Kamala Harris reportedly has a new communications director. Who wants to bet on how long this one will last?
Based on the VP’s track record thus far, I’m guessing 90 days, tops.
Apparently, Harris selected longtime Democratic communications aide Jamal Simmons to fill the vacancy. Simmons replaces Ashley Etienne, who threw in the towel back in November amid several other high profile splits.
Fox news adds:
Harris’ chief spokesperson Symone Sanders resigned last month. Vincent Evans, who served as the vice president’s deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs for nearly a year, announced in a statement to CNBC this week he is leaving to become the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Peter Velz, director of Harris’ press operations, served his last day on the job on Thursday. He will be taking on a new role at the State Department and announced his decision to leave Harris’ office in November.
The departures followed a November CNN report that highlighted growing frustration within Harris’ office, as the vice president’s approval numbers continue to slide amid of string of gaffes during her first year in office.
In other words, it’s time Sista Girl starts praying. Because she needs someone to stick around and fetch her those coffees while she’s holed up in the office. Heaven knows Kamala’s not out on the streets, looking for solutions. She’s especially not down on the border.
Merely an Afterthought
Oddly enough, it has been suggested in recent days that Harris wasn’t actually important to Biden. For the past year, I’ve personally operated under the idea that Biden’s handlers cherry-picked Kamala to be the first female president by default. My theory, not that thousands of others didn’t come up with the same thought, is that Biden would run out of steam fairly early on, and he’d stroke out or be removed while Harris ascended to the throne.
However, turns out that Biden had the opposite thought. He needed Harris to smile and nod to seal the deal with Joe Manchin, and then to exit stage left like a good little girl, which she did.
According to the New York Times:
In Ms. Harris’s case, she came to the job without strong ties to key senators; one person briefed on the Oval Office meeting said it would be more productive if the discussion between Mr. Biden and Mr. Manchin remained private. It is unclear that the president had much sway on his own, either, given the senator’s decision this week to break with the White House over the domestic policy bill.
But without a headlining role in some of the most critical decisions facing the White House, the vice president is caught between criticism that she is falling short and resentment among supporters who feel she is being undercut by the administration she serves. And her allies increasingly are concerned that while Mr. Biden relied on her to help him win the White House, he does not need her to govern.
“I think she was an enormous help to the ticket during the campaign,” said Mark Buell, one of Ms. Harris’s earliest fund-raisers since her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. “I would like to see her employed in the same way, now that they’re implementing their objectives or goals.”
The urgency surrounding her position is tied to whether the president, who at 79 is the oldest person to hold the office, will run for re-election in 2024. He told ABC News on Wednesday that he would run again if he was in good health. But questions about Ms. Harris’s readiness for the top job are starting far earlier than is usual for an administration in its first year.
Oval Office Illusions
Sadly, the White House and Harris still try to paint the VP’s relationship with Biden as a partnership. But it can’t be all roses and sunshine when Harris is turning to people like Hillary Clinton to help her plan a path forward.
However, she’s yet to come up with an answer America is buying. Especially since the race card is Harris’ signature move. She’s quick to say that she’d receive positive press if she could manage to be a middle-aged white guy.
But it’s like my dad once explained to me. An egg is an egg. It doesn’t matter if it’s brown or white. The only thing that matters is whether it’s rotten or not. Take one sniff and you’ll know, Kamala Harris is as rotten as they come.
