The White House is standing by Vice President Kamala Harris after she used an expletive during a public appearance.
“She’s passionate about what she fights for. She is. And I think it’s important to have someone who’s passionate about what they’re speaking about,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday, citing Harris’s advocacy for abortion access as an example.
Jean-Pierre also praised Harris as “someone who has broken glass ceilings,” adding she is “proud to have her as someone I look up to as vice president.” Harris has been scrutinized by critics who contend her language was unbefitting of her office.
Harris, the country’s first minority female vice president, used the f-word during a moderated conversation with actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang, of Crazy Rich Asians fame, at the annual Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies Legislative Leadership Summit.
“We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open,” Harris told the crowd Monday. “Sometimes they won’t, and then you need to kick that f***ing door down.”
“Don’t ever carry as a personal burden your capacity to do whatever you dream and aspire to do based on other people’s limited ability to see who can do what,” she said earlier.
Harris, whose mother was Indian, and President Joe Biden are taking part in a range of minority voter outreach events this week, coinciding with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month and polls that indicate an erosion in support from minority voters more broadly.
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A New York Times/Siena College poll published Monday found that although Biden has a national 46-percentage-point advantage over former President Donald Trump among black likely voters, they are tied among Hispanic likely voters with 33% of the vote each. Trump leads Biden, 36% to 33%, among likely voters who identified their race or ethnicity as “other.”
Biden is expected to address the same Asian American summit later Tuesday.
