Vice President Kamala Harris has taken trips out to Europe twice to attend meetings with various foreign leaders concerning the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
During one of these trips, President Joe Biden headed on down to Texas to talk about the possible environmental impacts of burn pits.
Now, however, Biden is finally getting fully involved. The president has declared a stop in Poland as part of his trip through Europe this week in order to talk about the evolving situation in Ukraine with NATO and its European allies, as read in a report from the New York Post.
“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,” read the report from the Post.
“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,'” claimed Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary.
Back in February, Biden sent Harris out into Europe with the job of averting the seemingly imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
As Harris made her way to Germany to hand over the message from the U.S. in an attempt to avert what would have been the biggest conflict in Europe since the second world war, Biden made his way to Lorain, Ohio, to speak about his infrastructure plan. Biden was able to make it back home by mid-afternoon, despite Harris only just making it halfway to Europe.
“Biden is deploying Kamala Harris to Europe to help ease Russia-Ukraine tensions,” claimed Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in a tweet, going on to sarcastically state: “Right, because she’s doing so well with our southern border…”
Harris was able to attend a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with various other Baltic leaders, a role that has historically been handled by the President themself.
Harris’ second trip took place early this month as she went to Europe once again to attend a meeting with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Polish President Andrzej Sebastian Duda, along with a few Ukrainians who managed to flee. She also was able to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau while stopped in Warsaw.
These choices to send Harris have been seen as quite odd to most people. Usually, vice presidents normally meet with vice presidents, foreign ministers meet other foreign ministers (or the Secretary of State for the U.S.), and in the same vein, presidents meet with other presidents, so the choice Biden made came across as insanely odd as he sent his underling to handle meetings of such import while the most destructive conflict in Europe since the second world war was actively taking place.
Biden seems to have also taken a more work-from-home strategy. For example, Biden is slated to talk about the war with European leaders, such as President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, as reported by the White House.