‘Not a healthy environment’: Kamala Harris’ office rife with dissent
There is dysfunction inside the VP’s office, aides and administration officials say. And it’s emanating from the top.
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.
No, Biden doesn't need this b.s.
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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. Harris jettisoned nearly everyone from that campaign and returned to the Senate in 2020 with her government staff and a small outside political operation in tow. When she was put on the presidential ticket, she was given a staff of mostly handpicked, trusted aides from Bidenworld. It did the job. The team avoided the spiral of internal backbiting.
The pressure-packed VP’s office has been a different story, and it hasn’t helped that few of her aides had any familiarity with their boss or her chief of staff when they started their jobs.
The morale level for current Harris staffers is “rough” and in many ways similar to the failed presidential campaign and her Senate office, according to the former Senate aide, who is in touch with current Harris staffers.
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Much of the frustration internally is directed at Tina Flournoy, Harris’ chief of staff...
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...
“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 shit.”
"|Abusive environment"! That's a very charged term! Careful.
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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...
In recent days, two top advance staffers, Karly Satkowiak and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, parted ways with Harris...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.”
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...some aides and allies are concerned Harris is being ill-served by stepping too far back and letting her political apparatus atrophy. Flournoy has summarily rejected the idea of Harris spending more time tending to her past relationships or capitalizing on her new post to create new ones, a move that people in the VP’s orbit view as short-sighted.
I must say I have thought similarly to the "aides and allies", Kamala is as invisible a vice president as I can remember.
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Every vice president has had to balance the demands of being a supportive second-in-command while also keeping an eye on future political opportunities. But Harris’ task is more complicated. It’s not clear whether Biden will run again in 2024—at which point she’d be the logical standard-bearer for the party. She also has felt an acute need to demonstrate her loyalty to Biden after working hard to earn it prior to being nominated as his veep.
For that reason, some outside allies acknowledged that Harris has gone out of her way not to engage in politicking—either subtle or overt—given the sensitivities among Biden’s own team.
And those are good points.
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What’s more concerning 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.
Really? I don't know if I buy that. Harris has never had "calm and order" in those around her. How would anybody know if she "excels" in a calm and orderly environment?