With Vice President Kamala Harris’s approval ratings cratering even below President Biden’s, and left-leaning media outlets like CNN running pieces on the “entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus” by the VP and her staff, White House Press Secretary came on Twitter late Sunday night to defend Harris.
“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,” Psaki said.
Symone Sanders, Harris’ senior adviser and spokesperson, also released a statement after the CNN story (Matt will have more on that today), calling it “gossip.”
"It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America's oldest ally and demonstrated U.S. leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip — not on the results that the President and Vice President have delivered,” she said.
The defenses didn’t stop there, with Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh and Assistant Press Secretary Rachel Palermo also chiming in.
"Honored to work for @VP every day. She’s focused on the #BuildBackBetter agenda and delivering results for the American people,” Singh tweeted.
"Proud to be on team @VP every single day," Palermo said.
As former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and others pointed out, Psaki's response is how you know the problems are serious.
You know it’s really bad…Concerned about the perception of the @vp (even @CNN is reporting it) the White Press press office had to issue this statement to reassure everyone that in fact @KamalaHarris is a “vital partner” - usually actions speak for themselves https://t.co/VRe2va7txK
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) November 15, 2021
Hahaha this is worse than saying nothing.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 15, 2021
Imagine the Game of Thrones machinations that took place for this to be the compromise tweet. https://t.co/s8PGyo1V8s
What must be going on behind scenes if they decided they had to put this out 9pm Sunday night? https://t.co/k60L0PTCcO
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) November 15, 2021
Kamala’s approval rating sits at 28%.
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) November 15, 2021
That’s a record breaker, with Harris beating out warmonger Dick Cheney and his record low of 30% set back in 2007. https://t.co/UiLfEmCHB1
Those were the BEST issues you could think of to tout for her?!pic.twitter.com/wdoTSdBcgN
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) November 15, 2021
This 9:20pm Sunday night post should reassure everyone about the amazing job VP Harris is doing, yes, Jen… https://t.co/HPrOjWBHaF
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) November 15, 2021