A damning report, a pushback and a possible crisis in the White House — the ride for US President Joe Biden just got bumpier amid an alleged clash with his deputy Vice-President Kamala Harris, who scripted history with her elevation to the post but has been lying low since the historic feat.
In an explosive report, CNN claimed key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Harris and her staff — deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns.
The exasperation, however, runs both ways, with interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers revealing 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.
So, what is cooking in the White House?
Biden’s falling popularity
For his first seven months, Biden didn’t have a popularity problem. He never enjoyed the 60% levels Barack Obama began with, but he started comfortably above his divisive predecessor, Donald Trump. Replacing Trump’s bombast with calm, ramping up coronavirus vaccinations and rushing pandemic relief checks through Congress, the new President steadily drew approval from more than half of Americans.
That changed in midsummer. The unexpected resurgence of the pandemic, the resulting economic slowdown, the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and congressional infighting over Biden’s economic agenda dragged his standing underwater.
According to CNN polls from April to November, his largest declines in approval came among Democrats and Democratic-leading independents. But Democratic inclinations hardly guarantee those voters will swing back in Biden’s direction. Regaining the allegiance of former supporters may be tougher than winning them over in the first place; presidential approval ratings fall more easily than they rise.
A ‘struggling, passive’ harris
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, CNN reported.
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. Harris is 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.
It’s a conundrum unique to her. People are expecting their historic vice president to make history every day when in fact she’s trying to carry the duties of a secondary role. Harris is being judged not just by how she’s doing in the traditional duties of a vice president, said Minyon Moore, a longtime Democratic operative who has become Harris’ most important outside adviser. “It’s a little more subliminal, but it’s real,” Moore said. “‘What is her playbook in history?'”
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.
A forgotten aide?
Harris has also complained to confidants about not being a greater part of the President’s approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal — despite telling CNN at the time she was the last one in the room when he made the decision — leaving her without more to draw on when she defended him publicly.
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.
“Kamala Harris is a leader but is not being put in positions to lead. That doesn’t make sense. We need to be thinking long term, and we need to be doing what’s best for the party,” said a top donor to Biden and other Democrats, imagining how to make the case directly to the President. “You should be putting her in positions to succeed, as opposed to putting weights on her. If you did give her the ability to step up and help her lead, it would strengthen you and strengthen the party.”
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. And though Harris has told confidants that she has been enjoying a good working dynamic directly with Biden, those who work for them describe their relationship in terms of settling into an exhausted stalemate.
New partner for Biden?
As Harris grapples with a portfolio of seemingly intractable issues and responsibilities that have drawn her away from the national spotlight, other Democrats have raised their own national profiles, Politico reported.
Though the expectation remains that Biden will mount a re-election bid, Democratic operatives are preparing for the possibility that it won’t materialize, noting Biden’s grim 2022 midterm prospects and his age — he’d be 86 years old at the end of any second term. Biden has also said he wants to be a bridge to the next generation, which has fed routine speculation that he could bow out to make way for a younger Democratic candidate.
Typically, the person at the other side of that bridge would be the vice president. But less than a year into her time in the executive branch, more than a dozen Democratic officials — some affiliated with potential candidates — say that Harris is currently not scaring any prospective opponents.
Harris’ office is keenly aware of these sentiments, Politic said, and the landscape ahead of her. They continue to insist that she is only focused on being “Joe Biden’s Joe Biden” — a strategy that could endear her to both Biden and his political network and potentially pay off with a Biden endorsement, should the time come.
White House attempts to douse fire
“For anyone who needs to hear it,” said the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, Harris “is not only a vital partner to [Joe Biden] but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country – from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.”
There appears to be a growing visible distance between the leaders as their joint appearances together dropped from 38 in February to just seven in October amid Biden’s rapidly declining poll numbers, the New York Post reported.
A former adviser for Harris told the Los Angeles Times that the vice president is allegedly annoyed that “she hasn’t been given any all-star portfolio,” adding that Biden and Harris are divided by a lack of trust.
The White House denied this, telling the Daily Mail the daily public schedule does not tell the whole story as the two often have meetings that are not on their offices’ daily guidance. The White House has also said the president and vice president meet weekly for lunch.
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