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By Peter Baker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Peter Baker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs are White House reporters who have been covering Kamala Harris for about four years and have traveled with her to Europe, Asia, Africa, and throughout the United States.
When a highly successful Supreme Court resolution overturning Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Ron Klain, then White House staff leader, at her West Wing workplace. Array had an idea: She would lead a new task force on abortion rights.
She was insecure. “What for?” she asked.
“We want a genuine leader and you are the leader,” Klain responded.
Mrs. Harris asked for time to think about it. She didn’t need to just give a speech without substance. And she had spent much of the past year and some of it seeking to be pigeonholed as the first female vice president. But when the White House began to outline executive moves to protect access to abortion, she began to see the odds and settle for that role.
It was a moment that captured the essence of Harris’s vice presidency. Deliberate and disciplined, cautious and often risk-averse, she saw traps all around her and tried to avoid them. She considered herself a team player, but she might not have been sure that the team had her most productive interests in mind. She focused on issues where she believed she could make a difference without overshadowing President Biden, but she was rarely promoted as a pivotal player in the administration.
The court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminating the constitutional right to abortion turned out to be a factor in which Ms. Harris could take the lead, a factor in which Mr. Biden, a practicing Catholic, does not feel comfortable approaching. She discovered her voice as an abortion rights advocate within the administration, changing the minds of some Democrats who had doubts about her. And he has paved the way for settling for his party’s presidential nomination this week. .
Harris’ adventure as vice president is complex, as described in interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials and allies, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating her or the president. She did the respectful things that were asked of her. She has led a firearms protection task force and office. She went to places the president didn’t have time to visit. She sent personal messages to Polish and German leaders and to break tie votes in the Senate.
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