Kamala Harris: A beginner’s guide to the vice-president

Kamala Harris will make history when she takes the oath of office on Wednesday, becoming the first woman and first black and South Asian American to serve as US vice-president.

Here’s what awaits Ms Harris in her new job.

Historically speaking, not a lot. It has been described as the least understood, most ridiculed and most often ignored constitutional role in the federal government, and for a long time it stayed that way.

“The role of the vice-president was, frankly, to just be that heartbeat away from the president,” said Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Centre. Unless the president died, or was seriously…