After serving for over three years as Vice President and backing President Joe Biden’s policies, Kamala Harris now faces a pivotal moment. As she prepares for her own presidential campaign, she must articulate a clear and compelling agenda that reflects her vision for the country. This will not only define her campaign but also lay the groundwork for what could be her first term as President.
Since President Biden announced on Sunday that he will not be running in the 2024 race, Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered enough delegate commitments to become the presumptive nominee, provided they all follow through with their pledges during the voting process, according to a report by ABC News.
Kamala Harris, who positioned herself to the left of Biden during her 2020 presidential primary campaign but has since been a dedicated advocate of his administration’s policies, now faces the task of defining her own path and stance on critical issues as the November election approaches.
Her 2020 platform and statements made during her vice presidency provide a glimpse of a potential Harris presidency that could be more progressive than Biden’s in several key areas.
Israeli State head Benjamin Netanyahu tended to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, with Harris who, as VP, generally directs such procedures observably missing.
Harris’ team has attributed her recent absence to a scheduling conflict, noting that the vice president is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu one-on-one later this week. However, in recent months, Harris has indicated that she may adopt a more assertive stance regarding Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Harris strongly supported Israel’s right to defend itself. She dismissed any notion that the Biden administration might condition aid to Israel, stating in November, “We are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel to defend itself.”
By December, during a trip to Dubai for a United Nations climate conference, Harris began engaging more deeply in Middle Eastern diplomacy. She met with regional leaders and adopted a more assertive tone with Israel than many senior administration officials had at the time. Harris stated, “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” and emphasized that the administration believes “Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians.
In a Walk address in Selma, Alabama, celebrating the commemoration of Ridiculous Sunday, Harris by and by reprimanded Israel. She attested that its administration “should accomplish other things to fundamentally expand the progression of help no good reasons” and asked Israel to open line intersections and guarantee that philanthropic laborers were not designated.
In a meeting distributed recently in The Country, Harris remarked on youthful Americans fighting the conflict in Gaza, expressing they are “showing precisely exact thing the human inclination ought to be.” While she “totally dismisses” a portion of their assertions, she communicated comprehension of “the feeling behind it.”
Harris has been outspoken in advocating for a temporary cease-fire. During her March speech in Selma, she declared that, “given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza,” there must be an immediate cease-fire for at least six weeks.
Despite the fact that Harris doesn’t have a well established relationship with Netanyahu like Biden does, she has drawn in with Israeli authorities. In Spring, she met with Benny Gantz, then, at that point, an individual from Israel’s conflict bureau, at the White House. Recently, she additionally met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog during the Munich Security Meeting.
Health care
In a speech to her campaign staff on Monday, Harris emphasized that her campaign will “fight to build a nation where every person has affordable health care.”
Harris’ 2020 Federal medical care for All plan proposed covering all medicinally fundamental administrations, including trauma center visits, regular checkups, vision and dental consideration, amplifiers, psychological wellness and substance use therapy, and complete regenerative wellbeing administrations. The arrangement incorporated a 10-year progress period to execute these changes.
Under Harris’ arrangement, Americans would have had the choice to pick either the public Government medical care for All program and confidential protection plans. The confidential plans would have been expected to fulfill rigid Federal health care guidelines for expenses and advantages.
To fund the program, Harris proposed implementing an additional premium for households earning more than $100,000 per year, with a higher income threshold for those living in areas with a higher cost of living.
In 2020, Biden upheld for a more unobtrusive “Federal medical insurance for All who need it” public choice. Nonetheless, as indicated by Roll Call, he has not referenced this public choice since December 2020, preceding getting to work.
Biden has likewise recently shown that he would reject a Federal medical care for All bill, contending that it would prompt expanded charges for the working class.
The VP’s previous strategy contrasts with Biden could not essentially influence a Harris administration. As per David Barker, a teacher of government at American College, “I wouldn’t anticipate that it should change by any means from Biden’s plan. Until there’s some sign that it’s politically practical, I don’t believe anyone will actually attempt.”
Barker likewise noticed that gradual changes, like the $35 cost cap on insulin for seniors remembered for the Expansion Decrease Act, are probably going to be the methodology in a Harris organization.
criminal law
Despite facing significant criticism from the left during the 2020 primary for her background as a prosecutor, Harris’s platform that year included a range of ambitious reforms to the justice system. Her proposals aimed to end mass incarceration and address racial disparities.
Harris’s platform advocated for the legalization of marijuana and the expungement of certain marijuana-related convictions, the abolition of cash bail and mandatory minimum sentences, the elimination of the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and the cessation of private prisons and the death penalty.
Harris’ law enforcement plan likewise meant to upgrade the Division of Equity’s oversight of police offices and confine their admittance to specific sorts of military gear. In a clasp circled by conservatives, she upheld for reestablishing casting a ballot rights to previously imprisoned people and naturally canceling non-serious, peaceful offenses following five years.
The Biden organization’s most remarkable activity on law enforcement included improving pot arrangements, including decreasing government punishments for weed related offenses and exculpating those with charges for straightforward belonging.
In spite of the fact that Harris’ 2020 stage proposed greater changes than Biden’s on law enforcement, her new remarks recommend it may not be a focal point of her ongoing effort. The issue was eminently missing from her discourse at the mission base camp in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday.
Reproductive Rights
As the administration’s primary advocate on the key campaign issue of reproductive rights, Harris has consistently been more outspoken and assertive on the topic compared to Biden.
Before her 2020 presidential bid, Harris, as California Attorney General, took a strong stance against crisis pregnancy centers. She also gained significant attention for her questioning of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, where she challenged him to identify a law that regulates what men can do with their bodies.
Since the High Court’s choice affecting Roe, Harris has traversed the country as fetus removal boycotts were carried out. In Spring, she left a mark on the world as the main VP to visit a fetus removal facility, highlighting areas of strength for her for regenerative freedoms. This spring, she conveyed an enthusiastic discourse on the home turf of then-GOP official competitor Ron DeSantis in Florida, where a six-week fetus removal boycott had recently come full circle.
In her first rally on Tuesday, Harris emphasized that abortion rights will remain a key focus of her campaign as she runs for president.
In a rally in Indiana on Wednesday, addressing the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, Harris declared, “We who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman’s right to choose because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not dictate her choices.”
Mary Ziegler, a teacher of regulation at the College of California, Davis and a specialist on fetus removal history, noticed that while Biden likewise made early termination privileges a focal point of his organization and mission, he confronted requirements because of generational and strict contrasts. This, she said, has made Harris “the substantially more powerful and enthusiastic courier on conceptive issues.”
Should Harris win in November, Ziegler proposed, “There would probably be eminent contrasts in substance, huge varieties in tone, and possibly, however not unquestionably, contrasts in results.”
The expected results , for example, classifying Roe v. Swim into regulation, stretching out securities to conception prevention and in-vitro treatment, or chasing after extra lawful difficulties to shield early termination privileges would generally rely upon the exhibition of liberals in down-polling form races in November and whether Harris gets the opportunity to affirm more judges to the High Court.