Joe Biden and Jill Biden do not only pretend to overlook Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff at public events, but their relationship has actually turned frosty since the vice president’s election loss to Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with their relationship. The Bidens and Kamala Harris appeared so distant in public that many speculate that the Bidens did not even vote for her.They were not present when Kamala Harris gave her election conceding speech. They were seen cold whenever they met in public after the election. Jill Biden hasn’t been a fan of Kamala Harris since the 2020 election when Harris accused Biden in a debate of opposing busing policies that desegregated schools she attended as a young Black girl.
Though Joe Biden never publicly blamed Kamala Harris for the election loss and wholeheartedly endorsed her as a capable candidate to defeat Trump, now as his presidency is coming to an end, he said that his list of regrets includes opting out of the presidential race.
Following Biden’s debate performance on June 27 on CNN which was called disaster, Biden dropped out of the campaign on July 21. Kamala Harris got a relatively shorter time for her campaign, though she never blamed Biden for her election defeat. However, there were clashes between the two teams and Kamala Harris could not openly disagree with Biden’s policies to lure more voters as she was part of all crucial decisions of the Biden administration.
Biden has recently told his associates that he would have won the election but did not hold Kamala Harris responsible for his withdrawal from the race.
During the campaigning, there were several instances when Joe Biden’s action could be interpreted as sabotage to Harris’ campaigning and her campaign was reportedly frustrated with Biden’s comments like calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’ etc.
The WSJ report said that the belief that Biden could have won isn’t widely shared in the White House or among the Democratic establishment, where the more common view is that the party would have suffered a much larger electoral defeat and lost even more congressional seats had Biden remained the nominee. White House aides, many who’ve been on job searches since early November, described the work environment in recent weeks with words like “draining” and “depressing.”
