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After meeting with Israel’s prime minister this week, Vice President Kamala Harris said she “will not be silent.” She was referring to her concerns about Palestinian suffering in the Gaza war, but in a way it was a larger declaration of independence. For nearly four years, she has been the quiet understudy, relegated to the role of the supportive deputy while President Biden made pronouncements. Now she has suddenly been thrust to the fore as the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and neither silence nor agreeable head nods are sufficient any more. The challenge for her over the next 100 days will be to find her own voice without overtly breaking with Mr. Biden, a delicate political high-wire act without a reliable net. Every statement she makes, every sentence she utters, will be scrutinized to determine whether it is consistent with the president she serves. Yet even as she wants to demonstrate loyalty to Mr. Biden, she also hopes to show the public who she is. She is fortunate in that she and Mr. Biden do not diverge all that much, according to people who have worked with them. While friction between presidents and their vice presidents is common, there have been few notable instances where Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have been reported to be at odds. So for her, it may not be as difficult to suppress contrary instincts in the truncated election campaign she faces as it has been for other vice presidents eager to differentiate themselves. But this is a balancing act being figured out on the fly. Because Mr. Biden was running himself until less than a week ago, neither he nor Ms. Harris has had much time to figure out how to coordinate their messages. It was notable that Mr. Biden left it to Ms. Harris on Thursday to be the public voice of the administration during the White House visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, taking the silent role himself. Mr. Biden cares deeply about keeping former President Donald J. Trump out of the White House and therefore has reason to be invested in Ms. Harris’s success. He also knows that because, until he was forced to quit the race, he had insisted on running again despite concerns about his age, many will blame him for not ceding the stage earlier if Mr. Trump wins. “Given the unique circumstances of the present situation, I believe Harris will have more room to maneuver in this tricky terrain,” said Richard Moe, who was chief of staff to Vice President Walter F. Mondale. “It all depends on the nature of the issue, and whether it is one that Biden feels strongly about, but it’s apparent nonetheless that Biden is prepared to give her a good deal of latitude.” Joel K. Goldstein, a longtime specialist on the vice presidency at St. Louis University School of Law, said an incumbent vice president running for president faced three challenges. The opposition will tag the vice president with any baggage the administration has. The vice president must step out of the president’s shadow to establish her own identity. And the vice president needs to pivot from subordinate to leader — “and do so while someone else is still president.” “It seems to me that Vice President Harris has done remarkably well this first week in presenting herself as an effective new leader of the Democratic Party,” Mr. Goldstein said. “She has skillfully managed to remain loyal to President Biden and the accomplishments of the administration while presenting herself as an independent, vigorous new leader from a different generation with a different style.” “When Hubert Humphrey desperately needed to separate himself from Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, the president drew a line in blood — literally,” said James Traub, author of “True Believer,” a biography of Mr. Humphrey. Mr. Traub recalled that Mr. Johnson told Mr. Humphrey that more generous terms for peace would lead to the deaths of American troops, including Mr. Johnson’s own son-in-law, Charles S. Robb. “Kamala Harris can afford to deviate from administration policy in a way that Humphrey never could,” Mr. Traub said. Mr. Bush felt compelled to establish his independence after eight years serving under the popular President Ronald Reagan and did so by opposing a deal with Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, who was facing drug trafficking charges. Mr. Gore distanced himself from President Bill Clinton because of the scandal over the president’s affair with Monica S. Lewinsky. Unlike Mr. Johnson, both Mr. Reagan and Mr. Clinton went along with their vice presidents’ stabs at separation, albeit grudgingly in the latter case, because they viewed the success of their deputies as important to the country and their own legacies. Mr. Goldstein said Mr. Biden might see it the same way. “I suspect that President Biden will embrace Vice President Harris’s candidacy as furthering his values and objectives,” he said. Abortion rights and the war in Gaza are the two most obvious areas where Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have been perceived differently. They both favor a nationwide right to abortion, but Mr. Biden remains uncomfortable speaking about it, while Ms. Harris has leaned into the issue with passion and energy. She has stuck by his position on Gaza but has more emphatically addressed humanitarian concerns. During Mr. Netanyahu’s visit, Ms. Harris condemned pro-Hamas demonstrators as “despicable” and made it clear that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism. But she talked forcefully about “the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety” from Israel’s assault on Hamas in Gaza. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent,” she said. Ms. Harris’s office had no comment on Friday, but an aide speaking on condition of anonymity because of the internal sensitivities stressed that her remarks were consistent with the president’s policy and what she had said previously. Khaled Elgindy, the director of the program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute, however, said Ms. Harris’s statement “was a notable departure from Biden” in tone, if not in substance. “Whereas Biden typically centers Israeli needs, interests and trauma while treating Palestinian suffering mostly as an afterthought or talking point, Harris kind of flipped that formula by centering Palestinian suffering and humanity throughout her remarks,” he said. Ms. Harris delivered her statement after meeting with Mr. Netanyahu and without the prime minister by her side. Israeli officials were surprised by her comments, seeing them as much sharper than what had been said behind closed doors. They complained privately to reporters that she risked encouraging Hamas to resist a cease-fire deal by making it appear that the United States was not in lock step with Israel, a position Mr. Netanyahu echoed on Friday while meeting with Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Mr. Trump weighed in as well. “I think her remarks were disrespectful,” he said. “They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who’s Jewish can vote for her, but that’s up to them. But she was certainly disrespectful to Israel.” Mr. Trump did not explain how expressing concern for civilian casualties was disrespectful, much less how it was any more so than his own comments on Thursday insisting that Israel “finish up and get it done quickly,” referring to the war, “because they are getting decimated with this publicity.” But Ms. Harris, whose husband is Jewish, feels no need to prove that she is more supportive of Jewish people than Mr. Trump and is far more concerned about Mr. Biden’s reaction to her comments than the former president. She wants to exhibit respect for Mr. Biden, advisers say, without feeling boxed in. “I believe Harris should do everything she can to adhere to the Biden policy as long as she is still the vice president,” Mr. Moe said. “That need not be an absolute rule, because the public understandably will expect her to be her own person at some point, so it’s tricky. But essentially, she can distinguish herself as a matter of emphasis and style, as she did on Gaza and the Palestinians.”

In a post-Biden Democratic Party, those who organize for Palestinian liberation must take up a cautiously optimistic but nonetheless realistic view of the terrain ahead of us. Harris does not appear to be nearly as ideologically committed to Zionism and defending Israel as her boss, who is 22 years older than her and was raised in an environment where Palestinians were hardly perceived, let alone viewed as having legitimate grievances or demands. It has been reported that Harris was one of the leading figures in the White House urging the president to give a higher priority to Palestinian concerns.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s sudden ascension to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket has not only transformed the 2024 election. It has also provided the biggest opportunity in months to get Democrats to change their cruel and discredited approach to the war in Gaza.

In light of such an unprecedented moment, with the war still raging and the prospects of regional escalation in the Middle East as high as they’ve ever been, the need for a comprehensive reset on the Democratic Party’s policy toward the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and freedom is paramount. It is clear what anyone who cares about this issue must demand right now: that Harris tells the American public and the world that Israel can no longer occupy Palestinian land and impose apartheid on millions while enjoying US support and protection from accountability. But we must be equally clear that Harris will not do any of these things without sustained, relentless political pressure from the movement for Palestine.

KAMALA HARRIS has been one of the Biden administration’s fiercest messengers on Israel-Palestine, and there’s hope among those in the administration who have criticized U.S. policy toward Israel that she could reunite Democrats on Middle East policy.

Late last year, HALA RHARRIT was working as an Arab-language spokesperson in the State Department when she requested the U.S. craft a statement about the freedom of the press, in the context of journalists being killed by Israel during its operations in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s an overview of Harris’s views and actions related to climate change, sourced from news and White House reports.

She connects extreme weather to climate change.

President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris appears likely to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

As vice president, Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in the passage of the Biden administration’s signature achievement on climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act.

When Harris ran for president five years ago, she staked out a more liberal climate stance than her eventual running mate. Harris vowed to end federal support for the fossil fuel industry and immediately stop new oil leases on federal lands and waters. She endorsed a ban on fracking — which Biden did not — and proposed a $10 trillion plan to fight climate change, which she described as “an existential threat to us as a species.”

Some of her campaign promises got dropped along the way. During the Biden administration, oil permitting on federal lands and waters has outpaced the Trump administration. The Willow project — ConocoPhillips’s controversial drilling plan in the Alaskan Arctic — got the green light. The oil industry still gets tax breaks, although the administration raised fees for drilling on public land.

Vice President Kamala Harris has officially thrown her hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential race with President Joe Biden's endorsement, following his announcement Sunday he's stepping aside.

As the nation begins to envision a possible Harris presidency, her history of environmental policy is receiving renewed attention.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ emergence as the leading Democratic presidential contender has garnered a renewed sense of optimism among environmentalists who say she offers a strong track record of climate and clean energy policies and would continue to advance that work in the White House.

“I’m ecstatic — I couldn’t be more thrilled,” Leah Stokes, an associate professor of climate and energy policy at UC Santa Barbara, said Monday.

Now environmental groups and voters have begun parsing how Vice President Harris — and her possible running mates — might be different from Biden on key questions of climate change, the movement away from fossil fuels and environmental regulation.

While climate issues might not be decisive in swing states in November, this election has enormous implications for the trajectory of U.S. carbon emissions in coming years. The Biden administration has put the country on a path to lower planet-warming emissions by funding the transition to clean energy. Former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been hostile to the idea of climate change and unabashedly pro-fossil fuels.

Kamala Harris has a strong record on the environment that will provide a vivid contrast with Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescind climate change policies should he return to the White House, according to green advocates who have welcomed the prospect of a Harris presidency.

“We are confident that she is ready to carry forward President Biden’s historic legacy and set a new high bar for climate ambition in America,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen, one of a raft of green groups, including Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters Action Fund and the NRDC Action Fund that have now endorsed the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.

Very few Americans could find tiny Montenegro on a map. Fewer still could offer a cogent description of the differences between Slovenia and Slovakia.

Most can’t name the three Baltic countries. Yet thanks to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s charter, which was signed 70 years ago in Washington, every American is bound by law to defend with blood and treasure each of those nations, and 22 others to boot.

Donald Trump has threatened to leave NATO so many times — or has appeared to, anyway — that for many of his critics, it’s a question of when, not whether, he’d ditch the 75-year-old alliance if he’s reelected president in November.

In truth, Trump would be unlikely to quit NATO outright, according to interviews with former Trump national security officials and defense experts who are likely to serve in a second Trump term. But even if he doesn’t formally leave the organization, that doesn’t mean NATO would survive a second Trump term intact.

[(Chris, Elections Columnist for USA Today.) “Kamala Harris has historic donation momentum. She’ll need it to fight Trump.”, USA Today, 7-25-24, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/07/25/harris-campaign-funds-beat-trump-favorability/74514710007/]//LR

Using money as a gauge for political viability, Vice President Kamala Harris clearly enjoyed a successful first few days as the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee to replace President Joe Biden. The campaign she inherited Sunday, along with the Democratic National Committee and the party's joint fundraising committees, hauled in a record-setting $100 million in less than 48 hours after Biden dropped his bid for a second term and endorsed Harris. That probably looks like game-changing money. But campaign cash is just one measure of performance in presidential politics. Polls tracking a candidate's favorability with voters also impact the outcome. Here, Harris has a serious problem, with echoes of Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss for president against Donald Trump. Harris will need all that money and much more to address it. Kamala Harris can use those donations to tell voters her story Don't get me wrong ‒ $81 million in the first 24 hours, plus the second-day take, was exactly the kind of splashy arrival Harris needed to trumpet her ascendance to the top of the ticket. It drew headlines and analysis because more than half of the 888,000 donors in those 24 hours were making their first contribution this year. Add that to the $96 million in the campaign account, as of June 30, that Biden handed her as she took over the presidential campaign. No wonder a majority of DNC delegates pledged their support for Harris, boxing out any would-be rivals who might have challenged her for the nomination. Harris, the first Black, South Asian and female vice president of the United States, can use that money to define herself to voters, to tell them the story of how she got here and where she wants to go with them. Trump is now reconfiguring his campaign apparatus to face Harris, and his super PAC allies are already spending big bucks to define her as too risky, too liberal, too whatever to elevate as president. Here, Trump finds some favorable conditions for that message. Remembering Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 Gallup hasn't tested Harris' favorability rating since she took over the campaign. But a survey from June 3 to June 23 found she had a favorable rating of 34% and an unfavorable rating of 57%. Compare that with Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of State, while she was running for president in late July 2016. Clinton had a favorable rating of 39% then and an unfavorable rating of 56%. Trump at the same time in July 2016 had a favorable rating of 35% and an unfavorable rating of 60%. He has improved since then. Gallup's survey last month put him at 46% favorable and 52% unfavorable. Gallup's numbers are in the ballpark with an average polling on Harris and Trump for favorability compiled by RealClearPolitics, showing her at 39.4% favorable and 51.7% unfavorable. Trump comes in at 43.5% favorable and 53.1% unfavorable. It's never a good time to have a majority of American voters disliking you. It's especially inconvenient while launching a campaign for president. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are entering 'uncharted territory' Harris has a strong chance of shifting those numbers in her favor in the next four weeks. And Trump knows it. Harris is likely to enjoy a triple bump in popularity in that time, first by selecting a running mate for vice president, then in pre-convention voting to officially make her the nominee, and finally with her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. Trump's campaign on Tuesday released a memo from its pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who called all this "totally uncharted territory" with "no modern historical parallel." Fabrizio predicted a "Harris honeymoon," with polling showing her "gaining on or even leading" Trump. MAGA's Republican takeover:If we learned one thing from the RNC, it's that the GOP is no longer conservative Right on cue: A Reuters/Ipsos national poll conducted Monday and Tuesday showed Harris leading Trump 44% to 42% among registered voters. The poll has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. But for all his talk of "unchartered territory," Fabrizio insisted in his memo that "the fundamentals of the race stay the same" because Trump will link Harris to all the issues he would have campaigned on against Biden – the economy, crime, immigration and foreign policy. Biden's fundraising problems foretold where things are now Campaign contributions and polling data were key factors in Biden's decision to leave the race. Both went in the tank for him after his calamitous debate performance against Trump last month. Major donors stopped giving as post-debate polling showed Biden being edged by Trump, who picked up momentum after surviving an attempted assassination and then overseeing the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Biden's attempts to claw back in prime-time television interviews with ABC News and then NBC News failed to mollify his supporters-turned-critics. A case of COVID-19 and the need to isolate only exacerbated the president's political turmoil. Harris now has to take this momentum and take on Trump For now, Harris can tout her fundraising while hitting the campaign trail to show a new burst of momentum. And that doesn't include the super PACs on both sides, which could help tip the balance in November. Politico on Monday reported that a pro-Biden super PAC had received $150 million in commitments for contributions after Harris took over. A word of caution on promised money: Elon Musk, one of the world's richest men, last week seemingly confirmed on X, the social media site previously known as Twitter, a Wall Street Journal story that said he would contribute $45 million a month to a super PAC supporting Trump. Musk, in an interview with a conservative commentator, confirmed his role in starting the political action committee but denied he would donate $45 million per month. Here, history shows that money only gets you so far. Clinton's campaign raised nearly $564 million in 2016 in her second bid for the presidency, with an additional $412 million raised by outside groups supporting her, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets. Trump, a first-time candidate, raised more than $333 million, with outside groups kicking in $200 million. Clinton won the popular vote in 2016. But Trump won the election. Harris must now be a prolific fundraiser while spending it wisely to define herself and Trump in what has become a new and truncated campaign for the presidency. She'll need that to challenge Trump and make it clear to voters she's more than just Biden's backup.

[(Steve, Chief Political Reporter for AP news.) “The fight to define Harris is on. And for now, Republicans are dominating Democrats on the airways.”, AP, 7-24-24, https://apnews.com/article/advertising-presidential-campaign-kamala-harris-trump-aab73a0d9593afebd734c8f708632926]//LR

NEW YORK (AP) — Just days into her new role as the Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee, Kamala Harris is already facing a wave of Republican-backed attack ads questioning her personality, her progressive record and what she knew about President Joe Biden’s decline. But for now, at least, Democrats have yet to engage in the summertime advertising fight. And in a sharp reversal from much of the year, Republicans are suddenly dominating the airways. Overall, Trump and his allies are outspending Harris’ team 25-to-1 on television and radio advertising — more than $68 million for Republicans compared to just $2.6 million for Democrats — in the period that began on Monday, the day after Biden stepped aside, through the end of August, according to an AP analysis of data compiled by the media tracking firm AdImpact. The stunning disparity reflects actual spending for this week and reservations for subsequent weeks, which will almost certainly change in the coming days. But for now, the numbers highlight a dangerous imbalance for Democrats at the very moment that millions of voters are re-shaping their opinions of the vice president, who has spent much of the last four years in Biden’s shadow. “Public opinion is like cement. It’s soft at first and then it hardens,” said Sarah Longwell, co-founder of Republican Voters Against Trump. “The next three weeks are definitive. She needs to define herself before Trump defines her.” To be sure, Harris only earned Biden’s endorsement on Sunday. And in the days since, friends and foes agree that she’s benefited from a flood of so-called “earned” news media coverage, much of it positive. Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio described it as “Harris’ honeymoon” in a memo on Tuesday that predicted a surge in the polls for the Democratic vice president. Asked about the advertising disparity, Harris spokesperson Kevin Munoz said the vice president “will make her case aggressively alongside a campaign infrastructure designed to win close elections.” “In just 24 hours, Kamala Harris put abortion rights front and center for voters, broke fundraising records, and spun Donald Trump out into a manic and public breakdown — because he knows she is best-equipped to prosecute the case against a convicted felon like himself,” he said. Harris’ team has the money to launch a robust advertising campaign whenever it wants to. Her campaign raised a jaw-dropping $100 million between Sunday afternoon as of Monday night alone. And allies, led by the super PAC Future Forward, received donor commitments of $150 million in the first 24 hours after Biden left the race. “Obviously, advertising is important and will pick up, but it’s not the only factor,” said Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin. “With Harris taking over as the presumptive nominee, she’s getting wall-to-wall largely positive coverage. ... You always need to take in the context of the entire media ecosystem.” Still, some of the Harris attack ads may be beginning to shape the narrative. Biden allies privately raised concerns about a new ad from Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick that describes Harris as “the most liberal nominee ever.” The ad highlights her progressive positions on immigration, policing, energy and health care. It ends with audio of Harris’ loud laugh, which has been a frequent Republican focus. Trump’s campaign has been largely silent on the airwaves since he emerged as his party’s presumptive presidential nominee this spring. The delay in ad spending reflected, in part, the former president’s financial challenges following an expensive primary and overwhelming legal bills. Backed by allied super PACs that are running tens of millions in ads this summer, however, the Trump campaign can also afford to wait until more voters are paying attention this fall to pour money into advertising. The pro-Trump Preserve America super PAC, backed by casino magnate Miriam Adelson, has reserved $45 million worth of advertising through the end of August. MAGA Inc. has booked another $23 million. Democrats, meanwhile, just halted its advertising spending after devoting enormous sums to boost Biden in the weeks and months before he dropped out. Overall, Biden’s campaign spent more than $138 million on advertising between Jan. 1 of this year through Sunday, when he announced his decision to step aside. While much of the advertising went after Trump, the ads also featured Biden, who is no longer a candidate and largely viewed as a political liability for Harris. It is only a matter of time, days perhaps, before Harris and her allies ramp up their advertising plans. While AdImpact found only about $2.6 million in Democratic-backed ad reservations through the end of August, the pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward is set to begin rolling out a $129 million advertising campaign in September.

US Vice President Kamala Harris’ move to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket is driving a surge in fundraising from climate-focused voters who were less eager to open their wallets for President Joe Biden.

Harris’ strong track record on climate — as a major contributor to Biden’s climate agenda, as well as in her previous jobs as a senator and California attorney general — and the sense that she stands a better chance of defeating Donald Trump in November’s election have won her endorsements this week from leading green groups and donors. Money is pouring in, making climate activists a vital source for Harris’ record-breaking flood of donations. A virtual fundraiser led by the climate-focused author Bill McKibben Thursday night raised more than $100,000.

As Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns for the presidency, she is anticipated to prioritize the Biden administration's climate accomplishments and agenda — which she played a significant role in promoting, both domestically and internationally. And her success in appealing to the 70% of voters who favor taking steps to reduce climate change could be crucial to her campaign.

Kamala Harris' role in the Biden administration climate efforts

Vice President Kamala Harris has for years made the environment a top concern, from prosecuting polluters as California’s attorney general to sponsoring the Green New Deal as a senator to casting the tiebreaking vote as vice president for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in United States history.

As she runs for the White House, Ms. Harris is widely expected to try to protect the climate achievements of the Biden administration, a position that could resonate with voters during a summer of record heat. A clear majority of Americans, 65 percent, wants the country to focus on increasing solar, wind and other renewable energy and not fossil fuels, according to a May survey by the Pew Research Center.

HOUSTON (AP) — The first change that stands out is the music, with President Joe Biden’s rock and Motown fading from the playlist in favor of more pop and hip hop.

Then comes Vice President Kamala Harris’ stump speech, devoid of Bidenesque rambling digressions and focused more on the future than a laundry list of past accomplishments.

Vice President Kamala Harris has recovered support for Democrats in five key swing states since launching her presidential campaign this week, according to new polling.

The new poll, published by Emerson College and The Hill, finds Harris still trailing her Republican opponent and former President Donald Trump in four of five states. But the vice president has the closed the gap between the Democratic and GOP ticket, since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and made way for Harris' to run instead.