Kamala Harris's standing among likely voters is falling as 55 per cent reveal they do not think the vice president is qualified to run the nation as she spoke publicly for the first time in six days in pre-recorded remarks for a black journalism conference.
When likely voters were asked in a Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday if Harris is ready to be U.S. president, 47 per cent said she is 'not at all qualified' while 8 per cent said she's 'not qualified.'
Only 14 per cent of the 1,000 polled between August 12-15 said she is 'qualified' and another 29 per cent said she is 'very qualified' to run the nation.
The latest is down from her April standing, when 49 per cent of respondents said the vice president was qualified to become president.
It also comes as questions emerged over Harris' role in the chaotic and bungled U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has garnered massive criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
Harris boasted she was the 'last one in the room' with President Joe Biden before he made his announcement in the spring of a total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban takeover of the nation in just over a week, however, the vice president has been mostly absent from any public events. While she has been at several briefings on the situation with the president, she did not stand next to Biden on Monday during his address on the developing situation.
A new poll shows 55 per cent of likely voters believe Vice President Kamala Harris is 'not qualified' or 'not at all qualified' to run the nation. There was a 6 per cent drop in those who feel she is qualified from April to August
Harris made her first public appearance in six days when she made pre-recorded remarks to the National Association of Black Journalists conference on Thursday
'This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team to discuss security, diplomatic, and intelligence updates in Afghanistan,' according to a White House official. 'They discussed the status of operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA)... our efforts to evacuate U.S. citizens, Embassy personnel, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans as quickly as possible; and that every day we operate troops on the ground are at risk.'
'The President, Vice President, and their team also discussed their focus on monitoring for any potential terrorist threats in Afghanistan, including from ISIS-K,' the statement continued.
It was also noticed by Americans when Harris did not join Biden for his remarks on COVID-19 and vaccinations on Thursday – despite usually standing behind the president's right shoulder when he speaks.
She has not held any public events since August 12, has had a relatively empty public schedule over the last seven days and has rarely been seen publicly in that time span.
The vice president was pictured in three images released from the White House – two on Zoom calls with Biden over the weekend as he was briefed on Afghanistan while at Camp David and a third with the president and his top military brass in the Situation Room on Wednesday.
Harris also made her first public appearance in six days when she spoke in pre-recorded remarks to the National Association of Black Journalists conference on Thursday and said: 'A free press is essential to any democracy.'
'You turn the light of truth on some of the most consequential issues of our time,' she told the conference focused on journalism in the black community. 'You are keeping the American people informed about all of the issues that impact their lives every day.'
Harris is the first female and minority vice president.
Just this fact has led to some criticism that Harris should be more vocal about helping women and children fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban is historically bad for women's rights.
The Islamic militant group has vowed to respect women amid their takeover, despite a history of oppression.
Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn asked 'where's Kamala?' to stand up for women in Afghanistan.
'Where is she, defending women and girls, standing up for human rights, standing up for these women and girls who we know are going to be pushed into sex slavery?' she questioned in an interview with conservative network Newsmax on Thursday.
She has been pictured a few times in meetings with President Joe Biden and his top Defense and military advisers as the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate
'We know that they are going to be brutalized,' Blackburn continued. 'We know the women who have worked with us with our Secretary of State's program for women and girls, these are women that are going to be murdered.'
'I even said where is the Squad on this? They're always about women and defending women in human rights. But where are they?' she added in referencing the so-called 'squad' of progressive lawmakers, which includes Representatives Alexandrioa Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressey and Ilahn Omar – who once was a refugee fleeing Somalia for the U.S.
Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview taped Wednesday that he would not use military force to address women's rights issues in Afghanistan if they begin to deteriorate under Taliban rule.
'Beyond Americans, what do we owe the Afghans who are left behind, particularly Afghan women who are facing the prospect of subjugation again?' the ABC host asked in the president's first chat with media following the chaotic withdrawal.
'As many as we can get out, we should. For example, I had a meeting today for a couple hours in the Situation Room just below here. There are Afghan women outside the gate. I told 'em, 'Get 'em on the planes. Get them out. Get them out. Get their families out if you can,' Biden said.
'But here's the deal, George,' he leveled. 'The idea that we're able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational. Not rational. Look what's happened to the Uighurs in western China. Look what's happening in other parts of the world. Look what's happening in, you know, in – in the Congo.'
'I mean, there are a lot of places where women are being subjugated,' the president continued. 'The way to deal with that is not with a military invasion.'
'The way to deal with that is putting economic, diplomatic, and national pre-- international pressure on them to change their behavior,' Biden concluded.
The vice president's office confirmed on Wednesday Harris still plans to depart on Friday for her second foreign trip in office to Singapore and Vietnam despite the ongoing chaos and the comparisons between the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the toppling of Kabul by the Taliban over the weekend.
Before the Thursday reports to the journalism conference, Harris' previous public event was held on August 12 when she met with CEOs to discuss the so-called care economy.
In a gaggle before the event, a reporter asked Harris if 'Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban?'. She did not answer the question, but said she would be leaving for a briefing on the situation after the roundtable last Thursday.
The vice president was pictured in a Zoom meeting on Sunday with the president and other intelligence and global entities and in another image with the president in person during a Situation Room meeting.
'This morning, the President and Vice President were briefed by their national security team on the evolving situation in Afghanistan,' reads the tweet included with the image from the White House account. 'They discussed the evacuations of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants, and vulnerable Afghans, and the monitoring of any potential terrorist threats.'
On Tuesday she tweeted her support for the withdrawal and said the mission was now to get Americans, allies and Afghans out of the country safely – but has not made any other public remarks on the situation.
'We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago. Now, our mission is to get our people, our allies, and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of the country,' she wrote earlier this week.
Harris was pictured (center) on a Zoom call with Biden on Sunday as they discussed the chaos in Afghanistan after the Taliban overran capital city of Kabul after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country
Harris campaigned on the bid to get US troops out of Afghanistan during her Democratic primary run in 2020 – though it was not part of her stump speech.
Biden was bashed for remaining silent on the unfolding situation in Afghanistan for six days, which has seen a dozen confirmed deaths as of Thursday.
He finally addressed the country in a White House speech on Monday, which the vice president was absent from, before promptly returning to Camp David.
Harris, a White House official said Monday, watched the speech 'from the Green Room.'
During the remarks, Biden doubled-down that the withdrawal was the right move despite almost the whole of Afghanistan falling to the Taliban in just over a week and U.S. troops questioning what the two-decade war was for.
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