Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff appear to have missed an effort by the White House to clean up comments she made over the weekend.
In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Harris wrote, “When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security.”
“The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance,” she added.
When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 15, 2022
The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance. pic.twitter.com/0yu3zNLzyD
A timestamp on the tweet indicates that it was sent at 11:33 a.m. on Tuesday, and after nearly two hours, it had not been deleted.
This comes after Harris made similar comments while addressing House Democrats, which prompted the White House to clean up the transcript.
“Russia’s invasion threatens not just Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens democracy and security across Europe,” Harris said, adding, “So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”
However, a transcript of her remarks inserted the word “and.”
“So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO Alliance,” it reads.
Kamala thinks Ukraine is part of NATO.
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) March 12, 2022
Just when you thought you knew how unqualified she is, she lowers the bar even further. pic.twitter.com/52XCAXwFv2
One sentence appears to suggest that the U.S. and Ukraine are defending the military alliance, while the other says that the U.S. is supporting Ukraine as it fends off a Russian invasion and will defend NATO as well.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO and is not obligated to assist members of the alliance in the event of an attack. It is also in the midst of fighting off a Russian invasion and it is unlikely it would be in a state to defend another country.
Verbal gaffes and slip-ups are one thing. They happen to almost everyone. You’re trying to explain something, and then the thought just escapes your mind — though the constant drumbeat of them from Harris and President Joe Biden is alarming.
And it would be easy to understand if this was simply an example of copying and pasting from a transcript gone wrong. But the first sentence of the tweet is not the same as her remarks.
Even if the second part of the tweet was simply copied from the transcript, why was it not updated to reflect the change?
Harris already has an optics problem in that she appears unprepared for questions, and according to former staffers, she does not put the time into reading briefing materials. Her recent trip to Poland definitely didn’t help matters after she burst out in laughter when she was asked about Ukrainian refugees and then mistakenly said she was on NATO’s “northern flank.”
Then there was the time when she explained the conflict in Ukraine this way:
“Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So basically, that’s wrong.”
Harris’ laughter and strange answers to questions show that she’s either not reading the briefing material, or she’s just not ready for prime time and can’t handle tough or serious questions and blanks on the answers.
At the very least, she should have staff who aren’t tweeting the same statements about geopolitical issues that the White House cleaned up just days earlier.
