Kamala Harris Is Being Asked To... Do What?

The VP has a full plate, tasked now with stemming the root causes of migration [View this email online]( [NPR]( Drew Angerer/Getty Images The Big Picture: Harris' Full Plate The job description of a vice president isn’t really clear. If it were in a job posting, it might say: “To be determined.” And it is determined by the president. The background: Before [Walter Mondale]( Jimmy Carter’s No. 2, the vice presidency was a fairly weak position. Vice presidents presided over the Senate and broke ties on occasion. - But Carter empowered Mondale to be a true right-hand man. - Dick Cheney played a similar, if not more significant, role for former President George W. Bush. - President Biden and former President Barack Obama were also close when Biden was his VP. Biden said he accepted the job on the condition that he be the last person in the room Obama consulted with before he made a big decision. Fast forward: Biden said he wanted the same for his vice president, his right-hand woman, former California Sen. Kamala Harris. At first, it wasn’t clear what that would mean. But four-and-a-half months in, he has now tasked her with some large responsibilities, including: - [finding the root causes of mass migration]( from Central America to the United States; - [boosting vaccination rates]( and - [protecting voting rights](. What she's doing: The U.S. southern border is facing record numbers of migrants, many of them unaccompanied minors. So: - Harris will be traveling, starting Sunday to Guatemala, then Mexico for the administration. The challenge: This is a problem with difficult-to-find solutions — and it also happens to be a major political vulnerability for Biden. - A majority of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing overall, but as of April, they had a [much more negative opinion]( of how he’s handling immigration. What it means for Harris' future: There’s an argument to be made that if Biden, who’s 78, doesn’t run in 2024 for reelection, he’s setting up Harris as a more-than-able successor. - If she acquits herself well, she can tout that she handled some of the biggest problems facing the country, domestically and internationally. - But on the other hand, she’s being given some pretty impossible tasks, which threaten to have the opposite effect on a potential presidential run of her own. — Domenico Montanaro, NPR’s senior political editor/correspondent [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Elise Amendola/AP ICYMI: Top Stories Trump’s Facebook suspension: Facebook [suspended former President Donald Trump from its platform and Instagram for two years]( and says it will only reinstate him "if the risk to public safety has receded." Trump’s accounts will remain suspended until Jan. 7, 2023 — leaving the door open for him to return to the social networks just before the 2024 election. U.S. sending vaccines abroad: The Biden administration started [sending millions of surplus COVID-19 vaccines abroad]( to countries fighting the pandemic. The effort will give priority to countries with vaccine plans in place that target those at the highest risk of severe disease and their caretakers. Pence distances himself from Trump on Jan. 6: In a speech to a Republican group in New Hampshire, former Vice President Mike Pence said that he [doubts that he and Trump will ever see "eye to eye" on the Jan. 6 insurrection]( calling it "a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol." But Pence also attacked Democrats for seeking an independent commission to investigate the riot, saying the plan was motivated purely by politics. Arizona “audit”: The ongoing "audit" of the 2020 election results in Arizona is [a simple exercise in how disinformation spreads and takes hold]( and a perfect example of how false information can be used to fuel more false information in a seemingly never-ending cycle. One expert called it "a threat to the overall confidence of democracy.” Democrats win New Mexico special election: Democrat Melanie Stansbury [easily won a special election in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District]( keeping the party in control of the House seat left vacant by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Republicans had been hoping an upset win could help them move closer to taking back the House majority in 2022. — Brandon Carter, NPR Politics social media producer --------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect Going Deeper The battle over critical race theory: Academics have studied critical race theory for decades. But its main entry into the partisan fray came in 2020, when Trump signed an executive order banning federal contractors from conducting certain racial sensitivity trainings. It was challenged in court, and Biden rescinded the order the day he took office. Since then, the issue has [taken hold as a rallying cry among some Republican lawmakers]( who argue the approach unfairly forces students to consider race and racism. The GOP adjusts to a less religious America: For the first time, [a majority of Americans are not church members]( according to a recent poll. That could have long-term consequences for the Republican Party, which has long been affiliated with more religious voters. — Claire Oby, NPR Politics intern --------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon Bell/Getty Images The Shot: Remembering Tulsa This week marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, an attack by an armed white mob on an area once known as Black Wall Street. The attack killed as many as 300 people, destroyed some 40 square blocks, and left nearly 10,000 people homeless. Biden visited Tulsa on the anniversary of the attack, delivering remarks and meeting with survivors of the massacre — all children then, and now more than 100 years old. "For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness," Biden said in his remarks. "But just because history is silent, it doesn't mean that it did not take place. And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing. It erases nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they can't be buried, no matter how hard people try." — Brandon Carter, NPR Politics social media producer [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? 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