Kamala Harris loses both voice and Zoom link during debt ceiling event

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris struggled Thursday to put out President Biden’s message on debt-ceiling talks — losing her voice and then her Zoom hookup during a virtual briefing with reporters and Democratic allies just two weeks ahead of a possible US debt default.

“Hello, everyone. I want to thank you all for joining us today. If you can hear I have a bit of a frog in my throat, please forgive me,” Harris said in a shrill whisper as she emerged as Biden’s stand-in on the domestic front while he visited Japan for a G-7 summit.

“I’ve been talking about this issue a lot recently,” the veep added with a laugh.

Just two minutes after Harris began to speak on the audio-only briefing, her connection cut out mid-sentence as she denounced Republicans in Congress.

“Congressional Republicans claim they are threatening default because they want to lower our nation’s debt,” Harris said.

“OK, so let’s be clear, for Republicans in Congress, this issue is not really about lowering our nation’s debt because if they really cared about lowering our debt, they would not also fight to protect trillions of dollars in Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations — tax cuts that would add three and a half trillion dollars —”

Seven awkward minutes later, after Harris aides scrambled to fill air time, the vice president returned to address what organizers said were thousands of Democratic officeholders, activists and reporters.

“I’m here. I am here,” she said.

“To complete my point, I will say where we left off was to talk about the real stakes and issues that are at play,” Harris said.

“A default could trigger a recession, [inaudible] military paychecks and raise interest rates for years to come and turn mortgage rates into a situation where they would actually go up, credit card payments would go up and small business loans would be more expensive.”

Harris added: “It would also reduce the amount of money in your retirement accounts.

“So for an average American close to retirement, their 401k could lose over 20,000 hard-earned dollars.

“And a default would also put at risk programs that millions of Americans rely on, including Social Security and Medicare.”

The White House has insisted that it won’t negotiate with House Republicans on spending cuts in exchange for a debt-ceiling increase.

However, Biden has expressed willingness to agree to spending cuts that are enacted in tandem.

The Republican-led House of Representatives in April passed legislation that would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for clawing back unspent COVID-19 funds and limiting future spending increases, among other policy changes.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joined Harris, Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday ahead of what the Treasury Department says is an early-June deadline to avoid defaulting on federal debt payments.

McCarthy and Biden designated staff negotiators and the president canceled stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea in order to return to the US on Sunday to oversee what could be the conclusion of talks.

But a final deal is likely to need broad bipartisan support due to many potential Republican defections if cuts aren’t steep enough and Democratic “no” votes in protest of cuts deemed to be going too far.

Former President Donald Trump last week urged Republicans to force a default if Biden won’t break.

“I say to the Republicans out there — congressmen, senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re gonna have to do a default… you might as well do it now because you’ll do it later,” Trump said at a CNN town hall event in New Hampshire.

The House Freedom Caucus, which represents 45 Republicans, released a statement Thursday calling for the Democratic-led Senate to cave and pass the House Republican bill to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever comes first.

“House Republicans did our job on debt ceiling. It’s time for President Biden and Senate Democrats to do theirs and pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act,” the conservative caucus said.

“No more discussion on watering it down. Period.”