Throughout much of the presidential election season, coverage of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden focused on his habit of bungling words or otherwise making bizarre gaffes during speeches.
Since his inauguration, it seems that his tendency to misspeak has rubbed off on Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The work that has yet to be done”
As the Washington Examiner reported, Harris used a curious choice of words during an interview with West Virginia news station WSAZ last week.
The vice president was discussing ways that those who work in the energy sector can find new jobs when she said: “All of those skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of reclaiming abandoned land mines.”
Of course, a land mine is an underground explosive device sometimes used in warfare — something that coal miners are not likely to encounter on a regular basis.
Examiner writer Mica Soellner opined that Harris had most likely meant to say “abandoned coal or strip mines” in her flubbed comments. She added that the White House had not responded to a request for clarification.
The vice president went on to tell the West Virginia crowd that necessary tasks related to “plugging leaks from oil and gas wells, and transferring those important skills to the work that has yet to be done, and needs to get done.”
“Started packing their items”
Her apparent gaffe came as workers in the fossil fuel industry struggle under Biden administration policy changes, including the decisions to cancel a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and limit drilling on public land.
Oil pipeline workers are not the only Americans impacted by the cancelation of the Keystone XL project.
South Dakota hotel owner Laurie Cox, for example, spoke to Fox News on Monday about her fears, including the fact that many of her customers had “started packing their items” immediately after the announcement was made.
Cox insisted that she would do her best to weather the sudden loss of revenue but remained uncertain about what the future holds.
West Virginia state Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, also expressed worries about what the new administration’s efforts would mean for her state’s residents, stating: “America is a proud energy producer, and paralyzing an entire industry full of high-paying jobs and propping up hostile countries with fewer environmental regulations does little to combat global climate change and creates resentment at home.”