Former Vice President Kamala Harris awkwardly snubbed Joe Biden when she was asked who she thought were the “most effective presidents in American history.”
The one-term veep was tasked with answering the question during her appearance at the National Urban League Conference in Nashville Friday before naming Franklin Roosevelt as her top choice — failing to mention her executive partnership.
“Oh Marc, don’t make me do that,” Harris told NUL President Marc Morial before launching into a ramble of an NPR feature on the 32nd president.
“It was, of course, his three terms in office and it was interesting to … and of course the role of his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and you know he did some good things. In fact, it was he who talked about the expansion of the Supreme Court and then he got ferocious blowback for that,” she said.
“He did good, Social Security it was, you know, when I think about what he did in terms of investing in the people during dire times and talking about the role and responsibility of government that it should not just be about the benevolence of community organizations or or or just interpersonal relationships that the government has a role,” Harris said.
“I think that he was a very important president. He, he appreciated that government has in my mind three essential functions, which is public health, public safety and public education,” she said matter-of-factly.
The 61-year-old then named John F. Kennedy and his vice president and eventual successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, to her list of three
“Given more time to think about it, I credit Kennedy, of course, in terms of what he laid the groundwork for and then Johnson followed up on around having the ability,” she said.
After naming her three, Harris name-dropped Barack Obama, which prompted a loud ovation from the audience for the 44th president.
“And of course Barack Obama and what he did with the Affordable Care Act, among many things, but in particular the. If we had one issue that has been ailing America for generations, which is a health care system that has failed anyone other than the rich and addressing that in the way that he did and took a lot of heat for it,” she said.
Harris did not mention Biden in her response, a glaring omission after the two had a not-so-private falling out since her failed presidential campaign in 2024.
The former president, who had dropped out of his own reelection campaign 107 days before Election Day, quickly endorsed Harris as the Democratic Party nominee.
After Harris lost both the Electoral College Vote and the Popular Vote to President Trump, she cast blame against the octogenarian for a multitude of issues she claimed sunk her attempt at the White House.
“When Republicans mischaracterized my role as ‘border czar,’ no one in the White House comms team helped me to effectively push back and explain what I had really been tasked to do, nor to highlight any of the progress I had achieved,” she wrote in her book “107 Days.”
“Instead, I shouldered the blame for the porous border, an issue that had proved intractable for Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” she added.
During her appearance in Music City Friday, Harris teased what her potential 2028 presidential campaign would look like – signaling she’d support abolishing the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court – an indication she has moved further to the left since her time on the ballot.
“I know this is going to be controversial coming from me, in particular,” she said. “We need to revisit the Electoral College. We need to revisit the point of expanding the court, to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts. We need to revisit, if they so want, statehood for Puerto Rico and DC.”
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