That quickly, huh?
CNN has this long piece entitled “Exasperation and Dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris’ Frustrating start as vice president.”
I do wonder why CNN would run this piece, but whatever, let’s jump into it, because it’s hilarious:
Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff — deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when President Joe Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns.
They’re already fed up with Kamala. Lol.
But wait:
The exasperation runs both ways. Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers — who spoke extensively to CNN — reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden’s team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president.
“Constrained politically”? Did Kamala not know what she was getting into here? The Vice President doesn’t do jack shit.
She’s a heartbeat away from the presidency now. She could be just a year away from launching a presidential campaign of her own, given doubts throughout the political world that Biden will actually go through with a reelection bid in 2024, something he’s pledged to do publicly and privately. Or she’ll be a critical validator in three years for a President trying to get the country to reelect him to serve until he’s 86.
Does anyone actually envision that happening?
Few of the insiders who spoke with CNN think she’s being well-prepared for whichever role it will be. Harris is struggling with a rocky relationship with some parts of the White House, while long-time supporters feel abandoned and see no coherent public sense of what she’s done or been trying to do as vice president. Being the first woman, and first woman of color, in national elected office is historic but has also come with outsized scrutiny and no forgiveness for even small errors, as she’ll often point out.
Isn’t that enough for the Democratic Party? Isn’t it all about “historic firsts” for them?
What does she mean by “outsized scrutiny” and “no forgiveness even for small errors”? Any criticism of her at all is shouted down with accusations of “racism” and “sexism.”
Defenders and people who care for Harris are getting frantic. When they’re annoyed, some pass around a recent Onion story mocking her lack of more substantive work, one with the headline, “White House Urges Kamala Harris To Sit At Computer All Day In Case Emails Come Through.” When they’re depressed, they bat down the Aaron Sorkin-style rumor that Biden might try to replace her by nominating her to a Supreme Court vacancy. That chatter has already reached top levels of the Biden orbit, according to one person who’s heard it.
Wait a minute, they’re already considering replacing Kamala? And putting her on the Supreme Court?
I’d rather her be VP. On the Supreme Court, she’s there for life. That is not what we need.
And who would she replace? Presumably Stephen Breyer, one of just three Democrat-appointees on the Supreme Court. Breyer was appointed by Clinton in 1994, and he’s now 83 years old.
Ace of Spades had, as expected, a hilarious take on this:
Now, adding this to the other rumor — that Biden wants to get rid of Kumala by appointing her to the Supreme Court — well that would satisfy the “resignation” criteria for replacing her.
I mean, she’s never been a judge and seems like a perfect idiot and her career has consisted chiefly of literal dick-riding, but sure, whatever, she has the Lived Experience of a Woman and more than that a Woman of Color so that’s all you need if you’re left wing.
So they pressure the oldest leftwinger on the Court to resign — that would be the 80+ year old Breyer (who has previously said he will not cooperate with schemes to get him out early, saying something like “I’ll retire on my own schedule) — they nominate Kumala, Mitch the Bitch and Lindsey Graham and John Thune and all the other Fake Conservative Chuckleheads confirm her in the interests of “cordiality” and “collegiality,” and then they replace her with…
Who? Who is going to be the political stick of dynamite that thrills the nation? Who do they think is going to solve their problems?
The name being tossed around, of course, is Pete Bootyjudge, fresh off his TRIUMPH of totally changing his gayby’s diapers and fixin’ to startin’ to contemplate considerin’ the problem of resolvin’ the shipping crisis that is his actual job.
But you know, he’s gay, so again, his Lived Experience As a Gay Man is a perfect substitute for — in fact, a superior substitute for — actual accomplishment.
😂😂😂
Ace is the best in the business, and it’s really not even close. There might not be anyone funnier on the internet than Ace.
She’s perceived to be in such a weak position that top Democrats in and outside of Washington have begun to speculate privately, asking each other why the White House has allowed her to become so hobbled in the public consciousness, at least as they see it.
Why the White House has allowed her to become so hobbled in the public consciousness? Uh, maybe because the so-called guy in charge over there has dementia. Just a wild guess.
An incumbent vice president should be a shoo-in the next time the party’s presidential nomination is open. But guessing who might launch a theoretical primary challenge to Harris has become an ongoing insider parlor game. Other politicians with their own presidential ambitions have started privately acknowledging that they are trying to figure out how to quietly lay the groundwork to run if and when Harris falters, as they think she might.
The sharks already smell blood in the water. You love to see it.
But, with many sources speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation more frankly, they all tell roughly the same story: Harris’ staff has repeatedly failed her and left her exposed, and family members have often had an informal say within her office. Even some who have been asked for advice lament Harris’ overly cautious tendencies and staff problems, which have been a feature of every office she’s held, from San Francisco district attorney to US Senate.
This makes sense. She seems like someone that would be hell to work for. I wasn’t working on the Hill when Kamala Harris got to the Senate, but I do know that there were always those Congressmen and Senators that everyone on the Hill knew were awful people to work for, and I guess Kamala is one of them. High staff turnover is the telltale sign.
After Harris became known in the first few months for often standing by Biden’s side in the frame as he made big speeches, even after she’d introduced him herself, the West Wing appears to have overcorrected so she has been with the President noticeably less.
Lol they’re already distancing themselves from here.
Maybe it’s because they think she’s dragging Biden down, what with her “historically low” 28% approval rating, which is the lowest of any modern vice president.
When Biden picked Harris as his running mate, he was essentially anointing her as the future of the Democratic Party. Now many of those close to her feel like he’s shirking his political duties to promote her, and essentially setting her up to fail. Her fans are panicked, watching her poll numbers sink even lower than Biden’s, worrying that even the base Democratic vote is starting to give up on her.
Giving up on her? Dude, she didn’t even make it to the primaries when she ran for president. She has never been popular with the Democratic base. They overwhelmingly rejected her when she ran for President.
On the one issue Harris actually asked to be assigned — voting rights — progress has been slow in part because Biden is focused on passing his own domestic agenda, even though Harris has said privately the filibuster must be scaled back if real progress can be achieved. Biden has said as much publicly now too.
Please do not let Kamala Harris–or any Democrat at all, for that matter–anywhere near the issue of “voting rights.” That is code for “permanently rig every election for the Democrats.”
“Voting rights.” As if it’s an issue that actually needs to be addressed. As if there are millions of “disenfranchised groups” out there. “Voting rights” are so robust in America even dead people vote, for Pete’s sake.
“Voting rights.” Get the fuck out of here. It’s not 1965 anymore.
Okay, here comes the best part:
Suspicion has sprouted out of the bitterness. Last month, White House aides leapt to the defense of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was being hammered with outrage by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and like-minded online pundits for taking paternity leave after the adoption of his twins in September. Harris loyalists tell CNN they see in that yet another example of an unfair standard at play, wondering why she didn’t get similar cover any of the times she’s been attacked by the right.
“It’s hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a White man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn’t want to take themselves,” said a former Harris aide, reflecting conversations last month among several former aides and current allies.
They’re already back to calling Biden a racist! I love it.
This is just delicious.
From what I’ve read, these “Harris aides” and “Harris loyalists” are overwhelmingly female, presumably all Woke AF. So it’s no surprise that they see “racism” everywhere.
I do love the dynamic of Kamala being jealous and resentful of “Mayor Pete,” though.
Harris’ team was mad Biden had assigned her to handle diplomatic relations with the Northern Triangle nations, in hopes of addressing the root causes of migration to the US, but gave her no role on the southern border itself. That become the most visible crisis in the early days of Biden’s presidency as unaccompanied minors overwhelmed federal government resources. It seemed like an all-around politically losing assignment even though Biden had seen it as a sign of respect because it was the same job Obama had given him as vice president.
CNN acts like the border crisis is in the rearview. It’s not. It never got fixed and it’s still a massive problem for the nation.
But whatever, all that matters to CNN is how it affects a politician’s approval rating and public perception. They don’t actually care about the “issue” itself.
As CNN has previously reported, Harris herself has said she didn’t want to be assigned to manage the border, aware that it was a no-win political situation that would only sandbag her in the future. But Biden’s team was annoyed that Harris fumbled answers about the border, including when she gave an awkward, laughing response about not visiting it during a spring interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.
That’s her thing, though. No one is better than her at laughing awkwardly and for way too long, and making everyone else feel uncomfortable.
“AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
Okay Kamala, you can stop now, everyone’s starting to get creeped out.
“AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
See how long you can make it in that video. I got about 15 seconds in before the cringe was too much to handle.
As some around Harris see it, the White House failed to come to her defense. That was especially galling since they had given her the unpleasant task on her first foreign trip of carrying the administration’s harsh “do not come” policy, according to one source familiar with the workings of the office.
Damn, they made Kamala actually do her job? What a bunch of racist, sexist assholes! How DARE they ask her to actually do her job!
But I guess if you’ve only gotten to where you are by giving BJs, it might come as a shock to learn that you actually have responsibilities.
I wonder if Kamala knew that once she finally blew her way to the top, that she would actually have to, you know, uphold her Constitutional obligations and stuff.
But seriously, though. How could they be mad about her having to give the “Do not come.” speech when it gave us this:
This next section is called “West Wing makes clear they aren’t coming to the rescue.”
Biden aides have repeatedly told Harris aides that they’d love to have her doing more and asked the vice president’s office to come up with plans for how to get her involved, according to people familiar with the conversations. Though the staffs are on multiple calls per week, West Wing aides are often left wondering why there’s not more follow through.
They’re putting the blame on Harris and her people.
Harris’ aides point out that Biden was never subjected to the kind of attacks she regularly endures — or to a toxic social media culture. In one recent example, a Republican super PAC tweeted a video inventing a claim that Harris spoke with a “fake French accent” at a stop during her trip to Paris, which was then picked up in some news outlets.
Okay, this is just ridiculous. Republicans have been making fun of Democrats for this type of thing for years. Remember Hillary Clinton’s fake Southern accent?
And I’m sorry, but did they not expect her to be criticized at all? What world are these people living in?
This is textbook narcissism, developing a persecution complex where you think the whole world is out to get you and you alone. A lot of these woke libs–especially the woke feminist libs–are massive narcissists with the thinnest skin imaginable. So self-absorbed and self-centered are they, whenever they get any criticism at all, they think they’re being treated unfairly and that everyone is conspiring against them.
And Kamala did bizarrely speak with a French accent in front of a bunch of French scientists. It is not an “invented” claim. Go to the 5:43 mark of this video:
Absolute buffoonery.
No wonder the Biden people want nothing to do with her. She’s out there talking like Steve Martin in the Pink Panther.
No wonder the Harris team is falling apart:
The DNC hired a contract consultant in part to help with the Harris portfolio. That has not been going well either, according to people familiar, with Harris’ staff usually only reaching out to ask for buffering tweets after problems or negative stories arise, rather than being more proactive. Meanwhile, Flournoy has been turned down by several others who’ve been unwilling to work in the office, and several people currently on staff have started to reach out to contacts to say they’re looking to leave, according to sources who’ve gotten the calls.
People don’t even want to work for her. Normally people would be fighting for a chance to work in politics, but not if the boss is Kamala Harris.
Anyway, it’s a really long article but the main point here is the Biden people and the Harris people are already leaking to the media to take shots at one another.
It’s already falling apart.