It was President Joe Biden, looking to make sure his No. 2 was up to speed on the administration's scramble to deal with a problem awaiting her in Warsaw, a senior administration official said. The Polish government was offering to send fighter jets through the US to Ukraine, an idea the administration had no choice but to firmly decline in a Pentagon statement
the day before Harris' departure. Ordinarily such a scenario might prompt a cursory phone call between leaders to clear the air.
But in this case, the administration's response was still unfolding as Harris was flying across the Atlantic to meet Poland's President and prime minister, raising the stakes for a trip that was already set to be one of the most intense moments of her vice presidency.
She managed to
avoid any public discord.But even a diplomatic victory left questions about how the conflict roiling Eastern Europe will end.
"I want to be very clear. The United States and Poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to help Ukraine and the people of Ukraine; full stop," Harris said during a news conference Thursday alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda.
As fighting intensifies in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin increases his targeting of civilians, Harris has emerged as Biden's top-ranking envoy to a continent suddenly thrust into conflict. This week's swing through Poland and Romania was her third visit to Europe in the past four months. For a foreign policy novice with aspirations for higher office, it has been a rigorous introduction to wartime diplomacy. Like most of her events, Harris' trip was tightly scripted. Only an arch aside to the Polish President when he kept asking her to answer first during a joint news conference -- "A friend in need is a friend indeed," she said, laughing slyly -- generated some criticism, since the question was about refugees.
Otherwise, there was little on Harris' trip that generated much Republican criticism, which is rare for one of the right's favorite targets. Even her predecessor Mike Pence's visit to the Polish-Ukrainian border at the same time she was in the country wasn't immediately viewed as a partisan contest. A White House official said they had not received a heads up that Pence would be in the area.
By the time she took off just before 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Harris had already been briefed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken -- with whom she often has lunch -- about his trip to the region last weekend and had spoken to five Eastern European prime ministers in preparation for her visit. She'd consulted with country experts on Poland and Romania and conferred with other members of the National Security Council.
It could hardly be said of Harris that she wasn't prepared; at nearly every public appearance, she repeated some version of a commitment to defend "every inch of NATO territory" and that an "attack against one is an attack against all" -- the words American officials have always used to affirm their commitment to the alliance's collective defense. And she did come bearing new American commitments on humanitarian aid and a Patriot missile-defense system for Poland.
But it was evident there were limits to what Harris could do to entirely reassure this anxious region at a moment of deep reckoning
. When a Romanian reporterasked her if that country was the next to be invaded, Harris could only say she didn't know.
"As it relates to what might be the future conduct of Putin, I cannot speculate," Harris said.
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