Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly snubbed Vice President-elect JD Vance by not inviting him for a tour of the vice president’s residence before the inauguration.
While the tour for the incoming family has become a recent norm, Harris was never at the vice president’s residence before her inauguration amid the Covid-19 pandemic and President-elect Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The residence is located on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in northwest Washington.
This year’s election campaign was particularly ferocious, with Vance referring to the vice president as “trash” during a rally in November. Trump also took aim at Harris over her racial identity, noteably claiming she “became” Black “all of a sudden” during a question-and-answer session with Black journalists.
An adviser to Vance told CNN that he and Harris haven’t spoken since the election. Harris did call Trump to concede, however.
CBS initially reported that Vance had not been invited to the Naval Observatory.
In November 2016, then-outgoing Vice President Joe Biden met with then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence at the Naval Observatory. They spent around two hours together, having lunch and a look around the residence.
In 2008, then-Vice President Dick Cheney had Biden over at the residence for almost an hour, Cheney’s office said at the time.
However, there has been some contact between the staff of Harris and Vance. The Vance family reportedly had a call with the Navy facilities team that operates the Naval Observatory around Christmas to “discuss the layout of the Residence, logistics and practicalities of the move in, and to help answer any questions the Vance’s had as it related to the Residence,” a person familiar with the vice president’s schedule told CNN.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and incoming Second Lady Usha Vance reportedly spoke for about 45 minutes last week, according to CNN, but they didn’t share any further details of the call.
Via intermediaries, Usha Vance reached out to the staff for the current occupants in November, CBS noted, asking about what they would need to childproof the living space as their three children are all under the age of eight.
While the questions were rejected at first by a Harris political appointee, there has since been communication between the Vance team and the Navy aides in charge of the residence.
Sources close to Harris told CBS that arrangements are being made for the Vance children.
Advisers to Pence say that an invitation was quietly sent out to Harris and Emhoff in the last few days of the first Trump administration. No formal meeting ever took place though.
Speaking to CBS, people close to Harris defended her decision not to extend an invite. The Harris team has instead been focused on a trip overseas that ended up being canceled as well as the California wildfires.
In 2021, Harris didn’t move into the Naval Observatory until April of that year as the house was being repaired.
