White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphatically defended Vice President Kamala Harris vacationing in Hawaii, even as some fellow Democrats who supported her campaign are down on their luck.
“Good for her,” Harris said as he pushed for the tropical break, which comes just days after Harris’ stunning loss to Donald Trump. Although she kept him under 50 percent of the vote, she failed to secure a single swing state.
Harris began her vacancy Tuesday even as her campaign raised more than $1 billion and the DNC abruptly fired staffers without providing severance.
That raised the question of whether President Biden thinks it is appropriate “from an optical perspective” for her to skip town.while so many DNC staffers are literally wondering what are they going to do?”
Jean-Pierre strongly defended the trip, which coincided with rising nuclear tensions with Russia — the Kremlin even threatened a NATO missile defense base in Poland — and a last-ditch effort to get Biden’s final nominations through the Senate.
“The vice president has taken time off to spend time with her family. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” she said.
“I think she deserves some time with her family and some time off. She has worked very hard over the past four years and for her to take a few days to be with her family: good for her.”
‘Good for her,’ said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre when pressed for Vice President Kamala Harris to vacation in Hawaii
She also defended Biden’s record on union issues. He became the first sitting president to stand on a picket line during a UAW strike and regularly calls himself the most pro-union president in history.
“That’s something he gave him, and he’s proud to own that,” she said.
As for the fired campaign workers, Jean-Pierre, herself a former campaign official, said she would have to take the matter to the DNC.
Harris is not the only top official to go on vacation, and Biden himself faithfully returned to his home in Wilmington and the beach house in Rehoboth over the weekend.
“I think she deserves some time with her family and some time off,” Jean-Pierre said. She referenced Harris’ four years of hard work, but not her electino sprint that resulted in defeat to Donald Trump
It has not yet been confirmed whether he has Thanksgiving and other holiday plans.
Harris was crisscrossing the country during her truncated presidential campaign as Biden, who had just turned 82, ended his run.
But Trump accused her of not keeping up with his rally pace. She planned several days after the Democratic convention, in preparation for major broadcast interviews and the only debate.
Harris and husband Doug Emhoff, who would have been the first prime minister had she become the first female president, are on Kalaoa, on the west side of the Big Island of Hawaii.