We’re finally learning the real reasons why Vice President Kamala Harris has been such a terrible vice president, and why the staff around her seem to be leaving at a record pace. New reports, from the Washington Post, no less, based on interviews with 18 people close to Harris, indicate that working in her office is an abysmal experience. One ex-staffer called her a “bully” and claimed she rarely reads briefings, then blames her staff when she’s unprepared for the task at hand. It’s a sentiment echoed by many other ex-staffers who were interviewed by the Post.
This is truly remarkable stuff coming from those working closely around Harris with intimately familiar knowledge of why her staffers are heading for the exits:
Critics scattered over two decades point to an inconsistent and at times degrading principal who burns through seasoned staff members who have succeeded in other demanding, high-profile positions. People used to putting aside missteps, sacrificing sleep and enduring the occasional tirade from an irate boss say doing so under Harris can be particularly difficult, as she has struggled to make progress on her vice-presidential portfolio or measure up to the potential that has many pegging her as the future of the Democratic Party.
“One of the things we’ve said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this and it’s her,” said Gil Duran, a former Democratic strategist and aide to Harris who quit after five months working for her in 2013. In a recent column, he said she’s repeating “the same old destructive patterns.”
“Who are the next talented people you’re going to bring in and burn through and then have (them) pretend they’re retiring for positive reasons,” he told The Post.
That the Post would even write this story and print these allegations is quite something. It speaks to how widely held the belief is among Harris’ staff that most of the Vice President’s problems reside squarely with the Vice President herself.
This section is pretty bad for Harris, and illustrates why she’s seeing such a staff exodus less than a year into her term as vice president:
Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared.
“It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” one former staffer said. “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why.”
A “bully” who inflicts “soul-destroying criticism” on her staff and lacks confidence in her job, which causes her to then get angrier at her staff. That’s a pretty tough review.
As for future ambitions, Harris is creating somewhat a bad reputation to work for. The best and brightest seem to be passing at the chance to work in the Vice President’s office, and will not be eager to work on a future Harris presidential campaign either:
For both critics and supporters, the question is not simply where Harris falls on the line between demanding and demeaning. Many worry that her inability to keep and retain staff will hobble her future ambitions.
Part of the frustration, it seems, beyond treating her staff poorly, is that Harris hasn’t shown any ability or ambition to actually get anything done. She’s had many opportunities, and she’s screwed them up repeatedly, or not actually used them to her advantage:
Her first international trip — to Guatemala and Mexico as part of an effort to address the root causes of migration — was marked by an exchange with NBC News’s Lester Holt in which she awkwardly said she would go to the U.S. border with Mexico — something Republicans and other critics had been calling for her to do for some time.
And activists have expressed frustration that Harris asked to be put in charge of the issue of voting rights, then made little meaningful change in one year of the Biden presidency.
Sanders has been by Harris’s side through almost all of those controversies, briefing her before important interviews, smoothing things over after missteps.
Pushing expanded voting rights? That should be a no-brainer easy topic for Harris. She should be out there pushing the issue around the country as the first woman of color to occupy the Vice Presidency, you’d think it was teed up perfectly.
It’s not the goal here to keep picking on Vice President Kamala Harris. However, this story of her staff exodus keeps expanding and morphing. The Washington Post report from above added new information such as interviews with current and former staff, that shed new light on the situation.
Many of the staff departures likely go well beyond fearing association as a “Harris person” and into the realm of staff berating and mistreatment. There is nothing more irritating than doing the legwork to help your boss look good, then your boss ignores the prep work and blames you for some reason. Harris is not as good at interviews or retail politics as she seems to naturally think she is in her head. She needs preparation to nail answers and needs to study topics to figure out how to not come off looking uninformed, even with a friendly and adoring media.
Harris does have supporters, who defend her, saying any criticism of her is likely rooted in sexism or racism:
Her defenders say the criticism against her is often steeped in the same racism and sexism that have followed a woman who has been a first in every job she’s done over the past two decades. Her selection as President Biden’s vice president, they say, makes her a bigger target because many see her as the heir apparent to the oldest president in the nation’s history. They also say Harris faces the brunt of a double standard for women who are ambitious, powerful or simply unafraid to appear strong in public.
The “ism” defense can only go so far, especially with staff members who generally support her, and like her, but say she’s terrible to work for.
There is another possibility, that the White House is actively working behind the scenes to undermine Harris with the goal to dump her from the ticket in 2024 or replace her. If she’s that bad, many Democrats will fear she could lose if she becomes the party standard-bearer without a real primary fight in 2024 or 2028.
Whatever the case may be, Harris has created a difficult situation to dig herself out of, and it’s becoming clear now why so many of her staff have quit or taken on different roles within the Biden administration.
