Vice President Kamala Harris, once seen as the obvious choice to succeed President Biden, is so bad at her job that the first family and key aides are freezing her out of major decisions and consider her ability to help the president’s agenda “a joke.”
According to a new biography, Amateur Hour, the president and first lady have been so stand-offish that they have yet to host a family dinner for Harris and second husband Doug Emhoff and the president has reneged on his promise to have weekly lunches with his No. 2.
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Just as telling, according to author and political journalist Charlie Spiering, top White House aides including Biden Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre felt Harris’ office management style so abrasive that they took less important jobs initially inside the administration.
And three separate efforts by the president’s team to prop up his vice president have failed.
“Vice President Kamala Harris is still in the same place despite multiple attempts at narrative resets and on-the-job training,” wrote Spiering, who has reported for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart.
“Washington, D.C., is cruel. Once you are found unworthy, there is little you can do to change people’s minds. In my time spent reporting for this book, I was surprised to learn how few Democrats even like Harris, let alone respect her -- unless they are personally invested in her success. Mistakes compounded on mistakes only cemented her reputation and there is little room for sympathy when you reach that level of power. There’s plenty of negative chatter behind the scenes, but few dare speak publicly, for fear of being branded a racist or a sexist,” he added.
In Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House, published by Simon & Schuster’s Threshold Editions and due out Jan. 23, Spiering reports that while some would like to ditch Harris, doing so would hurt Biden’s reelection chances.
And while she has failed to complete tasks given her by Biden, including immigration reform and gun control, aides feel she also hasn’t hurt him -- though she’s undermined her chances at the brass ring.
For example, it was hoped she would help Biden in legislative fights in the Senate, where she served. But, wrote Spiering, she never built credibility in the Senate because she was more focused on using the office to run for president.
“The idea that Harris was going to use her powers of persuasion to help get Biden’s agenda through Congress was a joke to Biden’s team,” he wrote in the book shared with Secrets. He added that Biden has had successful wins in Congress “despite Harris, not because of her.”
In his book, Spiering recalls Harris’ early days in politics, her relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, her elections to state attorney general and the U.S. Senate.
He also recalled many of her so-called “word salads,” awkward laughs, over-cautiousness, and political fights.
But it is her relationship with the first family and her failure to elbow into their inner circle that gets the spotlight.
Spiering, for example, notes that first lady Jill Biden wanted former Obama national security aide Susan Rice to be Biden’s vice presidential pick.
The president also hoped for a different relationship. “When they started, Harris and Biden appeared eager to demonstrate the beginning of a buddy relationship. Biden wanted someone he could work with, joke with, and bounce ideas off of, just as he believed that he and Obama had,” wrote Spiering.
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But the Biden team had other ideas for the first woman of color to be vice president. “Harris was essentially frozen out from the president’s inner circle. Biden and his team had already achieved their goal of winning, using Harris’s identity to ‘make history’ and inspire voters to pull the aging presidential hopeful across the finish line. But when they took office, Harris was sidelined. Despite Biden’s promise to make Harris a full partner in everything, Harris began the job literally standing behind Biden,” said Spiering.
The jelling of Harris and Biden just never happened. Consider the simple effort of hosting a dinner for each other.
“Despite her love of cooking, Harris has yet to host the Bidens at her home for dinner," he wrote, adding, "The Bidens have not welcomed Harris and her husband to the White House for a personal dinner either.”