'The Harris Administration' Is Already Being Discussed on TV

A TV anchor discussed the "Harris Administration" while speaking about the 2024 presidential election this week, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Wednesday, CNBC's Squawk Box host Joe Kernen was speaking about the upcoming election and which administration "would bring about more inflation."

"The Trump administration or the Harris Administration," Kernen asked guest CNBC's Rick Santelli.

Santelli began to answer the question but was quickly interrupted by Kernen who laughed and said, "Are we assuming it's gonna be Harris at this point?....because I don't know."

In response, Santelli said, "I can't imagine that the ticket's gonna stay as it is and if it does it won't be to them because listen, we know Joe Biden was a much more vigorous person in the past and I really think that when you look at what happened during the debate night, it really puts to bed all the things that we've been told by the administration and of course."

The comments by Kernen and Santelli come amid ongoing questions about Biden running for a second term in the White House following his performance at the presidential debate, where many considered it a loss to former President Donald Trump. Biden, 81, who has previously faced concerns about his age, received a wave of criticism following his debate performance. Viewers saw that he sounded hoarse and seemed to lack energy, sometimes struggling to answer questions.

A Biden aide told Newsweek late Thursday night that the president was battling a cold during the debate. Even so, there were calls for his replacement from some Democrats.

Harris is among the top contenders being floated to replace Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, should he step aside. A spokesperson for Biden's campaign declined to comment after Newsweek reached out via email.

Following the debate, Harris defended Biden's performance in an interview with CNN saying "Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish...What became very clear over the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance."

In an interview with CBS News this week, Harris further expressed support for Biden saying, "Look, Joe Biden is our nominee."

"We beat Trump once and we're gonna beat him. Period," she said.

On Tuesday, Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett publicly called for Biden to step down ahead of the 2024 election.

"President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump. I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump's many lies," Doggett said in a statement reported by Matthew Choi of The Texas Tribune.