Senator Kamala Harris should “politely decline” a vice president post if she gets such an offer from Joe Biden, former San Francisco mayor and ex-speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Brown said in his weekly column. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Brown, who has previously admitted that he had dated Harris “more than 20 years ago”, argued that his ex-lover should rather aim for an attorney general position within the Biden administration, if he is the one to take office in January 2021.
“Harris is a tested and proven campaigner who will work her backside off to get Biden elected,” Brown argued. “That said, the vice presidency is not the job she should go for — asking to be considered as attorney general in a Biden administration would be more like it.”
Reasoning arguments behind his advice to Harris, Brown suggested that “the glory” behind Biden’s possible running mate pick would be “short-lived” as “historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end”.
“For every George H.W. Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, there’s an Al Gore, who never got there,” the former mayor writes.
The vice president has “no real power” and “little chance to accomplish anything independent of the president”, Brown believes, while adding:
“Basically, no one takes the vice president seriously after election day. Just ask Mike Pence.”
The politician argues that instead, the attorney general has “legitimate power”.
“From atop the Justice Department, the boss can make a real mark on everything from police reform to racial justice to prosecuting corporate misdeeds,” Brown suggests.
Some of his op-ed statements, however, made it sound like Joe Biden has already won the November election.
“True, the vice president does have an advantage the next time the party needs a new nominee, which in Biden’s case could be four years from now,” the Texas native wrote.
Joe Biden has not announced his vice president pick yet, despite the Democratic party’s fast-approaching national convention, where he is expected to be confirmed as a presidential candidate. However, the public has been speculating that it is probably Harris, who also previously aimed for the Democratic nomination until she ended her campaign in December 2019 due to a lack of funds, as photos of Biden holding notes with the senator’s name at the top of them emerged online.
Harris’ name in Biden’s notes was followed by five main points: “Do not hold grudges,” “Campaigned with me & Jill,” “Talented,” “Great help to campaign,” and “Great respect for her”. Biden later said that the senator was “very much in contention” as he was about to pick hist running mate. Some still doubted that Harris will be an appropriate choice for Biden as the two had clashed strongly in the past during the Democratic presidential primary last June. Some suggested that Biden should instead choose Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s former national security advisor, to run on the 2020 ticket.
