Vice President Kamala Harris has failed to live up to her preelection hype and has fumbled requests from President Joe Biden’s chief of staff to increase her profile to help the boss, according to a key insider.
Author Chris Whipple, given incredible access inside the Biden White House, said that Harris has had difficulty stepping into her role as vice president, becoming nearly invisible at a time she’s needed in public most.
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Promoting his latest book, about the first two years of the Biden presidency, Whipple said that outgoing Biden chief of staff Ron Klain gave Harris a choice of five vice presidential models when she was elected with Biden.
“She chose the Barack Obama-Joe Biden model. It hasn’t quite worked out that way,” he told a book signing event Monday night at Washington’s Politics and Prose Bookstore. “I don’t know why she’s had such difficulty stepping into that role,” he added.
He described Harris as something of a disappointment and “gun shy,” possibly due to criticism from some of her first efforts, including a fumbled trip to Guatemala at a time when she was supposed to be taking the role of immigration and border czar, which she shunned.
“When I ask people about Kamala Harris, they almost universally say, ‘What’s she doing? Where is she?’” said Whipple, whose new book is titled The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House.
He added, “That’s not because the White House has muzzled her. It’s because, for whatever reason, maybe she felt early on that trip to Guatemala that was awkward and she had some criticism. Maybe she’s just gun shy.”
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Klain, he said, has repeatedly encouraged Harris to engage more. “Ron Klain has told her repeatedly, ‘You can’t score runs from the dugout.’ He’s encouraged her to get out there and be higher profile, and she hasn’t,” said Whipple, who said he had incredible access to Klain and Biden’s top team during his two-year book project.
His comments follow multiple stories about the underperforming Harris and concerns in Democratic circles that she’s not ready for the top job.
