Vice President Kamala Harris’ aides are beginning to criticize the Biden administration for not doing enough to help her presidential campaign, a new report says – as the Democrat slips in the polls less than a month before the election from November 5.
Despite the veneer of unity Harris and President Biden showed after Biden dropped out of the race, some of their staffers reportedly clashed behind the scenes.
Privately, several members of Harris’ team clashed with Biden’s White House staff, feeling they were not prioritizing his election bid enough, while some in the president’s orbit felt still angered by his ouster.
“The White House lacks someone in the room who thinks first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign,” a source involved with the Harris-Walz campaign told Axios.
As the Harris-Walz campaign grapples with a very close election, some in Harris’ orbit feel the White House did not calibrate the president’s schedule and messaging the way she wanted, Axios reported , citing 10 familiar sources.
“They are too in their feelings,” a Harris ally told the Biden White House outlet.
Just this month, Biden, 81, shocked reporters by giving his first-ever news conference in the White House briefing room as president, which some in Harris’ world said aspired to media oxygen from his rally in Flint, Michigan.
Last week, Harris, 59, argued with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) after reports emerged that his team turned down an offer to have a call with her following the hurricane Helene at the end of last month.
Biden then praised DeSantis’ work to prepare the Sunshine State for Hurricane Milton. He also had a call with DeSantis. All of this fueled conservative criticism that vexed Harris’ campaign.
Asked about the Axios report, White House principal deputy press secretary Andrew Bates pointed out to the Post that Biden endorsed Harris “immediately after leaving the race,” alluding to the president’s rejected calls for a mini primary to replace it.
“We have made significant changes to ensure that the vice president’s team has all the support and resources it needs,” Bates maintained, crediting the White House for “successfully executing an unprecedented transition to a new candidate.
Although a subset of White House staffers were alienated by the Democratic revolt that led Biden to withdraw from the race, some chose to throw themselves into Harris’ campaign.
A White House official familiar with the dynamic told the Post that Biden’s team recognizes “that the vice president and her team need the independence to run the campaign on their terms and that our goal is to provide a support when it is useful.
The official said the Harris-Biden administration is doing what it can “within the rules” to ensure coordination between the Office of the Vice President (OVP), the White House and the Harris-Walz campaign.
Several steps the White House is taking for coordination include having vice presidential staff members participate in strategy meetings and working to accommodate Harris’ travel schedule, according to the official.
“There are legal restrictions affecting details from the White House to the vice president’s office, so senior White House aides have worked hard to find effective alternatives,” the official added.
But past efforts by some die-hard Biden loyalists to beat back the mutiny against him over the summer are weighing heavily on Harris’s allies.
Famously amid this revolt against Biden, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty strongly insinuated that alternatives to him were less likely to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“Ultimately, we would look to candidates who polls show are less likely to win than Joe Biden — the only person to ever beat Donald Trump,” Flaherty wrote at the time.
Harris has so far fiercely resisted pressure from top party strategists who have implored her to publicly contrast the policies of the unpopular Biden.
“Nothing comes to mind,” Harris said last week on ABC News’ “The View” when asked if she would have done anything differently during her boss’s presidency.
“And I was involved in most of the decisions that had an impact,” she continued, before later clarifying that one difference she will have with Biden is that she intends to have a Republican in the Cabinet.
These comments gave ammunition to the Trump-Vance campaign given Biden’s lackluster approval ratings.
Conversely, Biden has been emphatic in his praise of Harris, saying at the Democratic National Convention in August that choosing her as his vice president was “the best decision I’ve made in my entire career.”
Notably after delivering a speech on the first night of the convention, Biden took off on an extended getaway that lasted about two weeks.
Ultimately, once Harris rose to the top of the ticket, her position against Trump became more competitive than VBiden’s poll numbers had been.
The Post has contacted the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.
