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In one of her final acts as vice president, Kamala Harris has decided not to offer her successor JD Vance a courtesy tour of the VP’s residence ahead of the inauguration. Usually, vice president-elects view the residence — a white, Queen Anne-style mansion housed within the Naval Observatory — before the inauguration, but Democratic and Republican sources have confirmed that this invitation wasn’t extended to Vance. It means that Vance and his wife, Usha, and their children will only see the residence for the first time after the inauguration on Jan. 20.
Not only that, Harris has reportedly also refused a formal sit-down with Vance within the residence, despite his wife’s best efforts. CBS News reports that in November, Usha reached out to the house staff of Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to get details about how they could childproof the residence for their three children, all of whom are under the age of eight. Usha’s request was reportedly rebuffed by Harris’ intermediaries, but there has since been some correspondence between the two camps in the lead-up to Vance’s move-in.
The Navy aids who oversee the residence had a phone call with Vance’s team before Christmas, giving them an overview of the house and providing details about its layout and the logistics of moving in. Then, Usha and Emhoff had a 40-minute phone call last week, according to sources, with the pair making arrangements to accommodate the Vance children. While Harris’ non-invite might seem like a break in tradition, people close to the vice president say she was also never extended an invite to the residence before being sworn in in 2021.
Of course, the ongoing pandemic, Jan. 6 insurrection, and then-president Donald Trump’s denial of the election results made a Harris tour of the residence all the more untenable. Refuting that claim, sources close to then vice-president Mike Pence said Harris was, in fact, offered a tour of the home before her inauguration, but that the invitation was delivered discreetly given Trump’s unwillingness to accommodate the incoming administration. In any case, no formal sit-down or tour between Pence and Harris ever took place.
People close to Harris have defended her decision not to extend a tour invite to Vance, since the tradition was first broken by the Trump-Pence administration. Sources say she is instead focused on the California wildfires. The most recent time we’ve seen a pre-inauguration vice presidential tour was in 2016, when then-Veep Joe Biden hosted the Pence family in the residence not long after that year’s election. “We’re just very grateful for the hospitality today of the vice president and second lady,” Pence said at the time.
Harris did pledge to ensure a peaceful transition of power during the concession speech where she accepted her presidential election defeat, but refusing to host your successor for a courtesy visit is far more peaceful than, you know, inciting a deadly riot in the Capitol. In the wake of that defeat, Harris has kept a pretty low profile, though she did appear at the who’s who of US politics that was Jimmy Carter’s funeral earlier this month. Vance, meanwhile, is still facing scrutiny over his past comments about his boss, and will still never beat *those* couch allegations.