The White House wants you to know: Harris was in the room

The White House has increasingly touted Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in foreign policy since President Joe Biden’s decision that he wouldn’t run for reelection, according to a POLITICO review of transcripts and other official documents.

Recent mentions of Harris have included noting that she joined calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, details of Harris’ involvement in high-profile negotiations and unusually pointed comments by national security adviser Jake Sullivan at a news conference in China.

Asked whether Chinese leader Xi Jinping had inquired about Harris’ views on China, Sullivan instead trumpeted her contributions to the administration’s Asia strategy.

“Vice President Harris has been a central member of the Biden foreign policy team, a leading member, and has been part of the design and execution of the overall strategy in the Indo-Pacific,” Sullivan told reporters following their meeting Thursday.

Name-checking Harris — or any vice president, for that matter — is unusual and suggests an attempt to buttress her credentials as she faces questions about her ability to manage international affairs and confronts an experienced opponent in former President Donald Trump.

POLITICO’s review of pool reports, readouts, transcripts of administration briefings and comments by the nation’s top diplomats and military officials found that the administration increased its mentions of Harris in public statements about foreign engagements since July, when Biden announced he would drop out of the presidential election and endorsed his vice president.

It has extended to noting when she’s in the room for important meetings. An official summary of an Aug. 1 phone call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended with the line “Vice President Harris also joined the call.” An Aug. 21 pool report the same day included a White House note that she also joined a call between Biden and Netanyahu during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Previously such mentions were rare. In fact, between Oct. 7, the day Hamas launched its attack on Israel, and July 25, POLITICO did not find a single mention of Harris in the official summaries and pool reports about Biden’s calls with the Israeli leader.

The White House has more recently said that the vice president has been present for all of Biden’s conversations with Netanyahu and pictures released by the White House of October calls between Biden and Netanyahu do show Harris physically in the room .

The fact that the vice president is present for these calls is itself significant, said Halie Soifer, who served as her national security adviser in the Senate.

“You don't typically have both the President and the Vice President on calls unless it is of critical importance,” said Soifer, who now leads the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “The fact that she has participated in more than 20 calls along with President Biden, with Israeli government officials says a lot about how much Israel is a priority for this White House and the Vice President’s commitment to Israel’s security.”

The increased references to Harris in national security conversations come as the vice president has leaned into her role in the Biden administration’s biggest foreign policy wins, especially on Ukraine and in the Indo-Pacific. In her Aug. 22 speech at the Democratic National Convention , Harris pointed to her work rallying support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and argued that she “confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas” as vice president.

Republicans have sought to highlight Harris’ role in administration foreign policy — for a very different reason. They have sought to link her to the administration’s setbacks in Afghanistan and the Middle East and questioned her ability to keep the country safe and advance U.S. interests.

It now appears that the White House is trying to puff up a relatively limited foreign policy resume, argues John Hannah, a foreign policy aide in both Democratic and Republican administrations who served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s national security adviser.

“The flurry of announcements to highlight her deepened involvement in several recent events is clearly of a piece with that effort to play catch up and do the best they can to plug what is obviously a potential weakness,” said Hannah, who is now a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

Before becoming vice president, Harris had only some foreign policy experience as a member of the Senate Intelligence and Homeland Security committees and wasn’t seen as a major foreign policy player on Capitol Hill. The same could be said of past presidents, including Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush. and Bill Clinton.

The White House and Harris allies argue she has played a consequential role in shaping the Biden administration’s major foreign policy decisions. “Since day one, President Biden has relied on the vice president’s judgment and partnership to tackle the biggest foreign policy challenges and opportunities our country faces,” the administration said in a recent statement.

White House efforts to share information about Harris’ foreign policy contributions have largely focused on her role in the administration’s Asia policy. The vice president has developed ties with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines. Administration officials recently highlighted her role in securing an agreement with the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to resettle Afghan refugees in the southeast Asian country while they await visa processing to enter the United States.

A senior administration official told The Washington Post that Harris suggested the idea to Marcos during a visit to Manila in November 2022 and raised the proposal in two separate meetings with him.

And in a joint op-ed published in The Washington Post on Aug. 5, Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote that the administration’s efforts to bolster ties with partners in the Indo-Pacific is “one of the most important and least-told stories of the foreign policy strategy advanced by President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

The White House has also promoted her role in transatlantic diplomacy with European allies. Earlier in August, senior administration officials also emphasized Harris’ role in securing the multi-country prisoner swap that saw the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan.

At an Aug. 1 press briefing, Sullivan told reporters that Harris played a key role in persuading Germany to agree to major provisions of the swap agreement . Part of that effort, a senior official told The Wall Street Journal , included Harris proposing that the German government trade Vadim Krasikov, a key component of the deal, on the sidelines of the 2024 Munich Security Conference. Harris also Harris helped convince Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob to include two Russian spies in the deal, per German and American officials.

For Harris supporters, this recognition, even if delayed, shows that the vice president has been a partner to Biden on foreign policy.

“By every measure, she has exceeded what one would expect from a vice president,” said Soifer. “It's high time that the American people see that she's played a leading role in both the shaping and implementation of foreign and domestic policy priorities for this White House.”