In recent weeks the Executive Branch has suffered a number of high-profile departures, the likes of which seem to suggest that times are hard in the East and West Wings.
The source of this negative vibe appears to be Vice President Kamala Harris, who leaves a trail of misery and depression in her wake.
Now, new rumors are emerging that put the Madam Vice President in a much more negative light.
A person who worked for Kamala Harris before she assumed the vice presidency told The Washington Post over the weekend that aides in her office had to endure a “constant amount of soul-destroying criticism.”
With last week’s announcement that Symone Sanders, Harris’ chief spokesperson, would soon depart, and with the expected exits of Peter Velz, the director of press operations, and Vince Evans, the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, the turnover in the vice president’s office has some Democrats concerned about her potential as a presidential nominee.
The staffers made it very clear that the issues were with Harris.
“It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” one former staffer told the newspaper. “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.”
Gil Duran, who worked in Harris’ office in 2013, when she was California’s attorney general, told The Post that the turnover in the vice president’s office pointed back to her.
“One of the things we’ve said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this and it’s her,” Duran, who left Harris’ office after five months in his role, told the newspaper.
The news comes as President Joe Biden is being saddled with historically poor approval ratings, and as the Republicans appear poised to take a big bite out of the Democrats’ minute congressional majority during the 2022 midterms.