Kamala Harris hits back at ‘gossip’ that she could be replaced on 2024 ticket

‘We do not talk about nor have we talked about re-election, because we haven’t completed our first year and we’re in the middle of a pandemic’

Kamala Harris has hit back at the “gossip” suggesting that she could be replaced on the 2024 Democratic ticket.

NBC reporter Craig Melvin asked the vice president: “Are we going to see the same Democratic ticket in 2024?”

“I’m sorry, we are thinking about today,” Ms Harris responded. “I mean, honestly, I know why you’re asking the question because this is part of the punditry and the gossip around places like Washington, DC.”

“Let me just tell you something,” she told Today. “We’re focused on the things in front of us. We’re focused on what we need to do to address issues like affordable child care, what we need to do to ensure that...”

“So there have been no conversations about 2024?” Mr Melvin cut in.

“The American people sent us here to do a job and right now there’s a lot of work to be done,” Ms Harris said. “And that’s my focus, sincerely.”

New York Times opinion writer Thomas Friedman suggested in a column published on Tuesday that President Joe Biden should replace Ms Harris on the ticket with anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney, the Wyoming House representative and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mr Friedman noted that Israel’s current coalition is “the most diverse national unity government” in the country’s history.

“Is that what America needs in 2024 — a ticket of Joe Biden and Liz Cheney? Or Joe Biden and Lisa Murkowski, or Kamala Harris and Mitt Romney, or Stacey Abrams and Liz Cheney, or Amy Klobuchar and Liz Cheney? Or any other such combination,” he wrote.

Political scientist Steven Levitsky told Mr Friedman: “We should be ready to talk about Liz Cheney as part of a blow-your-mind Israeli-style fusion coalition with Democrats. It is a coalition that says: ‘There is only one overriding goal right now — that is saving our democratic system.’”

“There’s been some talk about a Biden-Cheney ticket, perhaps, in 2024. Did you read that article?” Mr Melvin asked Ms Harris.

“I did not. No, I did not. And I really could care less about the high-class gossip on these issues,” Ms Harris said.

She told the Wall Street Journal last month that she hadn’t discussed the 2024 ticket with Mr Biden, and added that she didn’t know if Mr Biden is going to run for re-election. Mr Biden has said that he does plan on running again.

“I will tell you this without any ambiguity – we do not talk about nor have we talked about re-election, because we haven’t completed our first year and we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” she said.

Ms Harris was asked directly if she thinks Mr Biden will run again.

“I’ll be very honest – I don’t think about it, nor have we talked about it,” she said.

“If I’m in the health I’m in now — I’m in good health — then, in fact, I would run again,” Mr Biden, 79, said last month. He would be 86 at the end of a second term.

A poll conducted in December by Politico and Morning Consult found that Ms Harris would get the support of 31 per cent of Democrats in a possible presidential primary.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had the support of 11 per cent, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had the backing of 8 per cent.

Ms Harris has an average approval rating of 39.1 per cent, according to RealClearPolitics, while Mr Biden averages 42 per cent.