Vice President Kamala Harris.Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
The conversation was likely lively atKamala Harris' home on Tuesday, where the vice presidenthosted a dinnerfor the female senators at her Naval Observatory residence in an event that marked the first time she has hosted lawmakers at her home while in office.
The group of invitees - 16 Democrats and eight Republicans total - were required to test negative forCOVID-19to attend (the same requirement for entry into the White House).
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collinstold reporters on Tuesdaythat they planned to attend the dinner, according to ABC News, joking that they might be served tuna melts. (Harris, an avid home cook and former California senator, has claimed them asone of her specialties.)
CNN later reported that21 senators attended, with some sharing pictures from the gathering.
Those dinners were potluck style, with the locations rotating every six weeks and each lawmaker providing a different dish. They gradually dwindled, however, after Mikulski’s retirement in 2017 and in the midst of a bitterly-contested presidential contest.
As one source told the outlet, “the sisterhood has certainly faded.”
Harris, 56, organized her dinner at a time when the White House has been negotiating with conservative lawmakers over PresidentJoe Biden’s infrastructure package and other policy measures such asanti-gun violence measuresand police reform.
The vice president has also seen an increased profile - and increased scrutiny - as the lead on the White House’s work on immigration after there was a drastic increase in unaccompanied minors at the southern border.
Harris recently returned from herfirst trip abroad, visiting Guatemala and Mexico to tout the Biden administration’s immigration policies during a three-day trip.
She also faced questions about when she might visit the border, which has become of increasing concern to Republicans and the political press.
When inaugurated in January, Harris became the first woman vice president, as well as the first Black person and first person of Asian descent to hold the office.
She reflected on women’s struggle for equality in her November victory speech.
Biden has previously said that he views his relationship with Harrissimilarly to the relationship he hadas vice president withBarack Obama.
“I wanted her available to participate in everything that I did. As I told her: I wanted her to be the last person in the room,” Biden told PEOPLE of his vice president.
He has also said that Harris has drop-in privileges at the Oval Office: “I made the same deal with her that Barack and I made,” a reference to how Obama famously told Biden he would figure prominently in decision-making in the White House.
“When Barack and I were working out our relationship early on, he said, ‘Do you have any requests?’ And I said, ‘Well just one: I get to be the last person in the room on every important decision,” Biden said. “Not because you have to listen [or] do what I want. You make the decision.’ "
source: people.com
