OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
People inside Kamala Harris’ office have described an office that is in chaos and her decision to finally visit the United States and Mexico border had blindsided some.
Her aides and supporters were texting each other for days about the political repercussions of the potential trip when suddenly the trip was announced, Politico reported.
The handling of the border visit was the latest chaotic moment for a staff that’s quickly become mired in them. Harris’ team is experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials. Much of the frustration internally is directed at Tina Flournoy, Harris’ chief of staff, a veteran of Democratic politics who began working for her earlier this year.
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.
While much of the ire is aimed at Harris’ chief, two administration officials said the VP herself also bears responsibility for the way her office is run. “It all starts at the top,” said one of the administration officials, who like others requested anonymity to be able to speak candidly about a sensitive matter.
“People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it’s an abusive environment,” a person that Politico claims knows how her office works, said. “It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s—.”
The report said that members of Joe Biden’s staff have noticed and are concerned about how members of Harris’ team are treated.
But Harris’ spokeswoman Symone Sanders defended Harris and said the claims are unfounded.
“Black women like me would not have the opportunity to work in politics without Tina.” She said before speaking of those who have complained anonymously, “People are cowards to do this this way.”
“We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘welcome to the club,’” she said. “We have created a culture where people, if there is anything anyone would like to raise, there are avenues for them to do so. Whoever has something they would like to raise, they should raise it directly.”
But some say that some staffers are looking for other jobs and others have already quit. Two top staffers, Karly Satkowiak and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, recently quit their positions of Harris’ staff in what officials say were long planned.
DeFranceschi, the deputy director of advance, quitting the job was because of a “difference in opinion on how things should run,” a person who said they have knowledge of the situation said.
“If you have an opinion about how things should run and it’s not listened to, that can be frustrating,” the person said.
Biden senior advisor Anita Dunn said that the trip to the border was kept secret from many because they did not want it to become a spectacle.
“It was closely held and there may be people whose feelings were a little hurt on her staff that they weren’t brought into the discussion,” she said. “But any suggestion that it was mishandled or kept a secret from people who needed to know about the arrangements or needed to know about it is absolutely not true.”
Leah Daughtry, who has worked with Flournoy and other black women in Democrat politics for decades, defended Flourney.
“Look, [Tina’s] strong, she’s intelligent, she’s driven, and she expects strong, intelligent, driven people around her,” she said. “But some people may find strong, driven, smart people intimidating, but I think that’s more projection than reality because that’s just not Tina’s intent or style. And nothing in her experience would lead you to think that she’s an intimidating person.”
But someone who worked with Flourney when she was former President Bill Clinton’ chief of staff after his presidency said that the power can intoxicated her.
“People who Clinton knew for decades all of a sudden couldn’t get through to him because Tina choked off contact,” the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. “Because Clinton didn’t use email”—he only used his BlackBerry to communicate with family, close friends and a handful of aides—”she was able to keep many FOBs [friends of Bill] out.”
The person said that Flourney is doing the same in keeping others away from Harris.
“She’s been in public life for 30 years. F—. You don’t just all of a sudden go radio silent,” another aide said.
“She is the most perceptive person on the planet,” they said. “She might not have first-hand knowledge, but it’s hard to imagine she doesn’t have a sense of what’s going on.”
This is not the first time a Harris staff faced accusations of dysfunction. Days before Harris announced the that she as ending her bid for the presidency during the Democrat primaries, Iowa operations director Kelly Mehlenbacher, penned a vicious resignation letter directed at the Harris team.
“This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,” she said. “While I still believe that Senator Harris is the strongest candidate to win in the General Election in 2020, I no longer have confidence in our campaign or its leadership.”
