When Joe Biden stepped into the White House banquet hall in early November to announce an initial success after months of agonizing negotiations with Congress over his reform agenda, Kamala Harris was, as is so often the case, by his side.

The President thanked the leadership of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, but also the representatives of the party wings, for having finally passed the infrastructure law, which is due to be signed in the White House on Monday.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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There are many reasons why it took so long to adopt the investment package.

Among them, Biden made no secret of the fact that the President himself had to get to know the MPs again.

He, who had been a member of the Senate for decades and then, as Vice President, was Barack Obama's chief negotiator in the White House, had just been out for four years, he said.

"She deserves a lot of recognition"

The Vice President stood next to him in silence. Her name hadn't been mentioned that Saturday morning. It wasn't until near the end of the press conference, when Biden was asked when the Americans would feel the effects of the law, that he mentioned Harris: Soon, said the President - but otherwise he couldn't do it alone. A lot has "to do with the lady here, the Vice-President". Then he revealed that he knows only too well how ungrateful their job is: “I used to have to stand here and listen to the president. Now she has to stand here and listen to the president. But it deserves a lot of credit. ”The mask covered Harris' mouth. Her eyes seemed to suggest a smile.

Kamala Harris has not found her role in the Biden administration ten months after taking office.

For weeks there has been whispering in Washington that the 57-year-old Californian, who has started as the future president, is disappointing: You don't hear anything from her.

Their speeches lacked substance.

And in the areas of responsibility assigned to her - the electoral reform and the migration crisis - she does not deliver.

In her appearances she is actually always the main message: you, the first woman in this office, the first black woman, the first American with Asian roots - the icon of the “woke” America, in which identity replaces every argument.

Deputy conflict at employee level

The gossip in Washington's government district has now turned into a relationship crisis between Biden and Harris, which is of course carried out as a proxy conflict at employee level. The news channel CNN reported on dozens of anonymous sources close to the president and the vice president of frustration and despair: In the west wing of the White House, the Biden people had given up helping Harris to find their role for the time being, after all the president had just given up More important things to do. According to the Infrastructure Act, he has to bring the more extensive social package through Congress - and one year before the "midterms", he has to impose a new strategy on his party: Without the independent voters in the middle, the regional elections at the beginning of November showed.threatens to lose majorities in both chambers of congress. In short: little time to worry about the Vice-President's sensitivities.