Just hours after numerous media outlets called the election for Democrat Joe Biden, CNN was already suggesting he would be a one-term president and that his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), was the “presumed frontrunner” for the next presidential election in 2024.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interviewed Obama campaign manager David Axelrod on Saturday, discussing the network’s declaration that Biden won the election.
“I mean [Harris’] age, Joe Biden’s age, the potential that he may only serve one term,” Cooper said. Harris is 56 while Biden will be 78 if he is inaugurated, should President Donald Trump fail in his legal challenges against the results in several states.
“This is a unique political situation,” Axelrod responded. “Because never has a vice president entered office on the first day as the, kind of, presumed frontrunner for the nomination four years later.”
Axelrod went on to say that Harris is “seen by many on the left of the party as sort of their person in the administration, the person who is going to bring different voices into the discussions,” National Review reported.
“There’s also pressure associated with that. So it’s a really unique situation that she’s going to have to navigate,” Axelrod added.
Cooper went along with Axelrod’s thinking, suggesting Harris should continue to listen to the most left-wing portions of the Democrat Party.
“If she is thinking about the next step, if four years from now President-elect Biden decided not to run, if she does not respond to the left of the party, that is going to harm her down the road,” Cooper said. “And yet, clearly if there is going to be a lot of compromises being done, there’s a lot of folks on the left of the party who are not going to be happy.”
Axelrod slowed down, telling Cooper: “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves.” He then added: “You win a general election by speaking to the broad sweep of the country.”
It should be remembered that Harris dropped out of the Democratic primary before the Iowa caucuses — the first primary contest. She received exactly zero delegates in the primary due to her campaign’s early fail. Democrats didn’t want her as their presidential candidate, and progressives didn’t even want her as a vice presidential pick.
The New York Times previously reported that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party wanted Biden to pick socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). As the outlet reported, Harris was near the bottom of the progressive list.
Democrats didn’t like Harris then; it’s hard to imagine they’d like her in four years, especially if Biden succeeds (unlikely) in pushing his agenda.
It’s also still unclear whether Biden actually will be the next president on January 20, 2021. Several states haven’t been called yet, and the Trump campaign has filed numerous lawsuits to contest the elections in several states.
While Biden has given a victory speech, Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign and Trump himself, told The Daily Wire: “Media coordinated efforts are attempting to simply declare Joe Biden the president and ignore the rule of law. There is no official winner until every legal vote is counted accurately, the states certify results, and all legal challenges are resolved.”