ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

When Kamala Harris takes the debate stage next week, she’ll be pressed on foreign policy. Republicans are eager to tie Harris to what they see as failures with migrants at the southern border and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. As vice president, Harris has loyally carried out President Biden’s agenda, but a key question is how Harris herself sees the U.S. role in the world. NPR’s Asma Khalid reports.

ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Harris came to Washington in 2017 as a senator who had built her career domestically, as a prosecutor. She quickly joined the Intelligence Committee, and that was critical in shaping her thinking. Halie Soifer was Harris’ national security adviser at the time.

HALIE SOIFER: She was really kind of thrown into what was the most critical national security issue at that time, which was defending against Russia’s threat to our democracy.

KHALID: After the 2016 election, the committee conducted a multiyear investigation into Russian interference. When she then became vice president, Harris worked to build up her diplomatic credentials. She traveled to 21 countries and, along the way, reinforced the president’s vision, trying to manage competition with China and support Ukraine. But that connection to Biden has become fuel for the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP: If Kamala wins, foreign leaders will treat America’s president as a joke. They already do.

KHALID: Former and current aides describe Harris as someone who, like Biden, believes in strong U.S. global leadership. It’s the sort of message she delivered at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: History has also shown us if we only look inward, we could not defeat threats from outside. Isolation is not insulation.

KHALID: It’s a world view that her team sees as a sharp contrast with Trump, who slapped tariffs on allies and threatened to pull out of NATO. Harris’ first international call as vice president was to the head of the World Health Organization, to say that the U.S. was rejoining the group after Trump withdrew from it in the midst of the pandemic. Multiple people also told me that Harris’ legal background shapes her thinking on international issues. Rebecca Bill Chavez worked on foreign policy for Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign.

REBECCA BILL CHAVEZ: I think her background as a prosecutor is going to inform her approach, her emphasis on the rule of law.

KHALID: Chavez says she’s seen this in Harris’ work on Central America.

CHAVEZ: She’s been very active in working with the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and pushing for the rule of law and for judicial security.

KHALID: A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Harris’ work behind the scenes, says Harris has had an emphasis on the Global South. That is likely to continue. During her time as vice president, she visited Africa. Biden did not. Harris is the daughter of immigrants, whose politics were not, like Biden’s, shaped in the Cold War era of Washington. Nancy McEldowney served as Harris’ national security adviser during her first year and a half in the vice presidency.

NANCY MCELDOWNEY: She is very mindful of the fact that the world has changed in fundamental ways over the course not just of the last 50 years, but of the last five years.

KHALID: And she says Harris thinks a lot about technology and how that intersects with foreign policy.

MCELDOWNEY: She has spent much of her time as vice president focused on issues that she knows are going to be significant going forward, such as cyber and AI.

KHALID: Is a bit of a generational shift. But foreign policy is not always about what a president wants to do, but how they handle the crises thrust upon them. And whoever wins the presidency in November will likely inherit a huge challenge with the war in Gaza. Harris has repeatedly backed Israel’s right to defend itself. She’s also described in detail the daily indignities faced by Palestinian civilians.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HARRIS: We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.

KHALID: But one major question looming over her is how that rhetorical empathy translates into policy. Asma Khalid, NPR News.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.