In her first major television interview since President Joe Biden ended his re-election plans, Vice President Kamala Harris broke some new ground with CNN’s Dana Bash: The Democratic nominee vowed to appoint at least one Republican to her White House Cabinet if elected. As The Washington Post reported:
“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” Harris said, explaining her intent to name a GOP Cabinet secretary. “I think it’s important to have people at the table, when some of the most important decisions are being made, that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
She prefaced her comments by saying, “I’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse. But I would, I think, [add bipartisanship to the White House Cabinet]. I think it’s really important.”
The vice president didn’t reference any Republicans by name, though it’s easy to identify some of the GOP figures who’d be in contention. After all, Harris has already received endorsements from a variety of notable Republicans — some of whom are currently in office, others who are former officials — and Democrats included several GOP speakers at the party’s national convention in Chicago.
It’s worth noting for context that this wasn’t just a stray comment for Harris: Before the interview even aired in its entirety on CNN, the Democrat’s campaign issued a press statement promoting the vow about adding a Republican to her prospective Cabinet and encouraging people to watch a video excerpt of her comments.
In other words, Team Harris leaned into this one.
There’s no great mystery as to why: Trump appears to have overwhelming support on the right, but the Democratic candidate believes she can assemble an electoral coalition that includes independents and GOP voters who might be skeptical of their party’s scandal-plagued nominee. The Cabinet vow bolsters her credibility on bipartisanship. What’s more, it ties Harris to a modern, pre-Trump tradition of sorts. The Washington Monthly’s Bill Scher — in a piece published before the CNN interview — explained, “[A] modicum of cross-pollination in a cabinet is historically common. Every president, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama, had at least one cabinet member from the opposite party for some time during their administrations. Obama appointed three Republicans to his cabinet, including Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and former CIA Director Robert Gates as secretaries of defense, and his Illinois colleague, Representative Ray LaHood, as transportation secretary.” Trump broke the streak, and despite his many bipartisan victories, Biden hasn’t had any GOP members on his Cabinet. Harris, however, apparently intends to restore the modern trend. Will Trump respond in kind with a comparable promise? It’s possible, though it’s difficult to imagine what Democrat would agree to join his team.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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