duo hinges primarily on the President because of the strong association between him and the withdrawal. After all, he was the captain of that disastrous ship, while she just dutifully piloted the assistant vessel. Experts remain doubtful that painting Harris with the same brush will gain any traction for the Trump campaign.
Meanwhile, you have Republican strategists eyeing Harris as the easy battle in what they thought would be their Bullseye. They’ve been aware for years now that the American electorate recognizes Biden’s failures, but they also note that the VP hasn’t been put under the microscope nearly enough to relate her public persona to the calamity in Afghanistan. After all, the blame-game has historically found Biden its target, with the GOP seizing opportunities to bomb him with criticisms stemming from the withdrawal’s fallout; however, the vice president somehow emerges from it largely untouched—at least, for now.
Upcoming political battles loom large, including what to do about thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort and their subsequent visa complications—a mess no one wishes to be politically responsible for. It’s a daunting task for the next president, especially with the White House’s handling of foreign aid under scrutiny as reports surface about the Taliban skillfully bleeding dry any funds sent to relief organizations. As Harris continues to navigate her role on the international stage, it seems she might be hoping to distance herself from the Afghanistan debacle—perhaps a wise move, given that even experts are avoiding the topic these days like a hot potato.
