A new TIME article is bringing to the forefront Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently swore in the new class of Senators Friday, when she stood face-to-face with many of the same politicians who spent months painting her as a threat to America. At rallies, on social media, and in interviews, they pushed wild lies—that she wanted to cancel Christmas, bring dog meat into immigrant kitchens, or flood polling places with undocumented voters casting illegal ballots, according to analysis from Philip Elliott.
Among the four Senators who spoke at last year’s Republican convention, three couldn’t even bother to pronounce her name correctly as they mocked her, he continued. He further added that it’s a bitter reality every Vice President faces, especially those like Harris, Al Gore, and Richard Nixon, who lost presidential bids yet returned to the Capitol for one last grind. The traditions of the Senate demand they set aside personal wounds and endure the indignity of standing alongside those who’ve publicly trashed them. It’s just part of the job—or so they tell themselves.
“That doesn’t make it—or presiding over a Senate on Jan. 6 as it certifies their opponents’ win in the Electoral College—any easier,” Elliott wrote. “Just ask former Vice Presidents Mike Pence, Joe Biden, and Dan Quayle how much they enjoyed helping set their political foes on the final glidepath toward replacing them.”
He continued: “For Harris, who inherited the Democratic nomination late in the calendar, the day cannot be one of ease. Although she has put forward a strong face in the wake of her convincing defeat and has told her supporters and aides that pity parties are not how they do things, the arrival in Washington this week of some of her fiercest—and most creative—critics, now imbued with more power, provides an added sting to the meteoric rise and shocking shortfall she endured over the last six months.”
He further went on to provide examples, including Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno of Ohio, born in Bogotá, Colombia, who built a Cleveland auto empire before ousting Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by capitalizing on voter fears about immigration in a once-thriving industrial hub. Moreno not only pushed false claims that Springfield, Ohio residents were eating dogs and cats, he wrote, but blamed it on Harris’ support for granting temporary status to legal immigrants. He accused Harris and Democrats of prioritizing “illegals” over American citizens and came dangerously close to implicating Harris in a failed assassination attempt on Trump.
He then referenced Sen.-elect Jim Banks of Indiana, who ran for one of the safest seats in Congress, relying on familiar culture-war rhetoric. He accused Harris of waging a “war on Christmas.” Harris will swear him in, too, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, who spent months claiming she and her allies were orchestrating an asylum seeker influx to create future Democratic voters. (Fact check: non-citizens can’t vote.) Cruz even suggested in September that Ukraine’s president used a U.S. trip to campaign as a Harris surrogate.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, he continued, who aimed for Senate leadership but fell short, attacked Harris for allegedly neglecting Florida’s hurricane recovery efforts to chase photo-ops. “She doesn’t care enough about Florida to get her butt down here and ensure federal support for our state,” Scott charged, accusing her of basing her policies on “racism.” Harris will swear him in, too, despite the vitriol.
He concluded: “That doesn’t mean there is any of that joy heading from the Veep’s residence at the Naval Observatory to Capitol Hill as this week ends. Harris and Biden alike are packing up offices that will soon be held by their polar opposites. Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance—whose Senate seat from Ohio is still an open question that only Gov. Mike DeWine can answer—are about as unlikely a pair of heirs as can be expected. The Senate, too, is about to pivot not just from a Democratic majority to a Republican one, but a GOP-led chamber without former Leader Mitch McConnell’s iron hold over his caucus. That potential chaos in a chamber requiring 60 votes for almost every piece of consequential legislation may be the lone reason Harris can summon comfort as she readies for photo-ops with figures who spent months trashing her, weeks misrepresenting her updated policies, and for years to come will be casting votes in Washington while she plans her next moves.”
