XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.obama, soc.culture.kenya   
   XPost: atl.general   
   From: traitors@nytimes.com   
      
   Top White House officials are mobilizing to defend Vice   
   President Kamala Harris amid a gusher of leaks about dysfunction   
   and infighting in her office.   
      
   Driving the news: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told   
   Axios in a statement: "The President's trust and confidence in   
   her is obvious when you see them in the Oval Office together."   
   Biden senior adviser Cedric Richmond said in an interview late   
   Thursday night: "It’s a whisper campaign designed to sabotage   
   her."   
      
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   Details: Their responses came after Axios approached the White   
   House with new reporting about growing tensions between West   
   Wing officials and the Harris team, including chief of staff   
   Tina Flournoy.   
      
   Some White House officials have been frustrated by a series of   
   missteps from Harris and increasingly public bickering in her   
   orbit, which spilled out in a Politico story on Wednesday.   
   Flournoy's old boss, former President Bill Clinton, came to her   
   defense with a statement calling her "an extraordinary person."   
      
   Why it matters: 2024 is the elephant in the room. While Biden   
   aides overwhelmingly believe he'll be the Democratic nominee,   
   they also know he'd be 81 when seeking re-election.   
      
   An operation sometimes visibly out of sync with Biden's — and   
   missteps during a recent trip to the U.S.-Mexico border,   
   following a scrutinized interview with NBC's Lester Holt — have   
   reignited questions from Harris' 2020 primary bid.   
      
   Harris would be the presumptive nominee if Biden didn't run.   
   Administration sources believe it would be nearly impossible to   
   unseat the first African American woman vice president.   
      
   Yet many Democrats, including some current senior administration   
   officials, are concerned she could not defeat whomever the   
   Republican Party puts up — even if it were Donald Trump.   
      
   One Democratic operative tells Axios' Alayna Treene that most   
   Democrats aren't saying, "'Oh, no, our heir apparent is f***ing   
   up, what are we gonna do?’ It's more that people think, 'Oh,   
   she’s f***ing up, maybe she shouldn't be the heir apparent.'"   
      
   Some Democrats close to the White House are increasingly   
   concerned about Harris’s handling of high-profile issues and   
   political tone deafness, and question her ability to maintain   
   the coalition that Biden rode to the White House, sources tell   
   Axios' Hans Nichols.   
      
   What we're hearing: Relations between the West Wing and the Vice   
   President's office are tense.   
      
   Several administration officials used "shitshow" when describing   
   Harris' office, and contrast her operation with disciplined,   
   virtually leakproof Biden aides.   
      
   Some Biden officials view the Harris operation as poorly-managed   
   and staffed with people who don't have long-term relationships   
   with her. They feel she's gotten bad advice from her press and   
   communications shop and think it's telling that she's already   
   lost two advance aides and a digital director.   
      
   Case in point: A few months ago, what should have been a no-   
   brainer of a press request came to the vice president's office.   
   Forbes wanted to feature Harris on the cover of its "50 Over 50"   
   issue — saluting her rise to be the "first woman, the first   
   Black person, and the first South Asian-American to become U.S.   
   vice president."   
      
   After concluding that Flournoy had been sitting on the request —   
   a characterization that an aide to the V.P. flatly disputes,   
   explaining that she was simply nailing down details before   
   sharing it with a larger White House circle — ultimately the   
   West Wing intervened to get an answer for Forbes.   
      
   The vice president ended up participating — and getting glowing   
   treatment. But Biden advisers couldn't understand why it had to   
   be this hard, people familiar with the incident tell Axios.   
      
   What they're saying: Harris' senior adviser, Symone Sanders, and   
   deputy chief of staff Michael Fuchs defended Harris and   
   Flournoy. Harris' team notes the president has entrusted the   
   V.P. with a portfolio that includes voting rights, migration   
   from Central America, space, labor, broadband, small-business   
   assistance and women in the workforce.   
      
   "People are not fighting every day," Sanders said. "There's not   
   consternation among aides. That is not true. ... I hear that   
   there are critics. Those who talk often do not know and those   
   who know usually are not the ones talking."   
      
   Fuchs dismissed criticisms of Flournoy and Harris as "rumors"   
   and "not true," and said they've shown integrity and leadership   
   as the pandemic added more hurdles to an already difficult job.   
      
   Klain praised Harris and her team as "off to the fastest and   
   strongest start of any Vice President I have seen," and said   
   "her talents and determination have made a huge difference"   
   already.   
      
   "She’s delivering for the American people on immigration, small   
   business, voting rights, and economic growth," Klain said. "The   
   results speak for themselves: a decline of border arrivals from   
   the Northern Triangle, improved vaccine equity, and increased   
   economic opportunities for women."   
      
   Richmond called Harris a "staunch advocate for the Biden-Harris   
   agenda," and said demand for her participation in events remains   
   high.   
      
   He said no one's brought complaints about her or her team to   
   him. And he said it's unfair to compare any vice president's   
   staff to a president's staff — much less Biden's team, which   
   includes some advisers who've worked for him for decades and   
   served in three White Houses.   
      
   "You can’t hold the vice president's team to that standard,"   
   Richmond said. "But I think they’re good, I think they’re   
   busting their tails and I think the VP is executing all her   
   assignments and taking on her issues."   
      
   Of the narrative against Harris, he said: "At some point it just   
   becomes, one person says something long enough and it becomes an   
   urban legend. It doesn’t have to be credible. It doesn’t have to   
   be real. Someone says something and it can just snowball."   
      
   "Not one named person. That’s what bothers me most. We’re in a   
   day where the stakes are high. You’d just hope if there’s a   
   legitimate criticism they’d put their name next to it."   
      
   https://news.yahoo.com/whisper-campaign-white-house-mobilizes-   
   094509923.html   
       
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)