Vice Presidential Pool Reports of November 9, 2021

VP travel pool 1 — Paris landing.

Air Force 2 touched down at Orly at 10:56 a.m. local time. VP Harris spoke with the pool off the record for 8-9 minutes while the plane was descending. Second Gentleman Emhoff came back for off record greetings for 2-3 minutes after she left.

Symone Sanders gaggled at the beginning of the flight. Co-pooler Katie Rogers transcribed highlights below. Here is an Otter link as well.

https://otter.ai/u/yJ2j0fTKAV0f3adJFd7sOjkPEUQ

Symone gaggled for nine minutes

"From day one, our administration has truly been focused on strengthening those alliances, being a good partner, and showing up."

First conversation with Macron was Feb. 15 and at his invitation she spoke virtually at an equality summit.

The VP team will be briefing each evening on this trip.

VP is interested in focusing on topics including global health, climate change, and space.

This afternoon she will tour the Institute Pasteur around 2:40 p.m. today.

Named for scientist who produced first laboratory vaccine ever.

"This visit will underscore the longstanding scientific exchanges between the US and France to tackle global challenges."

They are working across 13 African countries on surveillance of COVID-19 variants.

She took a question on whether the VP will be meeting with other leaders on the sidelines. She said there would be pull asides and noted that there will be some 25 other leaders at different events on this trip.

She took a question on the rift with France, and how front of mind that is. "We are focused on looking forward not looking backward. France is one of the United States's oldest and strongest allies." "If we are going to tackle our global health challenges and prevent the next pandemic, we have to do this together."

She took a question on whether the VP is doing a domestic fundraising call. "If you are referring to the Democracy Alliance it is a prerecorded address. She recorded it today. The video will play at the summit's end."

She took a question on VP's involvement with infrastructure. "We now turn our eye toward one, working to make sure Americans know what is in that bill. We're also obviously continuing to make the case for and make sure Americans know about the Build Back Better agenda." "She's going to continue to be actively engaged on that but obviously she has a full schedule here in France." Said she was at the WH with the president until around midnight on Friday and made a round of calls on Saturday.

She took a question on the newest poll and dismal poll numbers. "You know what, today we were focused on Paris, BBB, bipartisan infrastructure, we were focused on a lot of things. I'll let the pundits potificate on that.he polls are a snapshot in time."

VP Travel Pool 2 — greetings

VP Harris and Emhoff walked off the plane at 11:20 a.m. and stopped to chat briefly with four greeters before responding quickly to a shouted question about her priorities here.

"It's good to be in France," she said.

We are now headed to the hotel to freshen up before an afternoon event. The motorcade ride is about 20 minutes.

Greeters:
- Stephen Duso-Bauduin, Deputy Head of Ceremonial, State Protocol and Diplomatic Events Directorate at Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Pierre Marchand-Lacour, Sous-Prefet and Director of the Cabinet of the Governor of Val-de-Marne
- Brian Aggeler, Chargé d'affaires a.i., U.S. Embassy Paris
- Whitney Baird, Chargé d'affaires a.i., U.S. Mission to OECD

VP travel pool 3 — hotel arrival and full quote

After weaving to downtown Paris and making our way along the Seine past the Eiffel Tower, the pool arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel at 11:56 a.m. local time. Pool did not see VP exit her limo. We will break here before our one event of the day, the Pasteur Institute.

Here is the full exchange prior to leaving the airport, courtesy of tv pooler Sarah Kolinovsky:

"Vice President Harris, what's your message for President Macron?"

"It is good to be in France and I am looking forward to many many days of productive discussions reinforcing the strength of our relationship."

"How will you soothe tensions with him?"
(No answer)

VP travel pool 4 — heading to institute

The motorcade left the Intercontinental Hotel at 2:36 pm. VP Harris waved out her window as her limo passed the pool. The ride to the Pasteur Institute is about 20 minutes.

VP Travel pool 5 — arrival at institute and first stop

Pool arrived at 2:50. We are walking into a modern lab building where we will catch up with VP on her tour.

The room we are in does COVID research. There are two men in lab coats and lots of equipment like test tubes and containers. The ceilings are exposed.

VP Travel pool 6 — remarks and tour.

The first room had a French virologist and an American researcher who were working on analyzing how people respond to COVID infections differently.

Harris and Emhoff walked in at 3:04 and Harris said "hello" to the pool.

(Please check all quotes against transcript.)

James Philip Di Santo, Professor of Immunology at Institut Pasteur, said they were working on understanding why people have differing symptoms and outcomes from Covid relying heavily on nasal swabs.

Harris joked that she was "intimately familiar" with nasal swabs. Harris asked questions along the way, first about the range of variants and then about the different ways different types of people respond to the virus.

The second researcher, Olivier Schwartz, Head of Virus & Immunity Unit at Institut Pasteur, said he admired the work on cancer that Harris' mother did here at the institute in the 1980s and 1990s and had read her work.

Harris noted that the work involved MRNA and began discussing it when pool was ushered to the next stop.

At the next step, Dr. Nathalie Aulner — High Content Analysis Team Member in the Imagopole CiTech — talked about cell research related to cancer.

"The why is a very important question," Harris said, eliciting an affirmative repeat from the scientist.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Masson, a theoretical physicist, then showed a series of images of breast cancer cells on a flat screen.
Harris and Emhoff looked.

"That's great" harris said, then talked about "the work my mother did" in detecting early breast cancer.

"This is really impressive. It's come so far." She said the work her mother did at the Institut Pasteur in the 1980s is responsible for much of this and that she would have liked to see it.

"The breakthroughs that she was responsible for in the 80s was the basis for a lot of great work," she said.

The researchers agreed.
"This is extraordinary work….we've come so far with breast cancer research" but have much more to go, Harris said.

Then she talked about her admiration for "the nature of who you are and the gift you bring."

One of the scientist then quoted Pasteur that "science knows no borders."

Harris talked about cleaning lab pipettes as a kid — her first job— and joked about getting fired by her mom for breaking them. "I grew up in a lab."
"I was awful. I broke them. She fired me."

Harris was then asked a question by a French reporter about the reconciliation with France following the recent AUKUS rift and how the institute showed collaboration. Harris agreed and spoke at length about the scientific process and how it's better than politics because it involves hypothesis and inquiry instead of just presenting a big plan.

"Scientists operate with a hypothesis. I love that. They start out with a hypothesis and they test it out."

If it doesn't work out: "Everyone gets together and no one gets beat up about it."

"With us in government we campaign with the plan. Uppercase T uppercase P," and said there was little room for innovation and iteration if there are "glitches."

When asked, she said it wasn't a comment on BBB negotiations but "it's a general statement I've been saying this for years."

Then she compared policy making to recipe making, using too much salt the first time and reevaluating to get it right the next.

"There will be glitches and there will be mistakes," she said. "If you don't make the same mistake twice … that's a good process and we should encourage it."

The pool was ushered out at about 3:25 p.m.

We are now holding in vans.

A White House official said:

The Vice President is meeting privately with one of the researchers who collaborated with her mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, and the Institut Pasteur in the 1980s on breast cancer research. That research served as a baseline study for many scientists working to cure breast cancer.

VP Travel pool 7 — return.

The motorcade left at 4:06 pm. We passed through people drinking coffee and walking along the streets. Some looked up and waved. Most went about their business.

The motorcade arrived at the hotel at 4:17 pm.

Pool will not see the VP again today but we will be briefed later tonight.

VP Travel Pool 8 -- background briefing

A senior administration official briefed reporters for 19 minutes under the condition that the official's name not be used. Here are some highlights. It will be transcribed.

-- She is at dinner with chief of mission residence with her husband. This movement was not announced, and the pool was not taken.

--Embargoed fact sheet for Wednesday bilateral meeting will go out ahead of time. This will have deliverables.

--Pasteur institute is "world renowned" and they work with NIH. VP spoke at length at the importance of science, scientists and innovations as critical to the world. She met with French and American scientists working on COVID-19. The visit underscore long-standing partnership for the two countries on pandemics.

--Tomorrow, she will mark Veterans/Armistice Day with Emhoff at Suresnes American Cemetery. Honors bravery and sacrifice of those who fought and died for their country. It's really about marking the day. Thursday, she will participate in Armistice Day ceremony with Macron.

--Bilat at Elysee Palace. It matters because our relationship with France is a global one. France is key to our future as are other European allies. "The future will be a key topic on the agenda"

Climate change, space, the economy, supply change, technology, cybersecurity, global health, Indo-Pacific are all on the agenda.

--The VP traveled to France at Macron's invitation. The bilat matters but the Peace forum and Libya conference are also important elements of her agenda. The trip is relatively long because of these many engagements. Macron was one of the first world leaders she spoke with. They spoke in February. He invited her to an event in June, which she attended virtually.

-- Will Harris bring up the submarine issue Macron or does she consider it closed? "The vice president's focused on moving forward and not looking backward."

-- Is there a specific outcome she and Biden are expecting? There will be deliverables. In addition, this entire trip is a follow-up on conversations that US has identified for deeper cooperation such as space, supply chain, economy, Libya. "This engagement is important. This is diplomacy."

--The VP is "fully engaged" with negotiations on the BBB bill and will be out making the case next week. When asked whether that meant trips, the official said "it could be through various ways, through media, through trips."