Usa news: Republicans have sharpened their attacks against Kamala Harris since Joe Biden announced his reelection bid Tuesday in a push to make the 2024 election as much about the vice president as the president.

The verbal barrage signals scrutiny to come for Harris, who Biden has made clear will be his running mate despite criticism Harris has gotten from members of both parties.

Republicans view Harris, whose approval ratings lag below Biden’s lackluster marks, as a campaign liability – a characterization that Biden allies reject.

Although Republicans targeted Harris in 2020 and before the 2022 midterms, the criticism this time is more overt, even warning of a “likely” scenario that Biden can’t finish a second term and Harris becomes president.

“I think we can be all clear and say, with a matter of fact, that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” Republican presidential contender Nikki Halley said on Fox News Wednesday. “Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”

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Biden, 80, is already the oldest-serving president in U.S. history and would be 86 when he finishes a second term if he’s reelected.

Harris, the first Black woman and first Asian American vice president, has faced detractors during her first two and a half years as vice president who say she’s failed to define an effective role in the administration. Some of her assignments have included the difficult tasks of solving Central American migration along the southern border and ensuring voting rights amid a barrage of new state election laws.