As President Joe Biden nears his 81st birthday, the White House is taking a "just in case" approach should he not make it to the end of his term.
Vice President Kamala Harris said she is ready to step into the role of the president should Biden not be well enough to finish his time in office.
Associated Press reporter Chris Megerian asked Harris if she was prepared to take over the president role if needed.
"Joe Biden is going to be fine, so that is not going to come to fruition," Harris told The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia. "But let us also understand that every vice president — every vice president — understands that when they take the oath, they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president."
As the oldest serving president in U.S. history, Democrats and the rest of America are concerned he will soon no longer be able to perform his duties as the country's leader.
Should he win the 2024 election, Biden will be 82 years old at the time of being sworn in and 86 at the end of it.
Harris described the idea of potentially taking over the role of president as "hypothetical" but said she was ready.
According to a FiveThirtyEight poll, fifty-one percent of Americans disapprove of the vice president, compared with just under 40 percent who approve.
A recent AP/NORC poll found that 77 percent of Americans and 69 percent of Democrats think Biden is too old for a second term.
Harris has often been criticized for her inability to even serve in her current position, let alone step into the most crucial role.
RealClearPolitics found that less than half of Americans approve of her job as vice president.
In the past, Biden has reportedly been critical of Harris's job so far, calling her a "work in progress."
"A point of tension in their relationship is that I don't think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate" due to a "fear of messing up," a former White House official told Reuters in May.
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