Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t bite.

“Joe Biden is our nominee,” she told a CBS News reporter outside a San Francisco fundraiser Tuesday night amid signs the president’s Democratic dam was breaking.

The reporter tried another tactic, asking if she was ready to lead the country if needed. Nothing.

“I am proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate,” she replied.

In the week since Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Harris has received more attention than at any time since her early, rocky days as his No. 2. Polls and party infrastructure give her an advantage over other possible Biden replacements, should he choose to step out of the race against former President Trump.

But Harris is in a delicate position — a magnified version of the political pressure she has faced throughout her tenure in office. She can’t afford to show even a hint that she is looking to replace Biden, the oldest president in history at 81. Yet she has to watch her back, to make sure others do not usurp her in the event Biden’s job becomes available.

“She absolutely, positively has to dance with the one who brought her, and any daylight that she shows between herself and the only person on Earth who could be called her boss would be seen as disloyal,” said one former advisor, who requested anonymity to avoid angering fellow Democrats with succession talk. “If ground keeps shifting … inevitably she’s going to be put in a position of potentially having to make a decision or maybe a decision’s being made for her.”

So far, she’s been earning relatively good marks from Democrats appreciative of her attempts to defend Biden, while Republicans continue to mock her public speeches as word salads.

“It’s been interesting to watch people who have been critical of her over the last three and a half years say, ‘Oh I’d support her,’” said an ally who is in regular contact with Harris’ and Biden’s inner circles, who asked for anonymity to avoid upsetting friends in Biden’s orbit. “People believe, and have always believed, she can prosecute the case.”

Harris went on CNN within minutes of last week’s debate, when most Democrats were still shell-shocked, offering the first version of Biden’s defense. She acknowledged what she called a “slow start” while insisting, “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years.”

Harris has made a similar case since then, traveling to speeches and fundraisers, including a Tuesday night event in San Francisco, in which she categorized the “elephant in the room” as both the debate and the prospect of another Trump presidency.

“She’s doing her job, and to suggest there is somebody waiting in the wings, somebody looking to get a jump-start on 2028 — no, that’s not Kamala Harris,” said Donna Brazile, an ally who wants Biden to stay at the top of the ticket.

Her sometime rival Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken a similar tack, positioning himself as a public defender for Biden, distancing himself from elements of the party who want the president to step aside. He was scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday night to “stand with the president,” he said in a fundraising email.

Harris had her regular lunch with Biden on Wednesday. She also joined Biden on a campaign call in which he reassured staff that he was “in this race to the end,” according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We will not back down. We will follow our president’s lead. We will fight, and we will win,” Harris told the staffers, this person said.

Though Biden promised her weekly lunches when she took the job, the meetings have been inconsistent, an indication that Biden has often leaned more on longtime aides than on his deputy.

But if she were to run for president, she could campaign on the administration’s legislative successes, including its environmental and infrastructure spending bills.

Republicans would seize on her role as a key player in Biden’s immigration policy: Early in his tenure, Biden assigned Harris to oversee a strategy intended to bolster economic, security and political conditions in Central America to stem the “root causes” of migration.

But Harris has never been comfortable with the assignment, and Republicans have gleefully cast her as the “border czar” as they have attacked the Biden administration for record numbers of border arrests.

Harris gained political strength after the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion in 2022, leading the White House’s response. She has been unable to change the law or to stop red states from passing extensive restrictions on the procedure, but she helped the Democratic Party use the issue to overperform in the 2022 midterm elections. Democrats are hoping to use the issue again if they can move beyond the concerns over Biden’s fitness for office.

A CNN poll released Tuesday found three-quarters of American voters believed Democrats would have a better shot at the White House without Biden. Among possible replacements, only Harris polled within 2 percentage points of Trump. Allies have long said her name recognition and control of the party apparatus would put her in a better position to lead than potential rivals, who include Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who has been a pivotal Biden supporter, said Tuesday on MSNBC that he would support Harris as a replacement, but that his first preference is Biden remaining the candidate.

“But I want to support her going forward, sometime in the future,” he said.

But there remains deep concern about Harris in the party. Even the CNN poll showed her with ground to make up against Trump in a theoretical matchup, and that’s without the media scrutiny and Republican assault that would come with leading the ticket. And her early struggles in the job — which produced high staff turnover and low poll numbers — set a bad impression for many voters, though her average approval in polls has improved slightly in the last few months.

A March USA Today/Suffolk poll found that 54% of voters said she is not qualified to serve as president, compared with 38% who said she is. Focus groups shared with The Times by a pro-Biden Republican group earlier this year showed swing voters and even Black voters had negative impressions, some of which her allies believe were tied to her race and gender.

But even if Harris would have work to do, no other possible replacement has faced as much national scrutiny, possibly making them a higher risk for the party.

“She has been under that spotlight and has taken her lumps as a result,” said the former advisor. “No one can say she’s unknown at this point.”

Bierman reported from Washington and Wiley from San Francisco.

A Republican congresswoman has been charged with bringing a gun to an airport outside Washington D.C.

U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana is facing weapons violation charges after carrying her handgun into Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

“Victoria Spartz, 45, of Noblesville, IN, was charged on Friday, June 28 with a weapons violation at Dulles Airport,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said Tuesday. 

INDIANA REP. SPARTZ FENDS OFF GOP PRIMARY CHALLENGERS IN BID TO RETAIN HOUSE SEAT

The gun, a .380 caliber handgun, was detected inside Spartz’s carry-on bag during a Transportation Security Administration search. 

The gun was reportedly unloaded and Spartz claims to have packed it into her luggage by accident. 

“Last Friday, Rep. Spartz accidentally carried an empty handgun in her suitcase with no magazine or bullets, which she did not realize was in the pocket of her suitcase, while going through security at Dulles airport,” a statement from Spartz’s office said. 

INDIANA LOOKS TO REPEAL DRIVER’S LICENSE LAW FOR UKRAINIAN IMMIGRANTS AFTER DISCRIMINATION RULING

The line for security at Washington Dulles International Airport is seen in Loudon County, Virginia. (Fox News Digital/Jon Michael Raasch)

It continued, “Rep. Spartz was issued a citation and proceeded on her international flight to the [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly] meeting in Europe.”

Spartz is a Ukrainian-born immigrant who won her seat in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District in 2021. 

She announced last year that she would not be seeking reelection and would not be seeking any public office at the end of her term.

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Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., speaks about the war in Ukraine during a Republican news conference ahead of the State of the Union on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

She walked that back in February and re-entered the race, successfully defending against multiple GOP primary challengers.

She won the GOP primary for her district in May, securing her spot in the general election this November.

If I were a relative or close confidant of President Biden, I’m pretty sure I’d give him a hug, thank him for his service, and tell him to seriously consider walking away.

I’d tell him that after a life of service, he can pass the torch with pride, with dignity, and with grace.

Someone probably should have done this months ago, out of love or duty, and out of the concern that Biden’s health is likely to get worse in coming years.

But we’re not very good at this sort of thing — at summoning the courage it takes to confront a loved one or a boss who’s in decline and being totally honest about it. To be courteous but firm. I had trouble telling my own father it was time to give up driving. He resisted, unaware of or unwilling to accept the reality of his obvious shakiness behind the wheel, and unwilling to surrender his keys or his pride.

By many accounts, people close to Biden have been aware of a decline but have not pressed him to step aside. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that in “the weeks and months” before last Thursday’s presidential debate, “several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations.” There are also reports that people are encouraging him to keep going.

There are some analogies to California‘s Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last year at the age of 90 after more than 30 years in office. If there was any inner-circle effort to persuade her to leave the Senate due to her obvious cognitive and physical decline, that effort failed. She died in office after announcing she would not run again.

In some cases, stepping aside is the right thing to do.

This might sound odd to those who’ve followed my Golden State column over the last 28 months. One of my driving principles has been to stand firm against the notion that we’re incapable of contributing as we age, or that our value diminishes.

In recent columns, I’ve been pointing out, with the help of experts, that you can’t diagnose dementia from afar, though many people have tried to do so in Biden’s case, especially after his debate performance.

I’ve also written that whatever the cause of his foggy gaze and occasional meandering phrase (the medical possibilities are numerous), Biden seemed lost and unsteady. He may still have some gas in the tank, but time is working against him. A year from now, or two, or three or four, how will he be?

The world population is aging rapidly, and more people are staying on the job longer — and while the benefits are many, the risks are real. Bodies and minds break down. It’s OK, when they do, to punch out and move on.

Since the debate, I’ve been thinking about something USC gerontology professor Caroline Cicero said to me last year, when I wrote about whether Biden or Feinstein should step aside.

“I’m very concerned about ageism in the workplace, but I’m also concerned about people who think they have to work forever,” said Cicero. “Giving people permission to retire is something I think we need to do.”

She picked up on that line of thinking this week.

“In recent decades, society has told us that we can have it all. In a battle against ageism, we tell people they can work as long as they want,” she said. “In a battle to prove ourselves, we tell ourselves we can beat normal slowdowns that come with the passage of time.”

But most of us can’t.

Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney, each north of 80, are still holding a tune, and Warren Buffett, at 93, seems to be doing OK. But that’s the thing about aging, as I‘ve said before: You can be old at 60 and young at 85.

Biden has obvious strengths, chief among them experience, wisdom, decency, civility and the empathy that comes with crushing loss. It may be that those in his inner circle, knowing what he’s made of, can’t bring themselves to question his strength and resolve, even in the face of obvious decline. Sure, his family knows him better than we do, but maybe they can’t see what we see from afar.

Some of you might be wondering, right about now, that if I’m all about frank discussions on knowing when it’s time to go, then how come I’m not bringing the Trump family into this.

I would, but their task is even harder than the Biden family’s. What would be the point of saying to a convicted felon who continues to insist he won the 2020 election, “Hey Pop, the fact-checkers are still recovering from the workout you gave them in the last debate”? It takes a bit of humility to see the truth about yourself, and when you begin listing the qualities that define Donald Trump, humility and truth do not make the cut.

Former President Trump, debating Biden last week, would be even less inclined to heed any advice to leave the race.

(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

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Biden may be having trouble seeing himself as anything other than what he is now — a public servant at the top of the flow chart. You can’t be president of the United States without a healthy ego, and in jobs that people are passionate about — that become their very identity — they often can’t imagine what or who else they could be in retirement, provided they can afford to retire, which many cannot.

These people may not be able to imagine that anyone waiting in the wings is as up to the task as they are, and perhaps that’s part of Biden’s calculation. If he takes the next exit, who would take his place? And is there enough time for Vice President Kamala Harris or any of the other potential last-minute candidates to find traction?

It never should have come to this.

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg comes to mind as Exhibit A for lessons on the price of stubbornly holding on. She refused to surrender her position as her health faded, and women’s reproductive rights suffered a blow as a result.

“I see it with entrepreneurs who created a business and have hard time letting go,” said Helen Dennis, who started a support group called Renewment — combining the words “renewal” and “retirement” — 25 years ago for successful women who had trouble imagining the next versions of themselves. The group now includes “teachers, nurses, doctors, several attorneys,” all of them leaning on each other as they learn “how to navigate the next chapter.”

Work is not life, and life is not work, USC’s Cicero once said to me. That must be a foreign concept to a sitting president, but I’m thinking of former President Jimmy Carter as one of the best examples of those who have found ways to contribute after leaving office. He took up a hammer and went to work for Habitat for Humanity — and he won the Nobel Peace Prize for working on peaceful solutions to world conflicts.

“People often fear retirement because they don’t want to be labeled as old, invisible or unimportant,” Cicero said. And many of those who are “addicted to routine don’t know how they will spend their time without the rigors of a work schedule,” she added — but that “does not mean they need to keep working to have a satisfying later life.”

Biden, after his debate stumble, was quickly back on the stump, telling supporters that when you’re knocked down, you get back up and keep fighting.

But Father Time, as they say, is the one who’s undefeated.

I’d remind Biden that the country and the world have problems neither he nor Trump can fix, and that if he’s reelected he will be subjected to four more years of unrelenting judgments about his fitness to hold office.

I’d tell him that, at 81, when you’re knocked down, you’ve earned a rest.

And there’s no shame in that.

steve.lopez@latimes.com