White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki touted Vice President Kamala Harris’ accomplishments on Sunday in response to her plummeting app...
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki touted Vice President Kamala Harris’ accomplishments on Sunday in response to her plummeting approval rating and a CNN report on the chaos unfolding in the vice president’s office.
“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 tweeted.
Psaki’s statement appeared to be a retort to CNN article published Sunday in which insiders said “exasperation and dysfunction” are common themes in the vice president’s office. Harris reportedly feels constrained in her job and is perceived to be in an idle position politically after being saddled with the intractable border crisis as her primary policy assignment.
Symone Sanders, senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, tweeted a rebuttal to the piece, shielding her boss from criticism.
“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.
Other Harris staffers posted on social media in solidarity with the vice president. Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh wrote, “Honored to work for @VP every day. She’s focused on the #BuildBackBetter agenda and delivering results for the American people.”
“Proud to be on team @VP every single day,” Assistant Press Secretary Rachel Palermo said.
The CNN coverage is not the first to highlight the problems consuming Harris’s office. In June, Politico interviewed 22 former Harris aides and current staff, concluding that the atmosphere in the Biden administration is tense and “dour” and “not a healthy environment.”
Harris’s approval rating fell to 28 percent in a USA Today/Suffolk poll released on November 7. Fifty-one percent of respondents to the poll disapproved of Harris’s performance while 21 percent are undecided.
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