'She was exactly the person he wanted'
| 'She was exactly the person he wanted'  It was only a matter of time.
Concern about the patchy performance of Vice President Kamala Harris has been quietly simmering for months in Washington's political class. President Joe Biden's own rough summer has sharpened questions over whether he will actually run for reelection. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's preparations for another run are piling pressure on the Democratic Party's strategy for the 2024 presidential election.
A flurry of new stories are examining the VP's difficult first 10 months, led by this deeply sourced read from CNN, which reveals mutual frustration between the West Wing and Harris' team.
People in the VP's office think Harris is being sidelined, hasn't been properly prepared by the White House or is not set up to succeed as the most high-profile potential successor to Biden. The President's aides have lost patience with Harris' accident-prone public appearances, which suggest her political skills haven't improved since her failed presidential campaign.
Such stories haunt every White House — especially after tough political trots like the current one. And being vice president is a terrible job. The number two must never overshadow the boss: If the stories were hailing Harris as a hit, the West Wing would be even more tetchy.
VPs get the worst tasks — like when Biden saddled Harris with the job of cutting migration flows toward the southern US border. Harris' historic status as the first female vice president of color may also be as much a hindrance as a help, given the extra and sometimes unfair scrutiny it brings. But she has not yet carved out a successful lane for her vice presidency.
There are still three years until the next presidential election, and people in Biden's camp are insisting he will run. But Father Time might have something to say about that. Which means it's important for Democrats that Harris is ready. Anyone serious about a run needs to fire up a fundraising and political operation in about a year's time. If Harris is still struggling to find her feet by then — and the Biden presidency hasn't regained its bounce -- speculation about 2024 candidates will be off the charts.  'She was exactly the person he wanted' The White House defended relations between the vice president and the President on Monday following the CNN report cited above. "The President selected the vice president because -- to serve as his running mate -- because he felt she was exactly the person he wanted to have by his side to govern the country," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. The world and America The EU agreed to new sanctions on Belarus amid a border crisis.
One among millions For a change, some good news out of Myanmar.
Danny Fenster, an American journalist held in Yangon's notorious Insein Prison who was just sentenced to 11 years in jail, is free and on his way home – a cause for huge relief in the United States. Fenster had worked as managing editor of the independent news outlet Frontier Myanmar, and was charged with visa breaches and incitement in the wake of the country's military coup.
It is not clear whether the US made concessions to Myanmar, which is again struggling under international sanctions. It is also unclear why the country's often reclusive and paranoid generals let him go. Perhaps they figured that without the international media spotlight an American prisoner drew, they could press on with their repression undisturbed. Whatever the motives, Fenster is an isolated case.
Scores of Burmese journalists have been imprisoned in recent years, especially since the coup, and the military junta has used fierce force against protesters. The country is again a vast prison for its 54 million people. Covid-19 is raging, with only rudimentary medical care available. Thousands of refugees have been uprooted from their homes in multiple states amid the country's endless government offensives against insurgencies. The situation is particularly dire in Rakhine state, which was the site of a bloody ethnic purge during the administration of now-deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar breathed deep during its brief moment of partial democracy and hope early in the 21st century. But this heartrendingly beautiful, impoverished nation has now slipped deep into the dark ages of a familiar torment. Other than getting a few foreign passport holders out, there's little sign the outside world can or will do much about it.  CCTV footage captured the moment a taxi exploded after it arrived outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday. British police say they are treating it as a terrorist incident and that one suspect died in the blast. Liverpool's Mayor Joanne Anderson praised the taxi's driver to the BBC on Monday, saying the incident could have been far worse. "What a heroic effort from the taxi driver," she said, crediting his "quick thinking to lock the taxi and get out of the taxi." Thanks for reading. EU defense ministers meet on Tuesday. In-person questioning of jurors begins in New York for the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. The US Census Bureau will announce the country's "center of population" in 2020. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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