Vice President Kamala Harris was initially scheduled this week to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with NATO officials to discuss the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, but she’s been bumped in lieu of the commander-in-chief himself, a report noted Sunday.
Harris has made two trips to Europe to discuss the conflict, while during one of her trips President Joe Biden went to Texas instead to discuss how burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq affected U.S. military personnel who served in either country.
But, the New York Post reports, this week Biden will head to Europe and has added a stopover in Poland to talk about Ukraine with NATO and other European allies.
“Biden will fly to Warsaw on Friday following his trip to Brussels where he is scheduled to meet with NATO allies, G7 leaders, and European Union leaders to discuss humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and economic sanctions on Russia, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday night,” the Post reported.
“He will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Saturday to discuss how the US and its allies are ‘responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,’” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki added.
As further noted by The Daily Wire:
In mid-February, Biden dispatched Harris to Europe in an attempt to avert Russia’s apparently imminent invasion of Ukraine.
As Harris flew to Germany to deliver a message from the U.S. in an effort to avert what would be the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, Biden headed to Lorain, Ohio, to talk about his infrastructure plan. Biden was back in the White House by 3:15 p.m., even as Harris was just halfway to Europe.
“Biden is deploying Kamala Harris to Europe to help ease Russia-Ukraine tensions,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeted then, adding mockingly: “Right, because she’s doing so well with our southern border…”
At the time, Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in addition to leaders of the Baltic states — meetings that U.S. presidents typically attend, not their vice presidents.
“Then earlier this month, Harris traveled to Europe again to meet Polish President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, along with Ukrainians who have fled. She also met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while in Warsaw,” The Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl reported.
“The U.S. move was unusual, to say the least. Vice presidents usually meet with vice presidents, foreign ministers with foreign ministers (or, in the case of the U.S., the Secretary of State) — but presidents meet with presidents, so it was a decidedly odd decision for Biden to send his underling to such important meetings while the largest conflict in Europe since World War II was raging,” he added.
While in Europe recently, Harris was ripped for a number of gaffes and inappropriate answers to engaging questions.
During a speech in Warsaw, Poland, she appeared to forget where she was.
“I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment,” she stammered as she checked her notes.
In another instance, Harris was dragged domestically and internationally for engaging in her trademark cackling laugh during an awkward movement involving a substantive question from a reporter about the U.S. accepting Ukrainian refugees, given that millions have already left their country.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” she said, looking over at the Polish leader before laughing out loud.
The exchange led Zelenskyy’s former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, to tweet, the delete, this: “It would be a tragedy if this woman won the presidency.”
