WASHINGTON — The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris’ team have been in frequent contact about how she plans to distance herself from President Joe Biden, while maintaining her overall loyalty to him, according to three people familiar with the dynamic.
That’s why Biden’s comments Tuesday night that Harris would “cut her own path” set the stage for her to declare that, if elected, her presidency would not be a “continuation” of his during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, these people said.
No one in the White House was surprised by those comments, one of the sources said, since conversations had happened privately before the Fox interview.
Biden has been emphatic that Harris should do “whatever it takes” to win and that he understands she represents a new generation of leadership, this person said.
The Harris campaign, for its part, has been aware of the need to clean up Harris’ answers last week when she was asked what she would do differently than Biden, if elected, and what kind of changes she would make to her administration.
During the Fox interview, she discussed how her leadership style might differ from Biden’s decades of Washington experience.
“Like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas,” Harris said to Bret Baier. “I, for example, am someone who has not spent the majority of my career in Washington.”
Harris’ team indicated to the White House that she would likely go beyond her initial comments on "The View" and "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" during the Fox interview, and that gave Biden an opportunity to offer his own comments the day before, two of the sources said.
NBC News was first to report that Harris’ campaign was examining ways to distance her from Biden after criticism about her interviews.
On Tuesday, Biden pointed to his own experience as President Barack Obama’s vice president as an explanation for why Harris could put more distance between them in the final days of the race.
“Every president has to cut their own path. That’s what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president,” Biden said. “She’s been loyal so far, but she’s gonna cut her own path.”
