Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman With Presidential Power as Joe Biden Has Routine Colonoscopy

Vice President Kamala Harris will become the first woman to hold presidential power when Joe Biden undergoes a routine colonoscopy on Friday, November 19. 

Per CNN, Biden will be placed under anesthesia for the procedure, and he’ll temporarily transfer power to Harris for the interim. “The vice president will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, according to CNN. 

CNN’s White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins notes this has happened once before during the Bush-Cheney administration (a president temporarily transferring power to a vice president). 

CNN reports Biden arrived at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland the morning of November 19 to have this procedure done. 

Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn into office in January 2021. “American aspiration is what drove the women in this nation, throughout history, to demand equal rights,” Harris said in her inauguration speech. “And the authors of the Bill of Rights, to claim freedoms that had rarely been written down before.”

She continued, “A great experiment takes great determination. The will to do the work, and then the wisdom to keep refining, keep tinkering, keep perfecting. The same determination is being realized in America today. I see it in the scientists who are transforming the future. I see it in the parents who are nurturing generations to come, in the innovators and educators, in everyone, everywhere, who is building a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.”

Harris ended her speech with, “This too is American aspiration. This is what President Joe Biden has called upon us to summon now. The courage to see beyond crisis. To do what is hard, to do what is good, to unite, to believe in ourselves, believe in our country, believe in what we can do together. Thank you, and may God bless America.”