The knives are out. It’s drowned out now that cash is pouting into the Democratic Party coffers once Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 race, but it’s there. There’s infighting within the Biden family after the president’s brother, Frank, said health concerns likely influenced his brother’s decision to drop out. In return, other members of the family, through their sources, leaked that Frank shouldn’t be trusted because he’s a recovering alcoholic—what a family. Now, Biden’s orbit is leaking details about why the soon-to-be ex-president felt Kamala Harris didn’t have the chops to be president.
It's ironic in the extreme since Joe never had what it took, though Harris has political problems that burrow down to a microscopic level. In his heyday, Biden might have had diarrhea of the mouth, though I could see him having no problems having dinner with donors and some of the nation’s biggest media names. Harris reportedly becomes engulfed in anxiety. In one instance, Harris was set to meet with a DC media mogul, and the jitters became so overwhelming that her staff had planned to hold a mock dinner to calm her down. Axios had a lengthy story, along with the resurrection of the Harris work environment, which is so toxic that no one could ostensibly work there for at least 20,000 years [emphasis mine]:
President Biden hesitated to drop his re-election campaign in part because he and his senior advisers worried that Vice President Kamala Harris wasn't up to taking on Donald Trump, according to three Biden aides familiar with recent talks about his plans.
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Harris' time as vice president has been occasionally rocky, defined in part by large staff turnover, retreating from politically risky responsibilities, and mocking from some Beltway insiders. Much of Harris' staff has turned over in the past 3½ years.
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Former Harris aides told Axios the high turnover is partly because of how the vice president treats her staff. Some former aides said Harris had high standards that some did not want to keep up with, but others felt that she frequently grilled them the way she grilled Trump officials, such as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when she represented California in the U.S. Senate.
Former aides often refer to it as Harris' "prosecuting the staff."
During the 2020 campaign, Biden aides recall watching Harris interrogate her then-chief of staff Karine Jean-Pierre to the point that it made others uncomfortable.
After the election, Jean-Pierre moved to the White House's press team.
A person familiar with the matter said Biden told Jean-Pierre that she was only "on loan" during the campaign and that her move to the White House was always part of the plan.
The intrigue: The relationship between the vice president's office and the West Wing has often been tense. White House aides sometimes felt Harris wasn't a team player and stayed away from any task with risk. But some Harris aides felt that the White House, particularly top aide Anita Dunn, wasn't helpful to the vice president.
At times, Harris aides suspected Biden's team didn't want to give Harris opportunities to shine to avoid her being seen as a viable alternative to Biden ahead of his re-election bid.
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Harris has been cautious and reluctant to participate in events that weren't tightly controlled, Harris and Biden aides said.
In 2022, the White House internally pushed Harris to be the headliner for D.C.'s traditional Gridiron Dinner, but she resisted. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo did it instead.
Harris has faced race-baiting from some conservatives, and at times has focused on critical coverage of her in ways aides have found unhelpful — like when she has watched Fox News' "The Five."
In April 2022, Harris was the guest for a dinner at D.C. news mogul David Bradley's home — a salon-style event Bradley hosts with Washington journalists and newsmakers.
Harris' anxiety about the dinner was such that her staff held a mock dinner beforehand, with staffers playing participants, according to two people familiar with the event. Harris aides even considered including wine in the mock prep so Harris could practice with a glass or two. They ultimately decided against it.
Biden and Kamala are one in the same. They both own the same failing record; it’s just one is easier at taking Democrats’ money now. Harris doesn’t poll better than Trump, and some commentators have noted Harris’ strength in making the case against Trump regarding his legal entanglements, which are coming apart due to its naked partisanship from local district attorneys and the Justice Department. It’s an issue with zero credibility with most voters, so I don’t know why Democrats think they should waste time on this matter. I’m not complaining if they do, but if any damage were to have happened to Trump from these cases, it would have occurred eons ago.
With less than 16 weeks to go, Democrats face obliteration at the polls, and Harris isn’t some super-star pick either. She’s more like a sacrificial lamb, which is why no Democrat, especially the governors, wants any part of this rat ship in 2024.
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