We’ve seen what a mess Joe Biden is in office.
We see all the questions about his competence — sometimes, you wonder if he even knows what’s going on.
So that leads to natural speculation. What about the 25th Amendment? And what if Kamala Harris had to take over?
Well, bottom line? Kamala has her own issues, so it may be a legitimate question if she would be any better at all.
As we reported earlier, her office is in chaos.
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—.”
But as evidence of how bad it is, people are already looking for the door. And you know it’s bad when they want to give up positions being next to a lot of power.
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.”
DeFranceschi did not respond to a request for comment.
A third Harris aide who worked on her digital team, Rajan Kaur, left the staff after opting not to relocate to Washington from Brooklyn.
Now, these folks just started the job, so this concept that their departures were “long-planned” is just poppycock.
But it isn’t just about now. It’s a pattern, as Republican communications expert Matt Whitlock points out.
Haha oh my gosh it was “more than 50 current and former campaign staff.”
This from November 2019 has to be one of the most legendary “turn on the boss” stories ever written in American politics. https://t.co/r1KQSRB2Q9
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) June 30, 2021
The headlines at that time included ‘No discipline. No plan. No strategy.’: Kamala Harris campaign in meltdown.
We’ve seen how that chaos has translated with Guatemala/Mexico and ‘border’ trips that were fiascos. And one has to wonder if that’s part of the reason the travel advance folks are now gone. But the problem is obviously not them, they only just started since she came in, the problem has been extant long before that. It’s not their fault that Kamala Harris cackles and can’t competently answer a question. The problem is obviously coming from the top, with the environment that Harris is setting. If this is our choice vs. Creepy Grandpa Joe, we are up a creek without a paddle.
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