Daily Mail, January 2022
Vice President Kamala Harris will fly to California on Friday to take an aerial tour of the damage caused by a historically bad wildfire season and announce $1.3 billion in disaster relief funding for the U.S. Forest Service. The money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure structure, giving her a chance to trumpet one of the administration’s big successes. But it may also offer an insight into how Harris plans to battle back from dire poll ratings – after hitting the one-year mark in office – and hostile headlines after allies told her to be more aggressive in promoting her work.
After a string of sometimes contentious TV interviews Thursday, she sets off on a four-day trip, returning on Monday to Washington via Milwaukee. At the end of next week she flies to Honduras, for the swearing in of a new president, and a chance to develop her role as the administration’s point person on tackling the root causes of migration from Central America. White House aides chafe at the idea of a reset after high-profile departures in the vice president’s office or that Friday’s visit to San Bernardino part of selling Harris, rather than talking about an important issue. As climate change increasingly fuels hotter, drier, and longer wildfire seasons, and development continues to expand in the wildland urban Interface, the proactive and preventative measures that are taken while fires are not burning become even more essential,’ said a White House official.
