Day 100: Harris Reflects

Vice President Kamala Harris is on a domestic tour to promote the American Jobs Plan and ruminate on the Administration’s first 100 days and next steps with the people themself. She spoke more specifically about infrastructure at a roundtable public transit in Cincinnati, today, after a visit at a Covid vaccination site in Baltimore, Thursday.

“You know, 100 days ago, just after President Joe Biden and I were sworn in, I stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial. And I talked about what I call ‘American aspiration,’ she said yesterday. “…I talked about how, in America, we not only dream; we do. We not only see what has been; we see what can be.”

She reflected on the issues the historically diverse administration inherited. “About 2 out of 330 million Americans, at that time, were fully vaccinated. More than 10 million Americans were out of work. Schools were closed. Businesses were closed. And beyond the pandemic, our democracy was under assault. And our Capitol had just been attacked by insurgents,” Harris said.

“All of that was going on when the President and I took our oath of office. But as daunting as these challenges were, we were not deterred. And our nation was not deterred.”

Harris gave some personal insight into the Plan’s push to support the nation’s caregivers and women in the workforce, while the world adjusts to the vaccination stage of the pandemic, sharing a story about her mother’s long hours as a breast cancer researcher. “Every working mother needs that support. Every working parent needs that support,” she said. “And a competitive economy requires it. A competitive economy requires a skilled workforce too, which is why we will also create more opportunities for education after high school.”

Responding to the spate of mass shootings and hate crimes, Harris added, “There have been too many days when we woke up to news of another mass shooting; another Black or brown person shot by the police; another act of hate against Asian Americans; another law designed to make it harder for people to vote. These are reminders that we still have so much more work to do in the fight for reasonable gun laws, in the fight for racial justice, the fight for voting rights.

“And some days I know it feels exhausting, but we cannot give up and we will not give up. Because here is the truth: American aspiration is about the courage to see beyond crisis and to build beyond crisis… American aspiration is what drove our nation to build the railroad from coast to coast in the middle of the Civil War. It is what drove our nation to bring electricity to every household in the middle of the Great Depression. It is what drove our nation to race to the moon in the middle of the arms race.”

Harris began visiting vaccination sites even before the inauguration, including one in the disproportionately affected Southeast, Washington, D.C. in December.

Mask restrictions were eased in D.C. this week, following Centers for Disease Control guidance that it’s safe to be outdoors without one, in small groups.