In an administration frequently noted for its linguistic missteps, the latest verbal faux pas from Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at a less-than-optimal moment. With the election season for 2024 already in full throttle, Harris and President Joe Biden need positive momentum and public goodwill, rather than questionable transcript corrections that are raising eyebrows nationwide.
This incident unfolded as Harris made some unusual comments concerning the government’s strategies to fight climate change during a forum in Baltimore, Maryland. According to the official White House transcripts, she stated, “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population [pollution], more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.” Yes, the initial utterance was indeed “population.”
Applying Occam’s Razor to this situation, it’s fair to surmise that Harris likely had a slip of the tongue, given the phonetic similarity between “population” and “pollution”. However, the Vice President’s propensity for verbal gaffes and misstatements lends curious credibility to this seemingly inadvertent nod toward population control.
It’s worth mentioning that Democrats have faced criticism in the past for seemingly endorsing various forms of population control. This latest Harris gaffe, seemingly revealing an unspoken belief, only adds to that long-standing concern.
And these concerns aren’t irrelevant, despite the general election still being more than a year away. Biden’s administration is currently grappling with low popularity ratings, with the president himself teetering on the brink of a new low for his approval rating. Alongside this, other eyebrow-raising incidents (including a recent international event involving Biden and a child in Finland) have not exactly contributed to positive momentum for the current administration.
Things might potentially get more challenging for Harris. It’s not entirely unthinkable for Biden to consider running for re-election with a different vice president, given Harris’s general unpopularity. Even the co-hosts of “The View”, a platform usually supportive of Democrats, have voiced concerns about Biden’s prospects in 2024 due to Harris.
Nevertheless, most experts dismiss the idea of Biden dropping Harris as a political fantasy. Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher argues that it would be “political suicide for Democrats to remove the first African-American woman, a woman of color, from the presidential ticket.”
However, with Harris’s latest linguistic misstep further fueling public concern, it’s clear that the road to 2024 could be fraught with challenges for this administration. It underscores the need for clear communication and thoughtful leadership—core conservative values—as we navigate the road to the next election.
