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.
How many books would we have on this if it happened under Trump?
To journalists who wish to come talk to the staff to look further into this, I have only two things to say:
Do not come. Do not come.
How are people who are so bad at the basic schmoozing part of the job of being a top politician able to get so far? Like all you have to do is get drunk with people and promise them shit
I think she does fine to her bosses, but treats anyone with equal or lesser power like a stepping stone or garbage.
How are people who are so bad at the basic schmoozing part of the job of being a top politician able to get so far?
She's very good at schmoozing upwards. She's cultivated significant channels of west coast money into her campaign and towards her allies. And she makes for an excellent Token Hire, because her race and gender operate as a shield against criticisms of her horrible policies.
That she's a shitty amoral soulless bureaucrat might look like a problem up front. But consider that Harris is more than happy to pull the trigger on any number of bad policies so long as she gets her slice. "Fuck you, do what I tell you" is exactly the kind of demeanor you want in a party whip. She's there to bust balls, not make friends. And given how many times we've seen folks like AOC and Sanders kinda roll over against this administration, it seems like she's filling her role neatly.
This gives me a bit more optimism that Harris won't get the 2016 Hillary treatment in the 2024 primaries.
She dropped out before any primary in 2020. She has zero charisma and even the libs who just want to see a woman President liked warren or even Amy over her lol. She will absolutely eat shit if she has to face any sort of open competition
Exactly. The threshold question is whether she'll get the type of support she'd need to head off the competition early (as Hillary did in 2016). Hearing stuff like this makes me think that's less likely, this bit in particular:
Recently, a Harris friend personally reached out to Flournoy on behalf of one of the party’s top donors to try to arrange a brief meeting. They were ignored. The friend said it wasn’t clear whether Flournoy knew who they were. The donor also contacted Harris’ office personally to connect, and didn’t hear back for weeks. They eventually were told the VP was too busy to schedule some time.
“This is someone who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars—millions, even—for your boss and you’re just blowing them off?” the Harris friend asked. “Next time Kamala wants [them] for something, it’s like, ‘Hey, I couldn’t even get a call-back from your chief of staff!’”
A politician who doesn't respond to bribery. Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Kamala really is stupid if she's violating that rule. No wonder she's getting bad press, the people who bribed her aren't getting what they paid for. These are warnings to get back on track and comply.
And Biden dropped out of all his previous primaries before the primaries actulaly started. Don't underestimate what institutional backing can do.
He would have reasons to say that even if it weren't true, though. If he says he's not running in 2024 during the last election, that plays into the "Biden is a senile, doddering old fool" narrative. If he says it now, that plays into the same narrative, but also distracts from whatever he's trying to get done, ratchets up the incentives for people to run out the clock on his term instead of playing ball, and kickstarts the 2024 primary (which is the last thing you'd want if the goal is a Hillary-style coronation for Harris).
Maybe he's telling the truth, maybe he's not, maybe his aging will take this all out of his hands whatever he thinks.
Hey you wrecker, she is a girl-boss who earned her way to the VP nomination with (checks notes) 0% of the primary vote.
Sounds like any number of workplaces tbh. Someone up high deflecting blame isn't really extraordinary.
Also we had several books during the Trump admin that were sourced with former staffers and such, just like this. It's kinda weird to imply otherwise.
Plus, this is an interesting line that makes me wonder what the motive for these anonymous reports really is:
Others took to Twitter on Tuesday to push back on a CNBC report that said Flournoy’s role as a gatekeeper for Harris was roiling outside allies and big donors who have seen their access to her severely curtailed.
she could be president any moment and is so clearly an empty vessel that the jockeying must be intense
Also we had several books during the Trump admin that were sourced with former staffers and such, just like this. It’s kinda weird to imply otherwise.
I think that’s the opposite of what they’re implying. We had multiple books about the shit show of working in the Trump admin, they’re saying it’s a double standard that no one is doing this to Harris’ office.
I mean you're reading about it in Politico right now. Plus it's only been five months; Fire and Fury didn't come out until a year in.
I guess we'll see if this becomes a constant media narrative as time wears on, but I'm not holding my breath.
It's a shot across the bow, telling her publicly that she took the bribes, now she has to do what the donors want. Politico, FP.com, Washington Post, these are how these people communicate with one another when they feel the need to.
Should they make another Veep?
Kamala's campaign missteps, path to getting the VP nod, and being from California (kowtowing to Silicon Valley nerds instead of defense industry assholes like Selena Meyer) could give them a few seasons of material at least.
How many books would we have on this if it happened under Trump?
Don't think for a second that the Biden/Harris Administration will have any less than a dozen books discussing "What Went Wrong?"
But they'll all be written by establishment goons and DC gossips. So the answers will range from "Harris was too big of a leftist and she didn't listen to the Generals" to "Biden's wife showed a scandalous amount of ankle and not nearly enough cleevage".
I'm probably off base here but given how things are headed I feel like they might need to do better than that. They could run Stacy Abrams on a more 'left' critique of KamalaBiden for not being intersectional enough, but that this time will be different.
Abrams, for all her flaws, appears to be a damned good organizer.
I think Beto eats a lot of (often deserved) shit for his policies, but he's also the kind of guy who will just cruise around Harris County for a month pounding on doors until he gets his coalition or drops dead of heat exhaustion.
The thing that's so disgusting about Harris and Biden is that they've never seemed interested in any of that. They just hang out in their partisan fiefdoms, then swoop down and snatch the hard work out from under other organizers.
I don't think "They" will ever run Stacy or Beto. These candidates run themselves and try to leverage the value of their states to win concessions.
Those will come out after a loss, though. I don't think we'll get multiple books detailing in-house bickering in the middle of the Biden administration.
Those will come out after a loss, though.
The loss will come in the midterms.
Everyone will need to explain why Biden lost the faith of the electorate.
