OPINION:
Let’s just say the French accent didn’t, uh, help.
Kamala Harris (remember her? She’s the one who said Joe Biden was racist before joining his ticket and becoming his vice president) is imploding like SN 2018gv (a star in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525 that self-detonated in a supernova and then, poof, disappeared).
Finally, after a year of doing almost nothing, the mainstream media this week finally took notice of the notable nothing burger and penned some very unpleasant pieces about Kamala.
On Sunday, a pair of CNN reporters wrote an article headlined, “Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris’ frustrating start as vice president,” which cited dozens of staffers in Ms. Harris’s office and the White House saying the veep is in deep trouble — and actually has been for a long time.
“With many sources speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation more frankly, they all tell roughly the same story: Harris’ staff has repeatedly failed her and left her exposed, and family members have often had an informal say within her office. Even some who have been asked for advice lament Harris’ overly cautious tendencies and staff problems, which have been a feature of every office she’s held, from San Francisco district attorney to U.S. Senate,” the reporters wrote.
The Daily Mail chimed in with this: “Joe Biden’s relationship with Kamala Harris is in crisis, with her staff furious that she is being ‘sidelined,’ while the president’s team are increasingly frustrated by how she is playing with the American public.”
For the record, Ms. Harris has plunged to a 28% approval rating in one recent poll, the lowest in modern history.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Ms. Harris is, as CNN said, citing White House sources, being “sidelined.”
“Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers — who spoke extensively to CNN — reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned and instead is being sidelined.”
“The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden’s team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president,” CNN said.
After the report came out, the White House immediately circled the wagons, with Press Secretary Jen Psaki taking to Twitter to put the administration’s spin on the saga.
“For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country — from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband,” Ms. Psaki tweeted. Pshaw. How’s she doing on the whole border crisis Mr. Biden assigned her to handle?
It didn’t help that Ms. Harris spent the last week abroad, at one point making headlines for gushing over pots and pans she bought in Paris. While on the trip, the veep — just like the veep played by Julie Louis-Dreyfus in veep might do — feigned a phony French accent (for the record, the French [itals] really [end itals] that).
Politico, founded by two former Washington Post reporters, headlined a piece, “Kamala Harris goes unnoticed in Paris,” which noted she attended a closed-door dinner and held no local media interviews.
All the hubbub led to rumors inside the Beltway that Biden was planning to jettison the deadwood and pick a new vice president.
A passage in the CNN story said this: “Defenders and people who care for Harris are getting frantic. When they’re annoyed, some pass around a recent Onion story mocking her lack of more substantive work, one with the headline, ‘White House Urges Kamala Harris To Sit At Computer All Day In Case Emails Come Through.’ When they’re depressed, they bat down the Aaron Sorkin-style rumor that Mr. Biden might try to replace her by nominating her to a Supreme Court vacancy. That chatter has already reached top levels of the Biden orbit, according to one person who’s heard it.”
That small “rumor” prompted the Mail to write: “Harris’ approval rating has plunged even further than Biden’s in recent months, with rumors swirling that the president is considering appointing her to the Supreme Court as a backdoor method of selecting a new VP.”
During the 2020 campaign, there were reports that Mr. Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, planned to serve only one term — a stance he later muddled. But with Ms. Harris crashing and burning — after just one year — the party may begin reconsidering whether she is the one to replace Mr. Biden.
And Ms. Harris is certainly not helping her own cause.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.