Kamala Harris: “I’m Ready To Serve As President!”

In the wake of Special Counsel Hur’s report, which described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and escalating concerns among the vast majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle about Biden’s mental fitness to serve, Kamala Harris is ready to step up to the plate.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview conducted two days before the damning Hur report was released, Harris responded to a question about Biden’s age with,

“I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that.”

Harris added that anyone who sees her doing her job, “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.”

Kamala Harris says she’s “ready to serve” after ABC news poll reveals 90% of Americans believe Biden isn’t fit for the presidency.

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— AF Post (@AFpost) February 12, 2024

'NO QUESTION': VP Kamala Harris says she's "ready to serve" as questions about Biden’s age, mental acuity pile up. https://t.co/KeoxpFS6S2 pic.twitter.com/9k5IXm7LOs

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 12, 2024

The Wall Street Journal originally reported on Kamala Harris’ readiness to take over in the White House:

Vice President Kamala Harris was detailing her priorities for the campaign during a flight on Air Force Two early last week when she was asked a delicate question hanging over the Democratic ticket: Do voters’ concerns about President Biden’s age mean she must convince them she is ready to serve?

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“I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that,” Harris responded bluntly. Everyone who sees her on the job, Harris said, “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.”

The response during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday came two days before a special counsel report on Biden’s handling of classified documents amplified concerns about the 81-year-old incumbent’s mental acuity. The report said Biden displayed “diminished faculties” in interviews and called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

The findings have intensified the scrutiny on Harris, 59, the first woman and Black vice president, whose tenure has been marked by criticism of her political skills. What had been quiet talk of whether Harris could step into the presidency is now spilling into the open.

“There was always going to be a lot of scrutiny and pressure on her in the 2024 campaign, and that moment’s here now,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations and for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “I think that the special counsel’s report has sort of accelerated that moment.”

In recent months, Harris has taken on greater and more public responsibilities. She has become the administration’s lead messenger on abortion rights, was put in charge of the White House’s new Office of Gun Violence Prevention and is playing a higher-profile role in the administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Harris, who has joined Biden on calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and gave a forceful speech in Dubai on the conflict, has pushed the administration to articulate more empathy for Palestinians and to focus on a postconflict Gaza plan.

Shortly after the special counsel report was released, Harris’s team was asked by West Wing aides to have her appear on a Sunday news show to defend the president, according to a person familiar with the request. Harris didn’t want to wait. At an event on Friday, Harris publicly slammed the report as politically motivated and gratuitous, defending the president strongly as being “on top of and in front of it all.”