CNN’s Jake Tapper noted the tense greeting between President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their spouses at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, saying it was not “particularly warm.”
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden met Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Cameras inside the National Cathedral caught the moment. There didn’t seem to be much eye contact or handshakes between the four of them.
“There’s a President Joe Biden and first Lady Joe Biden. And I think he has 11 days left as president of the United States. Obviously an eventful year, one that he did not plan for,” Tapper noted.
” Started the year as a would be Democratic presidential nominee, and we all know what happened after that. Again, you didn’t see a particularly warm greeting between the first couple and the second couple. But again, we are at a funeral, so one has to take that into account when trying to read the body language of the individuals there,” he added.
WATCH:
Jill Biden and Kamala Harris DO NOT acknowledge each other at Jimmy Carter funeral as they sit together
— Martin Walsh (@martinwalsh__) January 9, 2025
Former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama were seen having a very friendly conversation on Thursday morning at the U.S. Capitol.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died last month at the age of 100, was remembered at a state funeral at the National Cathedral on Thursday. All living presidents attended as the country observed a day of sadness.
When Vice President Harris sat down in front of Obama and Trump, they stopped talking for a moment, but they picked up right back up seconds later.
Trump leaned in toward Obama, and Obama laughed a few times. While Obama and Trump talked, Melania Trump and Laura Bush, who used to be the first ladies, sat on either side of them and looked forward.
The Clintons talked to each other, and Bush looked like he was waving to other people there.
Kamala Harris appears visibly furious after seeing Obama talking with Trump
— Martin Walsh (@martinwalsh__) January 9, 2025
Harris made headlines earlier this week when she certified the 2024 election results, affirming Trump’s victory as well as her decisive defeat to him in the race for the White House.
For her part, Harris is not planning to “go quietly into the night” after she was thumped in the 2024 presidential election.
During a segment on CNN, reporter Isaac Dovere revealed that Harris privately tells backers she is considering running for governor of California in 2026 or president in 2028. Harris also reportedly does not want her “final act” to be certifying Trump’s election victory over her.
“We haven’t seen or heard much from Vice President Kamala Harris since she lost the election last month,” CNN’s Manu Raju told CNN’s viewers. “But the Democratic Party still reeling from Trump’s victory.”
Dovere said that Harris is mulling two options.
“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, As you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night. Advisers, people close to her are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6th. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field and she would get to be governor of California,” Dovere said.
“But if she does that, that means that she couldn’t turn around and run for president again in 2028. She’d need to essentially declare right away. And that is what it really comes down to because there are people close to her who say she didn’t get a fair shot this year,” Dovere added.
Dovere continued, “It wasn’t it wasn’t up to what she could have done. And look how well she performed anyway. She should get to go again in 2020. And then there are ones who say, look, with where things are with the Democratic Party at it, she would not have a clear field or a cleared field, rather, in the Democratic primary and could lose the nomination. And to come off of 2024 into that would be really terrible.”
Harris allegedly told associates she was “staying in the fight” and considering a 2028 presidential campaign or a California gubernatorial run in 2026, prompting Democratic strategist Theryn Bond to urge Harris not to run for president again.