Relations between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ teams is far from the united front they try to project, according to excerpts of a new book from New York Times reporters.
The excerpts, first reported by Politico, detail a fraught relationship between senior staffers for Biden and Harris, with the latter’s complaining of being handed impossible tasks while Biden’s camp say Harris’ unpopularity is no ones’ fault but her own, according to Politico. The book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” is authored by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.
The book also claims that First Lady Jill Biden was skeptical of Biden’s decision to select Harris as his running mate during the 2020 presidential election. It is not the first report that Harris and the First Lady have a difficult relationship. (RELATED: ‘Do People Just Not Want To Work For Her Anymore?’ Doocy Presses Psaki On On Staff Leaving Kamala Harris)
“Speaking in confidence with a close adviser to her husband’s campaign, the future First lady posed a pointed question. There are millions of people in the United States, she began. Why, she asked, do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?” Martin and Burns claim.
President Joe Biden, right, and First Lady Jill Biden, left, walk to host the 44th Kennedy Center Honorees at a reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S, December 5, 2021. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
Senior-level staff on Biden’s team reportedly shared the First Lady’s skepticism. Communications Director Kate Bedingfield reportedly went after Harris in private conversations for being incompetent.
“In private, Bedingfield had taken to noting that the vice presidency was not the first time in Harris’s political career that she had fallen short of sky-high expectations: Her Senate office had been messy and her presidential campaign had been a fiasco. Perhaps, she suggested, the problem was not the vice president’s staff,” the book claims.
Bedingfield pushed back on the report in a Monday statement to Politico, however, offering a hearty endorsement of the Vice President.
“The fact that no one working on this book bothered to call to fact check this unattributed claim tells you what you need to know,” Bedingfield told Politico. “Vice President Harris is a force in this administration and I have the utmost respect for the work she does every day to move the country forward.”
The excerpts from the book come less than a day after Harris had her 10th top-level staff member resign since June 2021. Nancy McEldowney announced her resignation in an internal staff memo first obtained by Reuters on Monday.
In addition to McEldowney, those who have left include: Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary; Symone Sanders, chief spokeswoman; Peter Velz, director of press operations; Vincent Evans, deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs; Rajan Kaur, head of digital strategy; Karly Satkowiak, director of advance; Gabrielle DeFranceschi, deputy director of advance; Ashley Etienne, communications director; and Kate Childs Graham, head speechwriter.