Four of Vice President Kamala Harris’ staffers have announced they are leaving her “sinking ship”: Symone Sanders, her senior advisor and one of her closest aides; Ashley Etienne, her communications director; plus two others have who decided to call it quits after less than a year.
Joe Concha, a Fox News contributor, summed it up:
I guess when your boss’ approval ratings are at 28% and she’s polling even lower on her number one job — the U.S. southern border, where migrants continue to flow over, two million passing over this year [so far] — I guess I would leave, too, because this is a sinking ship.
Gil Duran, who lasted just five months on Harris’ staff back in 2013 — while Harris was attorney general of California — before quitting, said he’s not surprised. Writing in the liberal San Francisco Examiner last week, Duran said that those remaining are suffering under her bullying, her intense criticism, and her supercilious attitude. Although Harris is suffering from awful public approval, he said, “the people suffering more than Harris are her [remaining] staff members … who appear to be engaged in open warfare with their counterparts on President Biden’s staff.”
Following dozens of interviews with present and former Harris staff members, CNN said her office environment reflected “exasperation and dysfunction,” as Harris refuses to get involved in the daily minutiae of running the office and then sharply criticizes her staff’s efforts to portray her as successful and accomplished. Even her staunchest supporters, wrote CNN, “feel abandoned and see no coherent public sense of what’s she’s done or been trying to do as vice president.”
In other words, Harris is in way over her head. She’s only there because of her biology. Biden promised to name a woman of color to be his running mate during his presidential campaign. Apparently without checking her history as a U.S. senator or state attorney general, Biden selected her to capture what he could of the low-information voters who were impressed only with her gender and not her ability.
As Kimberly Ross, writing for the Washington Examiner, put it:
At a debate in D.C. [during his campaign for president], Biden declared he would “pick a woman to be vice president” if he won the nomination. His stated commitment to both gender and racial diversity was all but a tacit endorsement of his former opponent Harris.
The Senator [from California] filled the correct boxes in terms of biology and preferred resume, and many Democrats felt appeased by the inclusion of a younger, progressive counter and possible successor [to himself]….
She achieved [this position] merely by existing.
But skin color and gender are no substitute for the type of individual needed to fill the vice president’s slot — and perhaps the president’s as well. Said Ross: “Not being Trump doesn’t make one a competent executive fit to lead our nation.”
Her incompetence and inability to respond to crises became evident almost immediately. In May, Biden handed off the problem of illegal immigration (“migration” in DemSpeak) to his vice president and she did nothing for months. When pressed about why she hadn’t even visited the border, she simply laughed and stated that she hadn’t been to Europe, either.
As Ross noted:
Months later and no meaningful actions have been taken, the influx of migrants has increased, and conditions at the border and beyond have deteriorated.… The president … allocated a duty to his vice president, and things have only gotten worse….
When Harris finally did appear, it was only to spread a false media narrative that the border agents who were working on horseback to tame the massive crowds had attacked [them] with whips. Despite the demonstrable inaccuracy, Harris encouraged an investigation into this charge and decried the treatment of the migrant crowds.
Even before the departure of key members of her staff she was unable “to communicate effectively and judiciously,” said Ross. That explains the recent hiring of two troubleshooters and “fixers” — Lorraine Voles and Adam Frankel — in an attempt to right the ship before it disappears altogether.
Perhaps they will be able to prevent a repeat of the most outrageous and embarrassing incident that occurred in early October: the staged YouTube series about space exploration that Harris hosted with a group of young people. Within days it was learned that these young people were actually actors who had to audition for the roles. And — one cannot make this up — the company staging the façade is called Sinking Ship Entertainment.
Ross concluded: “The vice president is barely treading water in her current role and, as a result, belongs nowhere near the Oval Office.”
That explains the persistent rumor that Biden’s minders and handlers are working behind the scenes to rid themselves of this walking and talking embarrassment, perhaps by nominating her to the Supreme Court. Anything to keep the president’s ratings from dropping even further before the November midterm elections.
As the rule goes, when one finds himself digging a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. The Harris disaster cannot be fixed. If one is a Democrat, the Harris problem can only be remedied by replacing her with someone who actually has the skills, experience, and public persona to run the office without turning it into a laughingstock and a liability. If one is a Republican, he can enjoy the show.
