Kamala Harris has a lengthy history of treating staff poorly, dating back to her days as a local district attorney in San Francisco to when she served as California attorney general and her time in Washington, D.C., as a senator and President Joe Biden’s VP. And now, it’s becoming a campaign issue for her as she appears on a glide path to secure the Democratic nomination.
In particular, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is raising concerns about Harris’ documented struggles with keeping staff, telling Fox News that “nobody lasts very long” while working for her and that “how she treats people around her is a real indication of what she’ll do in the future.”
McCarthy made the comments during an appearance on “Life, Liberty & Levin” this week, when he said, “Nobody lasts very long. Even as VP, when she didn’t do anything, she could not keep staff. That is a person that the press will never talk about… How she treats people around her is a real indication of what she’ll do in the future.”
He added, “It is known in California, and it’s known in Washington. It is a heroic work environment if you work for her.”
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The former Speaker added: “When she got elected to the U.S. Senate, I was the Majority Leader. I reached out to meet with her. Not once would she meet with me. If I talked to the Democrats inside the California delegation, they didn’t care for her because she would not meet.”
The former California House Republican’s comments follow a report from OpenTheBooks.com, which describes itself as a “government watchdog organization,” in which the group revealed last week that Harris is facing a 91.5% staff turnover rate within the Office of the Vice President.
The organization, referencing payroll records, reports that as of March 31, 2024, only four of the original 47 staffers from Harris’ first year as vice president in 2021 remain employed without interruption. Additionally, it notes that 24 staff members left in the year leading up to that date. Currently, Harris reportedly has 50 staffers working for her.
Overall, Harris’ staff turnover rate of nearly 92% exceeds President Biden’s rate of 77% and former President Trump’s rate of 72% during the first four years of their terms, according to OpenTheBooks.com.
“It’s always been a problem,” one former Harris aide was quoted telling The Hill in 2022. “You have to have your people around you.”
Another former staffer added, “Politics is about relationships, especially the relationships with the people around you. I think there’s a lot of improvement needed there.”
In a past op-ed for The Union newspaper, the father of a former intern for then-California Attorney General Harris emphasized his son Gregory’s “eye-opening experience” while working for her, an experience that “none of us expected.”
“Senator Harris vocally throws around ‘F-bombs’ and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day,” Terry McAteer wrote.
“As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, ‘Good Morning General,’” he added, mentioning how “Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members.”
Several former staffers of Harris unloaded on their one-time boss last week, describing her as a “bully” who often left people in tears after berating them in degrading tirades.
The staffers, who spoke to author Charlie Spiering for the UK’s Daily Mail, described her as a “soul-destroying bully,” which led to unprecedented levels of staff turnover.
Dating back to 2010, when she served as California attorney general, she was known then as running a “toxic” work environment. One professor at the University of California-Sacramento, Barbara O’Connor, told the biographer that several of her students who interned for Harris “frequently came back to her crying and saying that they ‘felt they weren’t valued,'” according to Spiering.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
