[UPDATED] While much of the ire is aimed at Harris’ chief, two administration officials said the VP herself also bears responsibility for the way her office is run. “It all starts at the top,” said one of the administration officials, who like others requested anonymity to be able to speak candidly about a sensitive matter. “People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it’s an abusive environment,” said another person with direct knowledge of how Harris’ office is run. “It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s---.” The dysfunction in the VP’s ranks threatens to complicate the White House’s carefully crafted image as a place staffed by a close-knit group of professionals working in concert to advance the president’s agenda. It’s pronounced enough that members of the president’s own team have taken notice and are concerned about the way Harris’ staffers are treated. Symone Sanders, senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris, pushed back against the complaints and defended Flournoy saying she has an “open door policy” and that “Black women like me would not have the opportunity to work in politics without Tina.” Of the chief of staff’s anonymous critics, she added: “People are cowards to do this this way.” “We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘welcome to the club,’” Sanders added. “We have created a culture where people, if there is anything anyone would like to raise, there are avenues for them to do so. Whoever has something they would like to raise, they should raise it directly.” Harris and Flournoy’s defenders also note that women in power—Black women in particular—are subjected to standards that men often don’t have to clear. A tough and demanding office environment may be seen as a virtue for one and a sign of disorder and lack of leadership acumen for another. But for some of the people who know Harris best, it’s become an all-too-familiar pattern for a politician who has churned through several iterations of staff on her rise and took office with a team almost entirely new to her. Just six months in, some of those aides in the Office of the Vice President said they are eyeing other employment opportunities. Others have left already.
(Breitbar piled on, citing Politico and leading with an unflattering Harris photo.)
Barbara Lee, a House member from California, if having ever had any staff problems, has kept things discrete and unpublished. Given Lee's years of service, the most likely explanation is there has been no staff discontent among Lee's staff, over time, because top-down management excelled - better managed than other staffs and inspired by vision, and as important, consistency.
In defense of Harris and her record contrasting with Lee (if Politico is correct), one could suggest Lee's position remained less innovated and more stable over time as experience was being gained, top down. With Harris moving upward in California and then up again, to DC being a separate trajectory.
Pramila Jayapal is of East Asian descent, in public service for years, and free of even the slightest rumor of staff turnover or dissent. She is strong voiced and consistent in policy positions she embraces and advocates. As with Lee, Jayapal has not had the disjunctive career movement Harris has enjoyed.
Remember. There is video. Harris is on YouTube. Search out some of her video and search for news about policy dimensions Harris has voiced, over time, entailing transitioning views arguably parallel to polls or career movements. See if you sense from words and demeanor something also, of a distancing or distanced ego. Expectations. Manners. Patience. Preparedness.
Also - and perhaps I digress - Saying job centric vs career centric motivations are at play and make the difference oversimplifies when multiple factors are at play. Moreover, demeanor matters. Demeanor cuts through other
characteristics. Demeanor is an overlay to chosen words in almost all
political video. Demeanor as a mark of sincerity which sometimes supplements spoken video words, and factors into reliance (to the extent one feels comfortable with one's circumstantial inference making, from viewing a few publicly influenced video vignettes). There is a range of circumstances.
________UPDATE_______
The Politico item did shift briefly toward the chief-of-staff as a focus, but this is how Politico closed out their story:
It didn’t help matters that the border visit seemed hastily put together, symbolized bya news conference Harris held in which she struggled to speak over the engine of a roaring plane.
Harris’ defenders argue that these
moments are overblown; that few people beyond the politically obsessive
will remember the din of a press conference or whether she went to the
border on her own volition or under duress.
"Vice President Harris is focused on the work, not the chatter at the water cooler," Sanders said.
What’s moreconcerning for
people inside and out of Harris’ orbit is staunching the bleeding among
frustrated staff and meaningfully improving the low morale in the
office, which could cause damage to her relationship with Biden and his
team. Harris, these people said, excels when those around her project
calm and order, creating a sense of confidence and certainty.
“When people feed her anxieties, all of that goes away,” said another Harris friend, “exacerbating the bad tendencies.”
Indirectly asserting an inability to handle stress, being high-strung, and arguably insecure and indecisive; that is extremely hurtful toward one eying higher office (above the Vice Presidency).
________FURTHER UPDATE_______
Two items, for thought, with it admitted that interaction between Harris and Biden and their respective staffs are kept private, with a leak or two -
When NYT and Breitbart seem to echo a theme, one has to take notice. The usual split in viewpoint is largely absent.
There are a number of black female politicians who are more progressive than Harris, but Biden/Clyburn picked as they did, each for his own reasons, presumably.
"President Harris" does not resonate, but a Harris - South Bend Mayor - Transportation Secretary ticket gets two identity punches.
Can either speak Spanish?
FURTHER: Arguably not two, but five (5) identity hits. Female, Black, Asian, LGBTQ+ and McKinsey. Plus, coastal and heartland. But not diverse.
There'd need to be a progressive on the ticket to be really diverse. A Harris-Mayor B. ticket would be a Schumer ticket, not a diverse one. GOP-lite and Wall Street loved, just like Schumer and Clyburn. Or Clinton and Kaine. With all the same corporate/wealthy donor players and PACs appurtenant.
Not diverse. As inner-party as you can get. Surely not grassroots. Grassroots want Medicare for All, debt relief, union appeal, police reform, and a money-out-of-politics tax-the-rich Gestalt. Expand Social Security and lessen war-mongering's voice and funding.
And what opposition? A Pompeo-Noem ticket? But I digress.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
More Breitbart, this report shows Texas Conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) criticized Vice President Harris for visiting the the Southern border 800 miles from what he calls the crisis
region of illegal immigrant crossings (his district).
Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, told
Fox News he is sure Harris’ “planners” told her it is “politically
safer” to go down to El Paso rather than where the crisis is raging in
the southern part of the state.
“I’m sure her planners told her that if you’re going to go down to
the border, go to something that’s safer to go to, that is, politically
safer,” Cuellar said. “The epicenter is down there in the Lower Rio
Grande, the lower part of my district down there. If you look at the
numbers that are down there compared to El Paso, you’re not going to get
a true picture of what’s happening.”
Cuellar also revealed that his Border Patrol friends asked him why Harris was inspecting an area so far from the crisis region.
FOX news is not Harris' friend, nor, apparently, is Cuellar. As a conservative the hope is he gets primaried and loses to a progressive who then takes the seat, thereby increasing the pressure on Pelosi's crew of conservatives and elderly henchmen (Clyburn and Hoyer fitting that description).
Cuellar survived a progressive primary challenge already, but is ripe for a repeat. Just say, Cuellar is not part of any solution to anything while being a term limits poster child. His carping to FOX favors Harris, as not of his stripe. He probably enjoyed seeing Biden drop that "border" responsibility onto Harris' lap, perhaps as a form of payback. That stunt, (with the "little girl" tee shirts already stenciled and ready to go on sale on the Harris website when Harris pulled the stunt), is one deserving payback, so if Joe nurses a grudge, it was not improper, given the provocation. That stunt may be Harris in a nutshell, and it is pretty ugly a stunt to have been dropped into a Party debate punch bowl.
If a groundswell "Dump Harris" movement happens, it would have to rest upon the Harris track record, and in that sense would be "earned" by the VP. She's got baggage.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
FOX not being friendly toward Harris: Tucker C. video blurbs - here and here, (if you care to watch for more evidence of unfriendly coverage). Those video items were returned by a web search. It was not worth my time to view either, so whatever the video segments say, being from Tucker C., in my view each helps Harris.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
History from 2020 - the Harris debacle candidacy - it casts a long shadow.
Criticism of Harris from progressives matters. Tucker Carlson does not matter to many, while he is cherished by some. Watch either or both YouTube segments if you are a hound for self punishment. Or a Tucker fan, but I repeat myself.
