Former Harvey Weinstein Adviser Defends Kamala Harris From Charges of Staff Abuse
VP's office described as 'place where people feel treated like s—t'
Evidence continues to mount in support of the Washington Free Beacon‘s assessment that Vice President Kamala Harris will never become president by winning an election. According to a THE POLITICO report published Wednesday, the VP's office is a woefully mismanaged hellhole of abuse and recrimination.
As a sign of how dire the situation has become, the White House wheeled out former Harvey Weinstein "damage control" adviser Anita Dunn to defend the VP against the allegations from nearly two dozen Democratic sources, including current and former Harris staffers. The situation was "not anywhere near what you are describing," Dunn told THE POLITICO.
MORE: Biden Taps Harvey Weinstein ‘Damage Control’ Adviser Anita Dunn for Senior White House Role
The situation being described is rather harrowing. "People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses, and it's an abusive environment," said one person with knowledge of Harris's management style. "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—t."
The White House has reportedly taken notice of the dysfunction in the VP's office and has grown concerned. That could explain the decision to deploy Dunn, a former public relations lobbyist who provided "damage control advice" to Weinstein in 2016 after media reports exposed his long history of sexual predation.
While Dunn is speaking to reporters on the record, however, other administration officials have been trashing Harris on background, blaming the dysfunction in her office on the VP's inadequacy as a leader. "It all starts at the top," one said, anonymously.
The morale among current Harris staffers is reportedly "rough," a situation familiar to those who worked on her failed presidential campaign, described in THE POLITICO as having "imploded in a painful maze of finger-pointing and leaks." Former staffers described Harris as a boss whose "expectation won't always be predictable," and their work environment as one of "managed chaos."
The bombshell report is merely the most recent piece of evidence implicating Harris as a substandard politician who will never win a national election. Whether it's her inability to take a coherent position on a given issue or her weird habit of laughing like a maniac in response to basic questions, Harris does not appear to have what it takes to succeed outside her deep-blue home state of California.
A New York Times columnist recently described Harris as having "clear potential as a national leader." The Free Beacon‘s fact-checking department gave that claim a rating of 3.5 Clintons, or "mostly false."
Professional pundits often wonder if President Joe Biden will seek a second term in 2024. Given the VP's glaring deficiencies as a politician, perhaps they should be asking: Will he keep Harris on the ticket?
More Than 500K Illegal Immigrants Crossed Southern Border Since Kamala Harris Named ‘Border Czar’
Vice President Kamala Harris finally visited the southern border, three months after being put in charge of solving the immigration crisis. In that time, more than half-a-million illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border.
Upon arriving in El Paso on Friday, the vice president continued to attack journalists for asking questions about why she waited so long to make the trip. "It's not my first trip, I've been to the border many times," Harris snapped, apparently referring to previous visits she made as a senator.
Since President Joe Biden made Harris his "border czar" on March 24, illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border at a record rate of nearly 180,000 per month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
CBP agents apprehended 178,854 illegal immigrants at the southern border in April, which at the time was the highest monthly figure since April 2000. At least it was until the following month, when CBP agents apprehended 180,034 illegal immigrants attempting to enter the country.
When the CBP data for June is reported next month, the total number of illegal crossings since late March is likely to surpass 500,000, which would mark a tremendous increase compared with last year. During that same three-month period (April-June) in 2020, CBP apprehended just 73,392 illegal immigrants. The 2020 numbers were likely deflated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but CBP reported just 146,210 illegal border crossings for that same three-month period in 2018, significantly below this year's figure.
Harris has come under fire for not taking the border crisis seriously. She has on several occasions laughed like a maniac in response to questions about her refusal to visit the border until now. During an interview with NBC's Lester Holt earlier this month, Harris falsely claimed "we've been to the border" and attacked the journalist for asking about it.
"This whole thing about the border. We've been to the border. We've been to the border," Harris said, contrary to the facts.
When Holt pointed out that she had not, in fact, been to the border, Harris lashed out in a manner unbecoming of an elected official. "I—and I haven't been to Europe. And I mean, I don't—I don't understand the point that you're making," Harris said.
The vice president's decision to finally visit the border is unlikely to silence Harris's critics who contend that she is a terrible politician who has no idea what she's doing.
Biden Admin Releases 10K Unaccompanied Alien Children into U.S.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues the rapid pace of releasing unaccompanied alien children (UAC). A Wednesday HHS report notes the Biden Administration released 10,189 to sponsors in the U.S. throughout June.
The number of UACs in federal custody dropped from a high of nearly 23,000 in May to 15,550 on Wednesday, due in part to the speed at which they are being released. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas deployed a volunteer workforce from multiple federal agencies to assist HHS to quickly process, transfer, and ultimately release the UACs to sponsors.
One Member of Congress believes the Biden Administration should seek out professionals to deal with the children. In a statement released Wednesday, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) highlighted the border crisis in the House Appropriation Committee’s first full markup for Fiscal Year 2022.
Gonzales spoke in support of Congressman Ken Calvert’s (CA) amendment requiring an emergency declaration from the president before deploying federal employees to the southern border:
Every day I’m on the border. Every day I see unaccompanied children, by the thousands, that are left alone. Regardless of their legal status, these are innocent children, and we cannot have volunteers taking care of these children. We have to have professionals. In El Paso, there is 1,600 unaccompanied children at Fort Bliss, 120 of which have been there for greater than two months. This is a national crisis that deserves the attention if we are going to solve this, beyond just pushing a political football around.
The flow of unaccompanied migrant children is still in full swing. As HHS released the UACs to sponsors in June, more than 8,000 more were apprehended and placed in Border Patrol custody–resulting in marginal reductions to the total number of UACs detained.
Health and Human Services opened more than a dozen Emergency Intake Sites to deal with the influx of migrant children. These facilities make use of vacant oilfield man camps, buildings, and COVID-shuttered convention centers.
These unlicensed facilities faced criticism due to insufficient staffing, drinking water issues, and COVID-19 protections. Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sharply criticized the Biden Administration over conditions at multiple HHS detention facilities, specifically citing a water issue in Midland plus a COVID-19 outbreak in Carrizo Springs.
HHS estimates the cost to detain a child in Emergency Intake Sites is $775 per day. In other long-term facilities, they indicate that cost to be approximately $275 per day. Based on these estimates and the number of UACs currently in custody, the cost to the American taxpayer stands at nearly $6 million daily.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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