VP Harries Meets Allies in Poland and Romania, Awkwardness Ensues

Before Vice President Kamala Harris landed in Poland and Romania on a mission to reassure NATO countries increasingly nervous about Russian aggression, her advisers said she would bring the force of the U.S. government to back up America’s defensive pledge.

But a moment of levity during a press conference prompted observers to question the tone of the U.S. response.

Harris arrived from Washington bearing a multipart message focused on reminding trans-Atlantic allies of America’s defense commitments, with the promise of humanitarian and military support for Ukraine, advisers said in advance of her trip. “Third is the fact that Putin has made a mistake that will result in resounding strategic defeat for Russia,” a senior administration official added.

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Western allies have imposed crippling sanctions on Moscow’s financial system and wealthy elites, sending the country into economic shock. But while Poland and Romania are NATO members, Ukraine is not, leading to concerns in Washington about the risk of being drawn into conflict with Russia.

President Joe Biden stepped up his warnings to Moscow on Friday over a potential chemical weapons attack,promising “severe” retaliation by the United States when asked whether he would respond militarily. The president has vowed not to send U.S. troops to fight in Ukraine and instead has targeted Russia’s economy.

Moscow has accused Washington and Kyiv of developing chemical weapons in Ukraine, which U.S. officials strongly deny and say could be the pretext for a chemical attack by Russia on Ukrainians.

As the highest-ranking envoy sent to the region, Harris carried a spotlight amplified by the rapidly scaling tensions. And she delivered the message to Poland and Romania’s leaders, who are eyeing Russia’s attacks from next door, as refugees stream across porous borders into their countries.

America would defend “every inch” of NATO territory, the vice president pledged during a press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, and she insisted that the two countries were “united” despite a disagreement over providing fighter jets to Ukraine.

In the Romanian capital of Bucharest on Friday, Harris said America was not finished responding to Russia’s actions.

“Any intentional attack or targeting of civilians is a war crime. Period,” she said, warning that “there will be more announcements” about U.S. actions against Russia “to ensure serious consequences for what is atrocious and outrageous conduct.”

Meeting with U.S. and Polish troops, Harris laughed and hugged one person who said they were from California, the vice president’s home state.

The visit was “very important to us,” one Polish troop said during the visit. Another woman told the vice president, “It’s an honor for us.”

But the vice president also came under fire for an ill-timed reaction to questions from a reporter directed at both leaders about Poland’s immigration system straining under the weight of the humanitarian crisis and what the U.S. was prepared to do to help.

Deferring to Duda, Harris laughed, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former press secretary to condemn the vice president as a video clip of the moment circulated on social media.

Iuliia Mendel deleted her tweet but told CNN that “for us as Ukrainians, it was a very bad experience to see this type of reaction, a laugh” as the world witnesses the “tragedy” of millions becoming refugees.

Duda confirmed during the press conference that he had asked Harris to speed the process of refugee admissions to the U.S. for those with relatives in the country. More than 1.5 million people have arrived in Poland from Ukraine, straining its resources.

The vice president announced that the U.S. would donate $50 million to the U.N. World Food Program and later met with refugees.

Harris’s reaction continued to draw rebuke into the night, with lawmakers voicing alarm at the lighthearted nature of the exchange at a time of momentous suffering.

“This is a very serious situation requiring action, not a laughing matter,” said Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Ukrainian-born Republican.

The White House has used threats and escalating sanctions against Russia to warn off its attacks, but Moscow has yet to yield to the West’s pressure.

Rep. Mike Waltz, a Florida Republican, called the administration’s messaging “horrendous” during a seminar event Thursday evening, singling out Harris.

“When you have the vice president of the United States, in such a moment of crisis, standing on the eastern front and essentially kind of laughing [her] way through it like it’s a traditional bilat and not establishing those firm lines. And then you have that backed up by the White House press spokeswoman when asked … what the U.S. response would be in the use of chemical weapons, and her response is ‘I don’t want to get into hypotheticals.’ I think that’s the exact wrong approach,” Waltz said during the Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security. “We need to be very clear on what those lines are and what the consequences will be if Russia crosses them.”

Putin “got away with it in Syria for years,” Waltz continued. “Fifty-four hospitals directly attacked in one day and ongoing use of chemical weapons, often through false flag operations.”

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He concluded that “if we don’t send the right signals now, I agree that he thinks he may believe that he can get away with it again.”