Most don’t think Indian American VP is ready to replace Joe Biden if he fails to finish out his term
Most voters believe it’s likely that President Joe Biden won’t finish out his term of office, and don’t think Vice President Kamala Harris is ready to step up to replace him, according to a new poll.
Only 43% of Likely US Voters think Harris is qualified to assume the duties of the presidency, including 29% who think she is “Very Qualified,” according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey released Thursday.
That’s down from April, when 49% said Harris was qualified to become president. Now, 55% say Harris is not qualified to assume the duties of the presidency, including 47% who say she is “Not At All Qualified”.
Read: Kamala Harris to lead Biden administration’s efforts on voting rights (June 2, 2021)
The voters were asked three questions:
1. Do you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable impression of Vice President Kamala Harris?
2. How qualified is Kamala Harris to assume the responsibilities of the presidency?
3. How likely is it that President Joe Biden will leave office and be replaced by Kamala Harris before the 2024 election?
The survey of 1,000 US Likely Voters was conducted on Aug 12 and 15 as the Taliban took control of Kabul dislodging the US backed government of President Ashraf Ghani weeks before the Aug 31 deadline for pull out of US forces.
Meanwhile, Harris is set to embark on a trip to Singapore and Vietnam starting on Sunday to show that the United States is in the region “to stay,” according to media reports citina senior administration official.
Harris will be the most senior US official to visit the region since Biden took office in January promising to shore up alliances, which the US considers key to checking Chinese expansion.
The trip coincides with chaos in Afghanistan following Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops after a 20-year war. Harris would continue to work on issues tied to Afghanistan while on her Asia trip, the official was quoted as saying in a media report.
Harris is due in Singapore on Sunday. She will be the first US vice president to visit Vietnam and arrives in the country on Tuesday and departs next Thursday.
The visit to Southeast Asia will be Harris’ second foreign trip as vice president. In June, she went to Guatemala and Mexico for meetings on the “root causes” of the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border.