AThe rescue operation of the White House started now: while Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, praises Kamala Harris and his team, even a former president takes the field, Bill Clinton, who paints an extraordinarily positive portrait of Tina Flournoy, the woman who became the right-hand man of the vice president of the United States after a long political career in the Democratic party that began in the 1990s in the Clinton White House where she was chief of staff. Ma the case that’s rocking Harris’s unclosed office, after the anonymous revolt of several members of the team of collaborators who, interviewed by the site Politico.com, spoke of a conflictual and disorganized work environment, an unbreathable climate.
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Many people note that things don’t have to go smoothly if, a few months after the new administration takes office, Harris has already been abandoned by two of his closest associates, while the director of digital activities also resigned. And someone remembers that it is not the first time that Kamala appears ineffective on an organizational level: two years ago too his presidential campaign team falls apart before the primaries even start between disputes, accusations of ill-treatment and the unexpected, rapid depletion of electoral funds, probably badly spent. Last year it was then recovered by Biden, who put it on his presidential ticket.
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In short, it rains in the wet for the vice president, attacked from the right and from the left for how it is managing the immigration emergency illegal immigrants (the objectively prohibitive task entrusted to her by Biden): from the trip to Mexico and Guatemala (the right accuses her of being ineffective, the left criticizes her invitation to return home to migrants from Central America) to her recent mission in Texas, on the border of El Paso. A visit that would have been decided too late (94 days after Kamala’s appointment as immigration czar) and perhaps just so as not to be overtaken by Donald Trump, who also went to Texas a few days later.
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That trip was too the detonator of the clash in the vice president’s team. Second Politico.coma few days after the trip, no one, not even those who had to organize it, knew that she would go to El Paso. A decision criticized by many because, choosing the most peaceful border point rather than the most problematic ones like the collection centers in McAllen or Tucson, Arizona, Harris gave the feeling of being a media parade rather than a truly operational mission.
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The 22 assistants and former assistants of the vice president interviewed by Politico.comattribute organizational disasters and tensions in Tina Flournoy which, with the intention of protecting her, would have isolated the vice president and made communications difficult. Then, when something goes wrong, Flournoy would always be ready to shift all responsibility onto some subordinate. Symone Sanders, the Harris spokesperson, defends Flournoy and claims her muscle management: We certainly don’t stand here drawing rainbows and bunnies all day, while for us black women everything is getting harder.
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There is certainly some truth in these defenses, also because Harris was given a lot of challenging tasks (in addition to immigration also the defense of electoral rights, space, digital networks and work) and his team, unlike that of Biden, small and with few experienced people. But clear that behind the attacks there is also the malaise of some democratic circles convinced that Harris would not be able to put together an electoral coalition as broad as the one built by Biden, if the president fails to reapply in 2024.
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July 3, 2021 (change July 3, 2021 | 22:20)
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