Chattanooga News Chronicle - July 1, 2021 Page 8 Chattanooga News Chronicle - July 1, 2021 NATIONAL

headway on any of those goals — or even Six Months articulate a plan of action. For many who worked so hard for After Georgia the 2020 victories, it’s been a dishearten- ing start. Senate Races, “My hope has always been that we would put all of our best efforts forward Hopes Dashed in the elections process — by register- ing people to vote, by turning out the For Quick Change vote — and our hope is for some justice and fairness to be achieved [through that In Congress process],” Rev. Gerald Durley, interim Pastor of the historic West Hunter Street WASHINGTON — When Georgia Baptist Church in Atlanta, told Zenger surprised many by choosing both Demo- News. cratic Party candidates in the dual run-off “My hope was by this time, with a elections for its two Senate seats on Jan. 50-50 [split] in the Senate with [Vice 5, many of the 500 pastors of the state’s President] Kamala Harris breaking the U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, GA. front left, attends event during his run for the U.S. African Methodist Episcopal Church tie, that some form of equity would be Senate. thought their years of organizing had paid done. That was just my hope.” off. Rev. William Lamar, who for years Coming two months after Georgia preached in Georgia but is now at the pass a bill making June 19’s “Juneteenth” “It is time for us to be the church was carried by now-President Joseph R. Metropolitan AME church in Washing- celebrations a federal holiday. of Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman,” he Biden Jr in the presidential election — ton, D.C., told Zenger he had hosted a Amid the GOP’s opposition to any added, referring to abolitionists who es- making then-President Donald J. Trump group of pastors from Georgia who made of the Democrats’ substantive legislative chewed “moderation” for subversion and the first Republican to lose the state since the trip to the capital last week hoping proposals — and the Democrats’ so far rebellion in fighting for freedom. the country’s last one-term president, to see some major legislative bills make ineffective response — it was hard to in- Yet for others, the recent Senate road- George H.W. Bush, in 1992 — it seemed headway. terpret the unanimous support of the Re- blocks are just the latest in a long line of to many that a new golden era of Demo- publicans in the Senate as anything other hurdles that can ultimately be overcome. cratic ascendency in Washington, D.C., The group, Rev. Lamar said, were than a cop-out, the reverend said. Speaking at the African American was beckoning. hopeful a bill such as S-1, a voting rights “If anyone has any allusion about the Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., From federal voting rights protec- protection act opposed by the Republican American imperial project after yester- on Juneteenth, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) tions — to counter attempts by some Re- Party but put forward by the Democrats as day in the Senate, they have taken leave noted that achieving change has always publican-run states to change voting laws their main legislative priority, might nev- of sanity,” he said after the Senate de- been hard — but ultimately worth it. — to the George Floyd Justice in Policing ertheless make some movement through clined to consider the S-1 bill but passed “President Abraham Lincoln knew Act, and even the decades-long goal of the Senate. With Republicans threatening the Juneteenth holiday. “They believe that the Emancipation Proclamation statehood for predominately black Wash- the filibuster — which presently requires that giving us political and economic trin- would not be enough — that is why he ington, D.C., nothing seemed off limits. 10 GOP senators to join with the slim kets will keep us quiet, but we must ask had to get the 13th Amendment passed,” Six months on, though, a new real- Democratic majority to pass anything — the questions of who we are and what we ity has set in, as Biden and congressional the act stalled; instead, the Republicans want to be.” continued on page 9 Democrats have struggled to make much joined the Democrats to unanimously

Kamala Harris Is Still Carving Out Her Role As A Former Vice President’s Vice President

Though it’s not unusual for the vice pres- ident to take lead roles on core White House missions, President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who will be 82 on inauguration day in January 2025, has tasked Harris with taking the lead on ma- jor priorities for his administration — and the Democrats. Besides being tapped as Biden’s “czar” on voting rights protection, which has become one of the Democratic Party’s most important pri- After making history as the first woman of color elected to the executive branch — and amid speculation she may orities over recent years, Harris has also taken be the Democrats’ next presidential candidate in 2024 — Kamala D. Harris, left, has attracted an unusual amount the lead role in the administration on immigra- of attention for a vice president since taking office. tion, leading to her visit to U.S.–Mexico border on June 25. handling of the global pandemic, Trump largely respect to that responsibility,” Arthur told Zenger, Her presence at the border came after in- took over the public-facing elements of his job and adding that the criticisms from her foes were not tense Republican criticism of her for not mak- pushed Pence backstage, where he worked to co- off-base. “More needs to be done, and it’s impor- ing the trip, with their attacks possibly a dry ordinate with state governors out of the public eye. tant that she actually gets to doing it.” run for how they would approach her as a can- As vice president, Pence also cast a tie-break- “There is a crisis at the border, and there’s a didate, which some believe could come as soon ing vote in the Senate a total of 13 times during certain amount of response — and a timely re- as 2024. his four-year term. Harris, meanwhile, has already sponse — needed, and that timely response just Yet despite the unusually high-profile na- done so on four occasions, matching the number doesn’t seem like it’s been forthcoming from the ture of her vice presidency so far, like most of of times former Vice President Al Gore stepped in vice president’s office thus far,” he said. “There her predecessors Harris so far has largely re- during President Bill Clinton’s eight years in of- have been a lot of questions about why she hasn’t mained behind the scenes, said Kyle Kondik, fice. been to the border thus far, and her responses have managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the With the Senate split 50-50, Harris is likely been somewhat less than satisfying.” Arthur said University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “I to find herself in that position again often until at he thought it was “good” the vice president was don’t really think anything about Harris’s per- least the 2022 midterm elections. Biden, by com- now visiting El Paso. formance really stands out as overly strong or parison, was not given the opportunity to break Yet while her handling of immigration will overly weak so far when compared to her pre- a tie in the chamber even once as vice president attract the most attention from the right, it’s her decessors,” Kondik told Zenger News. during President Barack H. Obama’s eight years. role leading the Biden’s fight against voting rights “Kamala Harris is no different than any But her most public role, so far, has been on immi- restrictions where she stands to be evaluated most other vice president in that she will naturally gration. As migration “czar,” Harris is leading the by her own party. Harris presided over the Senate take a backseat to the president until she is effort to stem the flow of undocumented migrants for the first time outside of casting a tie-breaking needed to assume the presidential role herself from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala head- vote this week as the chamber debated the For the — something that may or may not happen dur- ing to the U.S. southern border via Mexico. People Act — a sweeping bill that would have ing a four-year presidential term,” he said. So far, she has made visits to Guatemala and countered voting restrictions pursued by GOP-led Harris’s immediate predecessor, former Mexico, where she met with local officials in an state legislatures, but which ultimately failed to Vice President Michael R. Pence, did not face attempt, she said, to tackle the root destabilizing advance in the Senate. the speculation he may himself run for president conditions leading people from Central America to Despite the Democrats’ slim majority with her after one four-year term. In the end, though, he seek refuge in the United States. Her June 25 trip tie-breaking vote in the 50-50 split chamber, the served his time in the deputy executive position to El Paso, Texas, however, was seemingly trig- bill was dead-in-the-water thanks to the Repub- similarly to Harris — by allowing President gered by Republican criticisms that she had not lican Party’s filibuster powers, which requires a Donald J. Trump to keep most of the limelight, cared to survey the situation there. 60-vote majority to pass anything. Harris is now while taking on a series of policy projects. Her attempts to downplay the “delays” in expected to take the effort outside of Congress by Pence chaired the National Space Council her trip only amplified the criticism, said Andrew meeting with advocates and business leaders to after it was reestablished in 2017 — but he was R. Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at publicly making the case against state measures not given any significant authority again until the anti-migration Center for Immigration Stud- that restrict voting in the coming weeks. Trump appointed him as chairman of the White ies, which has advocated for the construction of a Whatever happens, Biden has reiterated his House Coronavirus Task Force three years lat- physical border wall along the U.S.–Mexico bor- trust in Harris’s ability to handle the tasks she has er, a role that briefly boosted his public profile. der. “It’s an important responsibility, and the vice However, after leading the first few press president has been slow to rise to the occasion with conferences on the Trump administration’s continued on page 9