Vice President Kamala Harris thinks the accomplishments of the Biden administration are enough to overcome dropping poll numbers, particularly among the young voters that helped propel her and the president to the White House in 2020.
The policy achievements are popular, even if she and Joe Biden are not, she argued in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday. The contrast with the Republican primary’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, gives her “no doubt” the electorate will choose to give the Democratic ticket another four years.
“When the American people are able to take a close look at election time on their options, I think the choice is going to be clear,” Harris said. “We’re going to win. And I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy, but we will win.”
“I have no doubt,” she added.
But American voters, including Democrats and particularly young people, do have their doubts. Biden’s approval and disapproval ratings are within a couple percentage points of the worst numbers of his presidency, with Harris’s numbers closely matching the president’s according to the polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. A poll released by Gallup last week showed Biden’s support among Democrats fell 11 percentage points in just a month to a record low 75%. Among all 18 to 34 year olds, nearly 60% disapprove of Biden’s job so far, according to Gallup.
The decline in Democratic and youth support may be partially credited to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, Gallup wrote in their analysis of the poll conducted between Oct. 2 and Oct. 23. An earlier Gallup poll in March found Democrats were more likely to feel sympathetic towards Palestinians than Israelis, a perception that may be affecting Biden’s approval rating as he emphatically supports Israel amid a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza since Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis in an Oct. 7 attack.
“Israel, without any question, has a right to defend itself. That being said, it is very important that there be no conflation between Hamas and the Palestinians,” Harris said in the interview, echoing Biden’s rhetoric on Palestinian civilian lives that has yet to produce significant concrete results. “The Palestinians deserve equal measures of safety and security, self determination and dignity. And we have been very clear that the rules of war must be adhered to and that there be humanitarian aid that flows.”
Harris said she meets with Biden multiple times a day when both leaders are in town and the president told “60 Minutes” in a statement that her counsel is “invaluable” and that “this is as high stakes and complex a situation as it gets, and Kamala is my partner in all of it.”
But the Biden-Harris policy when it comes to Israel’s siege of Gaza may jeopardize their support among key constituencies, as Arab and Muslim leaders in swing states like Michigan — where Biden won by less than 3% in 2020 — have been warning in recent days. One exit poll from the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported just under 70% of Muslim-Americans voted for Biden last time around.
Progressives in Congress have also been sounding the alarm as tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors have rallied in major cities across the country, including Washington, D.C. earlier this month where thousands marched in the streets and then hundreds were arrested after demanding a ceasefire inside a congressional office building.
“The American people are actually quite far away from where the president and even Congress, the majority of Congress, has been on Israel and Gaza,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “They support the right for Israel to defend itself to exist, but they do not support a war crime exchanged for another war crime. And I think the President has to be careful about that.”
A majority of Americans support Israel in the conflict, but oppose the U.S. sending more weapons and supplies — something Biden has asked Congress to give him $14 billion for — according to a CBS News/YouGov poll released last week. Only 66% of Democrats approved of his handling of the conflict, the poll found.
In her “60 Minutes” appearance, Harris argued that the issues that consistently poll highest in importance to young people — climate change and student loans — have been and continue to be addressed by the Biden administration despite legislative efforts and executive actions falling short of promises made in the 2020 campaign. The issue, in part, is the lack of media coverage on the administrations’ accomplishments, she claimed.
“The challenge that we have as an administration: we got to let people know who brung it to them,” Harris said, laughing. “That's our challenge. But it is not that the work we are doing is not very, very popular with a lot of people.”
In fact, vast majorities of voters, including Democrats, see Biden as too old for office. Two-thirds of Democrats believe their party should nominate someone else, according to a September CNN-SSRS poll. In polls asking Democrats to pick an alternative to Biden if he were no longer running, Harris is consistently the leader among prominent Democrats, but only to the tune of 20 to 25%.
“I'm not going to engage in that hypothetical because Joe Biden is very much alive and running for reelection,” Harris said. “Our democracy is on the line and I frankly, in my head, do not have time for parlor games when we have a president who is running for reelection. That’s it.”