We reported earlier this week on how yet another big wheel has fallen off the Kamala Express, this one in the form of Harris’s senior adviser and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders.
Ms. Sanders’ resignation along with comms director Ashley Etienne resigning last month are just two of several that have shaken up the VP’s office in recent weeks as the bad press keeps rolling in, with rumors swirling of a growing rift between Harris and President Biden, something that appeared to be obvious during a joint appearance at a pre-Thanksgiving D.C. soup kitchen where Biden seemed to snub Harris.
What’s behind the resignations? Officially, the people who are stepping down have painted things as all wine and roses, but as has been previously reported about Harris even going back to well before she became Biden’s second in command, the real issues are likely much less sunny and far more embarrassing than anyone is willing to go on record to admit.
The reports have come out fast and furious since Harris was sworn in about how exceedingly difficult some former and current staffers say she has always been to work with beyond the standard rough and tumble one can expect working in the office of a high-profile politico (turnover among campaign staff during her failed 2020 presidential bid was said to be very high).
But the Washington Post filed a story today that stumbled upon what Harris’s biggest issue is, in my opinion, and it’s one that not even her crisis comms manager will be able to fix.
The problem? Harris lacks authenticity in a big way. Take a look at this nugget of information:
Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared.
“It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” one former staffer said. “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why.”
In other words, Harris can’t be bothered to do due diligence on anything she speaks publicly about. She expects to be able to spout off common talking points and buzzwords that make the media and the “woke” left salivate, and when she ends up getting embarrassed about it later, it’s the hard-working staffers behind the scenes who get punished.
She popped off half-cocked about Jussie Smollett. She did the same thing with the Minnesota rioters bail fund. She did the same thing with the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. I’d bet money that she literally did not have the first solid fact in hand when she commented on those situations. Because it didn’t and doesn’t take deep dives into any of those topics (nor her numerous other hot takes that ultimately did not age well) to see that maybe she should have read up a little more on what she was commenting on before speaking on the subjects.
Even a casual observer who isn’t a political junkie can simply watch her as she speaks to see how the lack of authenticity shines through. Her words sound scripted, fake, and she oftentimes comes across as ill-informed on the matter she’s being asked to address.
Let’s go back to that smackdown she gave Joe Biden during the first Democratic presidential primary debate revolving around the busing issue. The media predictably swooned and swayed and she enjoyed a brief rise in the polls, but it wasn’t long after that that her numbers began tanking, especially once it became obvious that the “that little girl was me” line she used during the debate against Biden was scripted. Black voters who supported Biden when he was Obama’s VP didn’t appreciate it, as it turned out.
Weeks later, Tulsi Gabbard tore into her during that infamous second debate moment, calling her out on national TV over her troubling record as a DA and state prosecutor in California, something that prior to that was not widely known by Dem voters. Not long after that, core Democrat groups were polled (women and back voters) and her support dropped by double digits. Not even the voters who were “expected” to support her were willing to do so. At that point, her inauthenticity had been fully exposed – by other Democrats and Democrat-friendly news outlets.
It also doesn’t help that it’s not exactly a secret that Harris’s rise to political stardom in the state of California came as the result of a well-documented affair with a very well-connected married man (former SF mayor Willie Brown) who was several decades older and who even wrote in an early 2019 column after she’d declared her candidacy that he had greased the wheels that helped put her professionally on the path to success in state politics.
People can get angry with me for stating that inconvenient fact, but as Ben Shapiro says, facts don’t care about anyone’s feelings.
Harris’s team is fond of blaming “racism and sexism” for the criticisms she’s been hit with over the last several months, but as I’ve said before, Kamala Harris has consistently been her own worst enemy and she continues to be. This is what happens when one’s career starts off the way Harris’s did. You begin to expect to be given preferential treatment as you climb the ladder and treated to fawning interviews in the press because of “who you are” and what you supposedly represent from a “historical” perspective.
As it turns out, being the “first” whatever really doesn’t amount to a hill of beans to the average person, especially if you keep demonstrating that not only are you really, really bad at what you do (which Harris often does) but also that you’re about as genuine as a $3 bill. The vast majority of Harris’s problems are self-inflicted, especially the authenticity issue, something even the Biden White House apparently realizes considering the talk swirling about dumping her in 2024.
Sorry not sorry, Kamala Harris. Your political woes are all on you.