Joe Biden Has a Kamala Harris Problem
Source: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Has "where's Kamala?" replaced "where's Hunter?" The vice president was supposed to visit the southern border, which is in chaos. It took her over 90 days to do so, and it coincided around the time of Donald Trump's visit. That's just bad optics. What the hell was she doing? Well, if this is true about her office, I can see how a lot is missed. It's a total clown show. Reportedly, it's staffed with monsters who are experts in one thing: destroying morale.
The top dogs there take credit for the good and blame others when things go south. It's a story that's been replayed many a time in other workplaces as well. Yet, this dysfunctional family picnic is soon going to spill over into other areas involving the president, so Biden will soon have a Kamala Harris problem. He probably already does.
Politico alleges that there is a cone of silence that insulates the VP, built by her top staffers who often ignore input from others or cruelly dismiss it. Two advance staffers bolted reportedly over this dynamic in what appears to be a toxic office environment (via Politico):
The handling of the border visit was the latest chaotic moment for a staff that’s quickly become mired in them. Harris’ team is experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials. Much of the frustration internally is directed at Tina Flournoy, Harris’ chief of staff, a veteran of Democratic politics who began working for her earlier this year.
In interviews, 22 current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden described a tense and at times dour office atmosphere. Aides and allies said Flournoy, in an apparent effort to protect Harris, has instead created an insular environment where ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out. Often, they said, she refuses to take responsibility for delicate issues and blames staffers for the negative results that ensue.
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.
[…]
…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. In recent days, two top advance staffers, Karly Satkowiak and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, parted ways with Harris in what they and Harris officials said were long-planned departures, a point disputed by two other people familiar with the matter.
For DeFranceschi, the deputy director of advance, the departure came down to a “difference in opinion on how things should run,” according to another person familiar with the matter, who said that Harris’ office is run “very different” from the Obama operation, where DeFranceschi previously worked. “If you have an opinion about how things should run and it’s not listened to, that can be frustrating.”
Again, these are anonymous sources, but there is history that can be applied here. If this operation sounds familiar, it's because it's almost a retread of Harris' disastrous 2020 campaign. This ship hit the iceberg moments after it left port and much of the criticisms lobbed about VP Harris are the same ones that were hurled at candidate Harris. Politico also covered this trainwreck:
As the California senator crisscrosses the country trying to revive her sputtering presidential bid, aides at her fast-shrinking headquarters are deep into the finger-pointing stages. And much of the blame is being placed on campaign manager Juan Rodriguez.
After Rodriguez announced dozens of layoffs and re-deployments in late October to stem overspending, three more staffers at headquarters here were let go and another quit in recent days, aides told POLITICO. Officials said they’ve become increasingly frustrated at the campaign chief’s lack of clarity about what changes have been made to right the ship and his plans to turn the situation around. They hold Rodriguez responsible for questionable budget decisions, including continuing to bring on new hires shortly before the layoffs began.
Amid the turmoil, some aides have gone directly to campaign chair Maya Harris, the candidate’s sister, and argued that Rodriguez needs to be replaced if Harris has any hope of a turnaround, according to two officials.
“It’s a campaign of id,” said one senior Harris official, laying much of the blame on Rodriguez, but also pointing to a leaderless structure at the top that’s been allowed to flail without accountability. “What feels right, what impulse you have right now, what emotion, what frustration,” the official added. The person described the current state of the campaign in blunt terms: “No discipline. No plan. No strategy.”
This account is based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former staffers as well as others close to the campaign, including donors. The sources were granted anonymity to speak freely about the turmoil within the organization and protect them from repercussions.
"No discipline. No plan. No strategy"—sure sounds like how she's handled everything Biden has tasked her with quarterbacking since he was ushered into office. Harris has been propped up by the liberal media as some whiz kid, some overwhelming political force when in reality, she's simply not great. The evidence? Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Deval Patrick, Tulsi Gabbard, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Michael Bennet had more staying power than Harris 2020 in the primaries—and some of these names are absolute jokes. Harris couldn't tread water with this crew.
We have a president who is asleep 80 percent of the time and a VP who cannot manage anything except losing staffers and creating a toxic workplace.
"America is back"? Maybe if you're on the crack pipe like Hunter.
Rep. Jim Banks: In Order to Stop the Border Crisis, the GOP Must Win Back the House
Source: @RepJimBanks/Twitter
LA JOYA, Texas — Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, led a delegation of Republican Study Committee (RSC) members to the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley for President Donald Trump's visit to the region as the immigration crisis continues.
While on the ground on Tuesday night, I showed the congressional members the area in La Joya where illegal immigrants often show up to turn themselves in to Border Patrol or local law enforcement. When we arrived at the area just past 11:30 pm, migrants had already shown up and were being processed by Border Patrol.
Banks told Townhall that because it is much easier to see people illegally crossing into the United States in the Rio Grande Valley, he thinks that was a factor in why Vice President Kamala Harris decided to go to the El Paso Sector instead.
"But this tells the real story. El Paso doesn't tell the full story. I'm sure she received some briefings in El Paso, but she's not going to see firsthand the humanitarian crisis that she and the Biden administration has caused from January 20 forward," Banks said.
Banks explained that while Republicans are in the minority in the House, the best thing they can do is to bring attention to the crisis so the American people can see the effects of Democratic leadership. It is because of the degrading situation at the border, along with the secondary and third effects further in the United States, Banks is confident Republicans will take back the House in 2022, which will enable them to address the surge.
"Let me say, first and foremost, Republicans have never been more unified than they are at the moment about securing the border...we are more unified today than we've ever been on that front. When we get the majority back in the midterm, hopefully, we get the majority back in the Senate, it gives us the leverage so we can negotiate with President Biden to do something to address the crisis that's going on right now at the border," Banks said. "Right now, Democrats have no interest in securing the border and dealing with the crisis here. They've turned a blind eye...and they will continue to do so until they're forced by the opposing party to do something about it. That can't happen until we get the majority back."
Illegal immigrants continued to show up throughout the night while the congressional delegation was present in La Joya. Some members were able to talk with the unaccompanied children to find out where they came from, which included countries such as Honduras and Guatemala.
With Mrs. Biden playing at being Veep, it’s important to her to sideline the actual Veep. It helps that Jill, who isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, is still sharper, and apparently even more vicious, than Kamala. I would almost feel sorry for Kamala if I didn't dislike and disrespect her and her politics as much as I do.
WATCH: Kamala Harris Is ‘Misleading America’ on the Border, Says Texas Governor
WESLACO, Texas — Governor Greg Abbott, sitting alongside former President Donald Trump, told former senior Department of Homeland Security officials, Texas sheriffs, and Members of Congress on Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris is misleading America with respect to the ongoing border crisis.
“She’s misleading America.” Abbott declared. The Governor went on to say that the only place to solve the crisis is at the border. Abbott was critical of the Biden Administration’s plan to address poverty and crime in Central America. Abbott went on to say that if Harris is successful in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the nation will still need to address illegal migration from the other 147 countries arriving at the southern border.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott escorts former President Donald Trump on a tour of the Texas border. (Photo: Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
In addition to deploying more than 1,000 Texas Highway Patrol Troopers and Army National Guardsmen, Abbott issued state of emergency declaration asking for other states to assist with border-related issues.
Abbott said that many states, including Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Ohio, Arkansas, and Georgia have already responded by sending law enforcement or National Guard assistance.
“Just know that the people of Texas and people of America,” Abbott said. “Thank you for stepping up and providing your resources to help secure the border, knowing full well that what comes across the border does not stay at the border in fact it goes to your states and other states across the entire country.”
Abbott told President Trump that during Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement officers have already arrested nearly 1,800 people for criminal violations of state law.
The governor said this is in addition to: “40,000 apprehensions of people who’ve come across the border illegally, and they have busted 41 stash houses.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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.
She got her leg up in politics by serving as Willie Brown's mistress. After that, she got cozy with Barack Obama. She was pals with unlikeable Hillary Clinton.
Ezra Klein admits it: Kamala Harris is incompetent
Not for the first time, Ezra Klein, a youthful hipster leftist writer favored by the elites, has said more than he probably intended to.
Get a load of this from Fox News:
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein feels President Biden is making life too difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris and feels she should be given simpler tasks to enhance her reputation, but critics on both sides quickly found problems with his argument.
"Kamala Harris will probably be the Democratic nominee in 24 or 28. Biden's team should be giving her portfolios that make it likelier she'll win. Instead they're giving her impossible problems that will likely become liabilities," Klein tweeted.
Which is exactly the same as saying she should be put at the little table. She should be given training wheels. She should be praised for her finger-paint pictures.
She's not up to the job.
Which is an amazingly idiotic thing to say since he wants to make her president anyway. Why should someone who can't achieve presidential tasks be president at all? Someone who can't solve the border crisis and isn't even trying, is, in his book, somehow meant for bigger things.
His idea though, is to give her smaller tasks? The way it's done when some incompetent is demoted? Wow.
Harris is a textbook case of someone in C. Northcote Parkinson's observation who's reached her "level of incompetence," a level she reached long ago actually. She's been promoted and promoted, and now she's unable to do her job with any leadership, so she's set to stay just where she is under normal conditions. Achievers get bigger tasks. Underperformers get lesser ones, that's human behavior in any organization. Even bin Laden only promoted the best, from his point of view. China and Russia, whose leaders rule by holding onto power, wouldn't dream of anything as stupid as this.
Ezra, though,would. By his statement, he seems to be seeking a kakistocracy, rule by the worst instead of the best with his call to give Harris little tasks more suited to her limited ability.
After all, Klein seems to think the border surge is intractable. Never mind that President Trump solved it with one hand tied behind his back as leftists gummed up his every effort to fix it with their junk lawsuits and obstructions. Trump fixed it anyway, with great determination, in a model of competent crisis management.
It was only Joe and his idiocies undoing all that Trump achieved that brought the mess we are in. Latin American presidents, in Mexico, Guatemala and elsewhere have repeatedly pointed out this very fact.
Solving the crisis can be done very easily by restoring Trump's achievements. But Harris, who is a cog in the administration that created the problem, somehow can't do it. So now the problem is claimed by Klein and others to be "impossible" which is beyond Harris's capabilities.
Harris actually has no capabilities and the reason for that is clear enough: Every step up the rung of her political ladder was based on sucking up to some older man, not performing well in some job or another.
She got her leg up in politics by serving as Willie Brown's mistress. After that, she got cozy with Barack Obama. She was pals with unlikeable Hillary Clinton. She was always looking for her next job, as those in her circle have told the press. Now that there's just Joe, with his vindictive wife Jill probably leaking on her (as Andrea Widburg in this terrific post noted), those tactics don't work anymore. She's out of tricks now, but holds the strategic high ground. She's now Biden's apparent chosen successor, so there's no getting rid of her. She's just waiting now for the passage of time to have the presidency handed to her, which explains her lack of interest in accomplishing anything serious.
So she doesn't have a single success to her name. Her successes are in charming older men to get better jobs, not in governing well with a track record to show for it.
So now Klein wants her to have some little tasks, in order to claim some kind of record of achievement. He knows there's a problem. yet he's convinced she must be president anyway, perhaps to make him feel virtuous for electing a "historic first."
He can't bring himself to admit that maybe Kamala herself is the problem. And now it's getting embarrassing.
Report: Kamala Harris is an awful boss
Vice President Mike Pence may be in the doghouse with conservatives but no one can say there were stories that he was a bad boss or that his office was chaotic, mismanaged, or incompetent. Things are different with Kamala Harris. According to an article in Politico, Harris’s office sounds like the real-life version of Veep, the HBO political satire that focused on the stupid, self-centered, and vicious Selina Meyer, a Vice President whose office was filled with slavish gatekeepers and self-centered staff, all of whom were incompetent. The story rings true. What's more interesting is contemplating why Democrats are going after Harris.
Here are a few of the most biting paragraphs from the Politico article, which begins by discussing how Harris’s staff felt completely blindsided by her sudden announcement that she was heading for El Paso:
The handling of the border visit was the latest chaotic moment for a staff that’s quickly become mired in them. Harris’ team is experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials. Much of the frustration internally is directed at Tina Flournoy, Harris’ chief of staff, a veteran of Democratic politics who began working for her earlier this year.
In interviews, 22 current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden described a tense and at times dour office atmosphere. Aides and allies said Flournoy, in an apparent effort to protect Harris, has instead created an insular environment where ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out. Often, they said, she refuses to take responsibility for delicate issues and blames staffers for the negative results that ensue.
[snip]
“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---.”
[snip]
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.
[snip]
Harris’ staff struggles are nothing new. People who have worked for her in the past describe days as “managed chaos.” “The boss’ expectations won’t always be predictable,” said one former Harris Senate aide.
Her presidential campaign operation imploded in a painful maze of finger-pointing and leaks.
The article offers the usual excuses, everything from jealously to misperceptions to people’s inability to work with strong women or strong Black women (Flournoy is Black).
I have no doubt that the accusations are true. Thanks to good advice from her former paramour, Willie Brown, and to her being a female minority, Harris’s career has seen her consistently land in roles that exceed her abilities – and there is no boss worse than an insecure one.
What’s more interesting than Kamala’s obvious leadership failures, including within her own office, is why Democrats are attacking her. The article makes plain that many of the attacks are from the Biden side of the White House:
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.
Perhaps Biden’s team is protecting him against a 25th Amendment ouster by making the point that Kamala would be even worse in the Oval Office than Joe. This could also be coming from Jill Biden, who not only despises Kamala but is apparently trying to slot herself into an administrative role that leaves no room for Kamala.
In the Vogue cover story about the frumpy Mrs. Joe Biden (aka Jill the Adulteress), we get this interesting statement:
The role she’s fulfilling on these visits is, in many ways, neither first lady nor professor but a key player n her husband’s administration, a West Wing surrogate and policy advocate.
With Mrs. Biden playing at being Veep, it’s important to her to sideline the actual Veep. It helps that Jill, who isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, is still sharper, and apparently even more vicious, than Kamala. I would almost feel sorry for Kamala if I didn't dislike and disrespect her and her politics as much as I do.
This is the stuff of great soap operas (and funny satiric comedies), but it’s a helluva way to run a country.
IMAGE: Kamala Harris. YouTube screen grab.
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