Sources close to the White House report an ongoing rift between President Biden and his staff and Kamala Harris and her staff – with issues tracing back to the initial weeks following Harris’ nomination by the Democratic Party.
The squabbles have ranged from whether Biden’s main surrogates should continue going on TV or be replaced with new Harris surrogates, to debates over whether Biden is undermining Harris’ messaging. Other issues have included complaints from the Harris camp that the White House has not moved quickly enough to add staff to the vice president’s office to help deal with the bigger workload. The revelations surfaced in a new report Axios published Sunday.
“Everyone from the president on down knows how important the election is, and we always anticipated a number of staff would want to transition from the administration to the campaign for the final stretch,” a White House official told Axios. However, simultaneously, the White House has been frustrated over the Harris camp’s rules around who can be moved to her office and when, other sources inside the White House told Fox News.
Meanwhile, Biden staffers have also reportedly felt dejected over Biden’s exit from the race, sources said, forcing them to play second fiddle to the vice president.
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“They’re too much in their feelings,” a Harris ally close to the campaign, told Axios.
One example of Biden not adequately coordinating his message and schedule, cited by Harris campaign aides, came on Friday. Biden held an impromptu press conference from the White House to update the American public on the government’s hurricane relief efforts. Meanwhile, Harris was campaigning in Michigan at the same time, and the dueling events served to effectively lessen the number of eyes on Harris.
Biden was supposed to be out of the country that day, but he reportedly felt it imperative to stay back and oversee response efforts to Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
The infighting did not stop there, either. Last week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for playing political games and not doing what was best for the American people, after she claimed that the Sunshine State governor ignored her calls to discuss hurricane relief efforts. On Friday, when Biden was supposed to be overseas, he undercut Harris’ narrative about DeSantis when he praised the Florida governor’s work in the wake of the storm, calling him “cooperative” and acknowledging he was doing a “great job.”
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Sources inside the White House told Fox News that Harris creating a rift with DeSantis was a “dumb thing for her to do,” adding that Biden’s team feels like it has done everything it can to provide Harris with opportunities to demonstrate leadership, but she has fumbled them. At least one source who spoke to Fox News said the Harris campaign’s poor messaging on this was due to its own poor planning, not the White House’s.
The Harris campaign declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital. But, Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, extolled Biden’s continued support for Harris in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after leaving the race, rejecting other approaches that would divide the party, and has attested to her leadership abilities and continually made clear his support for her,” Bates said.
“While ensuring that all critical White House functions are fully staffed, we have made significant changes to guarantee the Vice President’s team has all of the support and resources that they need,” Bates said. “This builds on a strong, trusting relationship between both teams, which has been critical to successfully executing an unprecedented transition to a new candidate.”
