Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Vice President Harris delivers a eulogy tomorrow for Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. She died from pancreatic cancer earlier this month. And in a presidential election year, every speech, even a eulogy, is an audition. NPR's senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith reports.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: There's an important role presidents play in times of national trauma and personal grief - the consoler in chief. It's a skill that isn't tested by the usual features of a campaign - rallies and debates. But in the worst moments, it is the president's job to bring meaning to the sadness. Perhaps the most memorable example is then-President Barack Obama's eulogy after the mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston in 2015.
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BARACK OBAMA: If we can find that grace, anything is possible.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: If we can tap that grace, everything can change.
KEITH: And then, after a moment of hesitation, the President of the United States began to sing.
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OBAMA: (Singing) Amazing grace...
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: (Singing) How sweet the sound.
KEITH: The most effective eulogies end with a note of hope, pointing a way forward, says Terry Szuplat, who was a speechwriter for President Obama.
TERRY SZUPLAT: You know, even now, all these years later, these are the sorts of speeches that people come up to me and say, you know, I still remember how those words helped sort of guide our country through a difficult moment.
KEITH: He says, the choices a eulogist makes, the attributes they hold up to be remembered, reflect their own values. So for a president or a presidential candidate, a eulogy can tell people a lot about them.
SZUPLAT: 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? That's all part of being president.
KEITH: Former President Donald Trump didn't publicly embrace this part of the job. President Biden, on the other hand, leaned into these moments of grief, often drawing on his own pain. Early in his presidency, Biden marked 500,000 American deaths from COVID.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: 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.
KEITH: As Vice President, Harris hasn't been called on for the consoler role as much as Biden, and the central image of her campaign is that of a fearless prosecutor. In 2023, she spoke at the funeral of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man fatally injured by police in Memphis. She talked about the pain his family was feeling and then turned to make a larger point.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: So when we talk about public safety, let us understand...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
HARRIS: ...What it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe.
KEITH: At a service in Buffalo, after the racist shooting at a grocery store, Harris said a true measure of faith is not based on who you beat down, but who you lift up.
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HARRIS: We will not allow small people to create fear in our communities that 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.
KEITH: Her remarks for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee are likely to be more personal. They were friends, members of the same sorority and worked together on a bill to recognize Juneteenth. And in a way, Harris stands on her shoulders, says Debbie Walsh, who leads the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
DEBBIE WALSH: I think she's uniquely positioned as a Black woman, as a woman of color, who can really put into context what it means to look back at Sheila Jackson Lee's career.
KEITH: 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, says Walsh.
WALSH: The imagery of a president is 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.
KEITH: That is, leading with empathy, showing vulnerability - it's something female politicians at the highest levels historically have been counseled to hide.
Tamara Keith, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF VICTOR RAY SONG, "FALLING INTO PLACE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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