Vice President Kamala Harris Stumbles with Words During Africa Visit – Vice President Kamala Harris’ troubles continue. She struggled with her words during her trip to Ghana. Critics noticed that what Harris didn’t discuss, namely China’s dominance in Africa, was a considerable challenge and hard to ignore. Once again, the vice president struggled with her words.
Poor Kamala Harris
“There are a number of things on the issue of the economy as a whole that we must do … and a lot of that work is the work that I am here to do on the continent,” Harris said. “I’m very excited about the future of Africa. I’m very excited about the impact of the future of Africa on the rest of the world, including the United States of America.”
Kamala Harris and her lack of rhetorical skills have privately frustrated Democrats. Even worse was her apparent lack of understanding of how the game of geopolitics has unfolded in Africa, which has increasingly moved toward China.
China and Ghana signed a $2 billion infrastructure deal in 2019 that gave the Chinese access to 5% of that country’s reserves of bauxite, a crucial material used in making aluminum. Ghana received assurances from China that it would help build roads, railroads, and bridges in the country in return. The Chinese also signed a deal with the West African nation of Guinea to give it $20 billion in loan guarantees over the next two decades in exchange for access to its bauxite.
Aluminum is a key raw material needed in arms production.
Harris announced the U.S. would provide $100 million to support Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, and Togo to confront threats from Islamic extremists, and to address governance and development issues.
President Joe Biden promised $55 billion in investments in Africa over the next three years last December at the U.S.-Africa summit.
Instead of taking Chinese dominance in Africa head-on in her speaking engagements, Harris chose to make LGBT+ issues a higher priority. Many countries across Africa that she is visiting on her Africa tour, including Tanzania and Zambia, have laws that criminalize homosexuality.
“Let me be clear about where we stand,” Harris said. “First of all, for the American press who are here, you know that a great deal of work in my career has been to address human rights issues, equality issues across the board, including as it relates to the LGBT community. “And I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting the freedom and supporting and fighting for equality among all people, and that all people should be treated equally.”
Harris continued: “I would also say that this is an issue that we consider and I consider to be a human rights issue, and that will not change.”
The Biden administration’s embrace of priorities of the American Left in the Middle East aimed at alienating Saudi Arabia is widely believed to have been responsible for pushing the Saudis in to China’s camp. These priorities included treating Saudi Arabia as a pariah state and working to isolate it on the world’s stage. The administration has pushed Saudi Arabia closer to joining the China-led BRICS bloc, which could ultimately result in the end of the U.S. dollar as world’s reserve currency.
Now with increasing numbers of young Africans looking to China instead of the U.S., the American ability to coerce poor African nations into doing Washington’s bidding through sanctions is diminished. Ghana’s president noted that his country would enact laws that reflected the values of his country, not those of the U.S.
China, unlike the U.S., cares little about human rights. Kamala Harris’ visit did little to project American strength amid increased competition with China in Africa.
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John Rossomando’s work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.
