Kamala Harris’s Office Reportedly Plagued By Dysfunction and Low Morale: ‘People Feel Treated Like Sh*t’
After interviewing 22 current and former staffers, officials, and associates of the president and vice president, Politico reporters paint a picture of “a tense and at times dour office atmosphere” for aides to Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a piece published on Wednesday night, Harris’s office is portrayed as a morale-killing and occasionally dysfunctional place that lacks effective communication.
“People are thrown under the bus from the very top,” said one source with knowledge of office politics among the vice president’s aides. “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—.”
Moreover, the situation is “pronounced enough that members of the president’s own team have taken notice and are concerned about the way Harris’ staffers are treated.”
Sources for Politico depicted Harris chief-of-staff Tina Flournoy as an overzealous gatekeeper who sometimes shuts out close associates and donors. “This is someone who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars — millions, even — for your boss and you’re just blowing them off?” said one unnamed Harris friend. “Next time Kamala wants [them] for something, it’s like, ‘Hey, I couldn’t even get a call-back from your chief of staff!’”
The article noted that for some who know Harris closely, the office dysfunction is part of a trend whereby Harris has endured serious staff overturn as a politician. Some current aides are looking for other work. Recently, Harris lost two advance staffers and an aide who opted to stay in New York rather than move to Washington, D.C. Representatives for Harris said two of the departures had been long-planned, but people familiar with the matter disputed the claim.
Harris senior advisor and spokesperson Symone Sanders dismissed concerns about office drama, saying, “What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘Welcome to the club.'”
