By Kyle Becker | Becker News
The White House has descended into open rebellion after a Kamala Harris hit piece on the Bidens was published by CNN on Sunday. The bitter feud has now claimed a casualty from the Harris camp: The Vice President’s Communications Director Ashley Etienne.
“Kamala Harris’s communications director Ashley Etienne is leaving the vice president’s office after reports staff are in-fighting and her boss is being sidelined,” the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
“Etienne, a former staffer to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, joined Harris’ team shortly after the election,” the report said. “At the time she said she would stay only a year. Vanity Fair first reported the news.”
Etienne is leaving in December to “pursue other opportunities,” the White House told the publication.
“Ashley is valued member of the Vice President’s team, who has worked tirelessly to advance the goals of this administration,” the official added.
There has been serious talk going around Washington D.C. that Kamala Harris may soon find herself “pursuing other opportunities” so the Biden team can get her out of the White House.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, who I know would not repeat idle gossip and would only report Capitol Hill developments with strong corroboration, recently told Jesse Watters there are “whispers” that “high profile confirmation hearings” may soon be coming to the House of Representatives.
As Watters points out, the House of Representatives does not typically confirm presidential nominees — that job is usually handled by the Senate. It does confirm vice presidential nominees, however.
Amidst the leak war between Harris’s team and Biden’s team, Chad Pergram pointed to the conjecture about the uncertain future of Kamala Harris, given such events at the botched introduction on the White House (as earlier reported at Becker News).
Chad Pergram, who is an avid buff of Congressional process and mechanics, disclosed that he received a message from a well-informed insider that told him he should familiarize himself on the process to confirm a “vacancy for the Vice President in the Senate and in the House.”
The mainstream media reacted to the report as Fox News ginning up ‘speculation’ over Kamala Harris’s future. But such reports did not originate with Fox News. After CNN’s recent exposure of the Biden-Harris rift (that Becker News has been reporting for months), the Daily Mail reported there was talk of the White House seeking a Supreme Court seat for Harris to get her out of their hair.
“Harris’ approval rating has plunged even further than Biden’s in recent months, with rumors swirling that the president is considering appointing her to the Supreme Court as a backdoor method of selecting a new VP,” the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
It should not be overlooked that Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently embattled in a controversy over targeting concerned parents as ‘domestic terrorists’ and potentially committing perjury in Congressional testimony over it. Harris, the former California Attorney General, might be presumed as a potential fit in the high profile position.
White House Press Secretary has tried to quell such rumors. On Monday, Psaki said that reports that Harris was “unhappy” and looking for a “cushy role” are unfounded.
“There have been a lot of reports out there and they don’t reflect his view or our experience with the vice president,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at Monday’s press briefing.
“The president relies on the vice president for her advice, for her counsel,” Psaki continued. “She’s somebody who’s not only taking on issues that are challenging, she’s not looking for a cushy role here – no vice president is, not president is.”
CNN’s piece is said to have come from “nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials.” The Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers “spoke exclusively to CNN.” The entire piece smacks of a torrent of leaks from inside the Harris inner circle.
It should be noted that the bitter infighting between the Harris and Biden camps goes back even before the presidency. Beyond the infamous Democratic primary debate scene where Harris insinuated Biden was racist and Jill Biden reportedly told her backstage “go f*** yourself,” Biden’s allies tried to stop Harris from becoming VP to begin with.
“Some of Joe Biden’s allies are waging a campaign behind the scenes to stop Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., from becoming his vice president,” CNBC reported in July 2020.
“This disgruntled group of at least a dozen Biden backers, including a few of his top donors, initiated the move against Harris close to a month ago, just weeks before a decision is expected, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter,” the report continued. “Many who spoke to CNBC declined to be named as these efforts have been made in private.”
The report cites Biden backers’ complaints about Harris that seem to be prescient in hindsight.
“Some remain bitter about her attacks on Biden during primary debates last year, saying they bring into question her loyalty to the former vice president,” the report added. “Others argue that she’s too ambitious and that she will be solely focused on becoming president herself.”
The CNN story, that again, appears to be leaked from the Harris camp, makes no secret about the VP’s presidential ambitions, and seems to even contain a thinly veiled threat.
“Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined,” CNN reports. “The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden’s team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president.”
Those signs of disloyalty continue to be percolating up repeatedly with Harris, even if she is ‘hugging it out’ with Joe Biden in public, just like she did earlier with Jill Biden after the “go f*** yourself” kerfuffle.
The CNN piece appears to make a cryptic warning that Biden may get the political ’86’ if it fails to yield to the Harris camp’s demands. (Lest anyone should forget, there were 25th amendment mentions prior to the 2020 ‘election’.)
“She’s a heartbeat away from the presidency now,” the piece adds. “She could be just a year away from launching a presidential campaign of her own, given doubts throughout the political world that Biden will actually go through with a reelection bid in 2024, something he’s pledged to do publicly and privately. Or she’ll be a critical validator in three years for a President trying to get the country to reelect him to serve until he’s 86.”
Members of Kamala Harris’s inner circle are not even waiting for the vice president to be pushed out of the White House. It looks like they are taking it upon themselves to get out while they still can.
Author: Kyle Becker