I spoke briefly with Vice President Harris on the phone on Friday after the Supreme Court handed down its latest set of decisions. After attending her confirmation hearings over the past few days, far from being a burden, as her critics claim, she has proven to be an effective communicator and skilled advocate, especially on issues where she has developed decades of expertise.
In light of the recent court scandals, I asked her about ethics reform. She recalled that she supported the Supreme Court's ethics code even while she was a senator. “The reasons for this are clearer today,” she said. She pointed to the blindfolded statue of a judge. “That's how deeply ingrained it is in our judicial system,” she added. “I worry that confidence in the Supreme Court is being lost,” Harris said, highlighting not only ethical concerns but also the extreme ideology of the Supreme Court that has ripped precedents to shreds.
There, she spoke passionately about the work she's been doing to protect reproductive freedom since the Dobbs decision. Since then, she's given numerous speeches, hosted more than 90 rallies in 21 states (including convening a group at the White House), and discussed reproductive freedom with public officials, health care workers, faith leaders, students, and advocates, according to her office. She's also brought the issue to college campuses as part of her “Fight for Freedom” college tour, which begins in 2023.
Harris told me that her campus visit was standing room only and overflowing. “Students stood in line for hours,” she said. “Not for a rock concert, but to talk to the vice president.” Contrary to the impression that Gen Z voters are disengaged, she was “inspired” and convinced they would bring “big change” to politics. Guns, abortion rights, and climate are not academic issues for this generation. “This is a lived experience. At the peak of their reproductive years, the Supreme Court took away their right to make decisions about their own bodies. … They understand that they need practical solutions.”
Follow this authorJennifer Rubin's opinion
Watching Harris last week, it was clear to see that she has matured politically since her first year in office, when harsh, unfounded criticism dominated the news. She speaks clearly and with authority. In formal and informal settings, she seems relaxed, confident and calm. And she seems to enjoy standing up to bullies. She can draw on not only her three years of experience as vice president, but also some two decades as a prosecutor. “There's very little I'm doing right now that I haven't been doing for more than 10 years,” she said. [that time]”She shared with me the breadth of her career, from being a prosecutor on the ground, to running an agency for abused and neglected children in San Francisco, to serving as California's attorney general and then as a senator.”
Indeed, since Dobbs, she has channeled righteous indignation, delivered sharper messages, and acted as the administration's most active and effective voice on the issue. On the second anniversary of Dobbs, the administration naturally pushed her to the forefront. She has never harbored any illusions that the Court would stop on abortion. In decisions, she told me, “Clarence Thomas spoke out loud the quiet parts.” He and other justices have looked to Griswold (contraception) and Obergefell (same-sex marriage).
Appearing with Chrissy Teigen at an event for abortion providers and activists on Thursday, Harris denounced the Supreme Court for “taking away constitutional rights.” During the conversation, she stressed that Trump appointed justices to undo Roe intentionally and that “they acted exactly as he intended.” She blasted “Trump's abortion bans,” including many that tell rape victims that “after their body has been violated, they have no right to decide what happens next.” “That's immoral,” Harris declared indignantly.
She cited her own experiences visiting abortion clinics that treat patients with dignity and respect, her work to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum care from three states to 46 states, and her work to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum care from three to 46 states. But she deftly told the audience of progressives that “we need to renew our efforts at coalition building.” Pointing to the overlap of states that restrict voting, deny LGBTQ+ rights, and ban abortion, she reminded attendees that “it's about the dignity of all people.” With some tempted to bicker among progressives just five months before the election, her message was timely: “All residual effects will be… [of Dobbs] “We haven't found him yet.” On Monday, she is scheduled to appear at Dobbs-related events in Arizona and Maryland.
Harris' ability to connect her personal experience to the law works well in other contexts, like at an emotional rally on Monday, where she announced a White House effort to hold combatants who use rape as a weapon of war accountable.
Harris took to the podium in a Government Building auditorium packed with victims and activists, where she balanced empathy (“I am heartbroken by the trauma and pain inflicted in these conflicts”) with a dignified legal presentation that kept the event from seeming sentimental or exploitative. “Sexual violence has been a tactic of war since ancient times,” she emphasized. [as] Those who wage war have specifically targeted women and girls, exerting control and power over their bodies and violating entire populations in order to humiliate, terrify and subjugate them.”
Reminding the audience of her background as a prosecutor, she asserted that the United States must use “the full range of diplomatic, financial and legal tools to punish those who commit sexual violence.” She continued, “Of course, we must condemn this kind of behavior. But there must be accountability.” She noted the administration's commitment to “shift the system from condemnation alone to consequences,” noting that the White House has “imposed sanctions solely based on conflict-related sexual violence, including crimes committed in Haiti, Sudan, Iraq, and in the United States.” [Democratic Republic of Congo]With the recognition that a meaningful system of accountability also contributes to deterrence.”
She particularly highlighted Hamas' systematic sexual violence against Israeli women. Effectively denouncing the months of protests that have often devolved into vicious anti-Semitism and denial of Hamas' atrocities, Harris stated vividly:
After October 7, I saw videos of bloody Israeli women being abducted, then it came to light that Hamas had committed rapes and gang rapes at the Nova music festival, their bodies found naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs, and shot in the head.
She spoke of her own unimaginable horrors and described meeting a survivor named Amit, who “bravely testified about the sexual violence she endured while held captive by Hamas.” (Amit later detailed his ordeal.) Harris then said in her closing argument that “using sexual violence as a tactic of war is reprehensible.” (After the survivors spoke, Sheryl Sandberg screened the horrifying documentary “Scream Before Silence.”)
The political media has largely downplayed the vice president's role in the campaign, especially her task of reaching out to key Democratic constituencies. But her political muscle is no match for the Biden campaign, which is sending her on a packed week of events, as a senior aide confirmed to me as she walked out of the gates on Monday. In the last week alone, Harris' schedule included a jaunt to Switzerland, an event on Monday, a speech on gun safety and a Juneteenth commemoration in Atlanta, an abortion event in Washington, D.C., and finally a speech to the largest hospitality union in New York.
As with the campaign as a whole, the voters who are most enthusiastic about Harris are the ones who are most engaged, and the campaign needs to make sure that those who see her up close communicate to the entire electorate what they see: She's a formidable candidate.
