Vice President Kamala Harris declined to confirm a New York Times report that she thinks media coverage of her would be different if she were a White man.
Speaking on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, she said “I will leave that for others to deal with” when asked if she’s being held to a “double standard” because she’s a woman and minority.
According to the Times, former Senator and first lady Hillary Clinton has discussed the issue with the Vice President.
“There is a double standard; it’s sadly alive and well,” Clinton said in an interview with the Times. “A lot of what is being used to judge her, just like it was to judge me, or the women who ran in 2020, or everybody else, is really colored by that.”
The story last week in the New York Times said that during critical negotiations with Virginia Senator Joe Manchin about the President’s Build Back Better agenda, the President allowed Harris to stay around only long enough to only say hi, and then asked her to leave.
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Some Democrats have criticized Biden for treating Harris as an afterthought, according to the Times report. Rep Karen Bass (D-CA) told the Times the White House needed to be clearer about the role Harris would play in his administration and what the expectations were.
“I know, and we all knew, that she would have a difficult time because anytime you’re a ‘first,’ you do,” Ms. Bass said. “And to be the first woman vice president, to be the first Black, Asian woman, that’s a triple. So we knew it was going to be rough, but it has been relentless, and I think extremely unfair.”
However, on Face the Nation, the Vice President told reporter Margaret Brennan she has no issues with the responsibilities and tasks she has been assigned.
“No, I don’t believe I’m being set up to fail,” when asked that question directly by Brennan. “I’m vice president of the United States. Anything that I handle is because it’s a tough issue and it couldn’t be handled at some other level.”
Harris said the administration would not concede defeat for its Build Back Better agenda despite Manchin declaration that he’s a firm “no vote.”
“You don’t give up. That’s how we do it. We don’t give up. That’s how,” Harris declared.
She says what keeps her going is her strong desire to fight for what she considers right is what gets her fired up.
“Injustice, injustice,” Harris declared.
Injustice. Injustice is just generally what will get me kind of — it’s — I don’t like unfairness.
“And that is one of the things that will kind of cause me to say, OK some things are fairly innocuous, but unfairness in a way that can be hurtful to someone, I — that’s why I became a prosecutor, you know?”
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