Harris tries out a new role: consoler-in-chief

HOUSTON — Vice President Harris delivered a eulogy on Thursday in Houston for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a lawmaker she remembered as a friend and a "force of nature" who worked for justice in her community and country.

The remarks also gave some insight into how Harris would handle the important role that presidents play in times of national trauma and personal grief: consoler-in-chief.

Campaigns normally test candidates' abilities to stir rally crowds or debate their opponents. But in an election year, every speech is an audition.

In her compressed campaign, which launched less than two weeks ago, Harris has focused on portraying herself as a fearless prosecutor. The eulogy tested her comfort level with showing a more personal side, as well as with giving a type of address more traditionally delivered by a male leader.

"A few days before she passed, I called her," Harris said at the service. "I expressed my sincere and deep gratitude for all she had done. And I told her she had such an impact on me and my life."

"She could be tough, but oh my goodness, she was so loving, and so encouraging," she said.

The role of a consoler-in-chief

In America's worst moments, it is the president's job to bring meaning to the sadness. Perhaps the most memorable modern example is then-President Barack Obama's 2015 eulogy after the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME, a Black church in Charleston, S.C., when he led mourners in "Amazing Grace."

The most effective eulogies end with a note of hope, pointing a way forward, says Terry Szuplat, who was a speechwriter for Obama — including of the address he delivered in response to the Boston Marathon bombing.

"Even now, all these years later, these are the sorts of speeches that people come up to me and say, 'I still remember how those words helped guide our country through a difficult moment,'" said Szuplat, author of a forthcoming book called Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience.

Szuplat said a eulogy can be a mirror — that the choices a eulogist makes and the attributes they hold up to be remembered reflect their own values. So, for a president or a presidential candidate, a eulogy can be revealing.

"Is this the kind of person I want to hear from? Is this the kind of person I want to represent me, particularly in moments of tragedy? Can they rise to the moment? Can they carry themselves with dignity, decency and empathy? That's all part of being president," said Szuplat.

Biden has been a frequent eulogist

When president, Donald Trump didn't publicly embrace this part of the job. But it's a role that presidents have been expected to take on, especially in the broadcast age.

In 1986, after America watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded on live television, President Ronald Reagan canceled his planned State of the Union address to instead speak to the nation.

Speaking directly to the schoolchildren who watched the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff because a teacher had been on board, he said, "I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave."

President Biden is known for leaning into these moments of grief — often drawing on his own pain from losing his first wife and young daughter in a car crash and from burying his beloved son Beau after he died from brain cancer.

"That black hole in your chest, you feel like you're being sucked into it. The survivor's remorse, the anger. The questions of faith in your soul," he said in an address early in his presidency where he marked 500,000 American deaths from COVID-19.

He has given scores of eulogies since entering public office, from former Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to former Senate colleagues Harry Reid, Bob Dole and John McCain.

"I learned a long time ago: Never make one good eulogy. Because if you make one good eulogy, you got to do a lot of eulogies," he quipped in 2022.

Harris' past eulogies

As vice president, Harris hasn't been called on as often as Biden to fill the consoler role. And when she has, she has emphasized a message of strength versus vulnerability.

In 2023, she spoke at the funeral of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man fatally injured by police in Memphis, Tennessee. She talked about the pain his family was feeling and then turned to make a larger point.

"So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe," she said.

At a 2022 service in Buffalo, N.Y., after the mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in a Black neighborhood, Harris said a true measure of faith is not based on who you beat down but who you lift up.

"We will not allow small people to create fear in our communities ... we will not be afraid to stand up for what is right, to speak truth even when it may be difficult to hear and speak," she said.

Harris' remarks for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, were more personal. They were friends and members of the same sorority, and the two worked together in Washington, D.C., including on a bill to recognize Juneteenth.

"There were times, I would admit, if I saw her walking down the hall, I would almost want to hide — because I knew whatever else may be on my mind, Sheila Jackson Lee would require a very serious and specific conversation with you about what she had on her mind — and then she would tell you exactly what she needed you to do to get it done," Harris said.

In a way, Harris stands on Jackson Lee's shoulders, says Debbie Walsh, who leads the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

"I think she is uniquely positioned, as a Black woman, as a woman of color, who so far has attained the highest level that we've ever seen an elected woman attain in this country, who can really put into context what it means to look back at Sheila Jackson Lee's career," Walsh said.

Throughout American history, the person in the role of consoler-in-chief has been a man. If Harris were to win in November, this would be just one of many aspects of leadership she would redefine.

"The imagery of a president is very much male, very much a masculine image, but this job of being someone to step in and reassure and console in many ways fits the gendered stereotypes for women," said Walsh.