In an absolutely hilarious interview on MSNBC with former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, MSNBC host and former chief spokesperson and senior adviser for VP Harris Symone Sanders-Townsend explained that Vice President Harris was not great to work with, suggesting it initially soured her willingness to work with similar people.
In the interview, which began on Thursday, July 25, Sanders-Townsend was meant to comment on the many attacks from the right on VP Harris and smear those attacks as “sexist” and “racist,” but ended up admitting to Psaki, quite funnily, given the ostensible topic, that VP Harris was not at all a joy to work for.
Beginning, Sanders-Townsend started off on track, saying, in reference to the attacks on Kamala, “The thing about being the first is because you’re the first- whether you’re the first woman, first person of color, so on and so forth, folks just sometimes don’t know how to deal with you. They don’t know how to process it.” She added, “And so they resort to, unfortunately, sometimes racist, sexist tropes and memes and stereotypes.”
She then accidentally stumbled onto how unideal VP Harris was to work for, saying, “It was new for me when I worked for her because I never worked for a high-profile woman before. I had only ever worked for men. There was one day at work where I was like ‘Ma’am, you might be the last woman I work for because this is- it’s a lot that we got to deal with over in here.”
Psaki, chuckling, said, “There’s a story there.” Sanders-Townsend said, “But she was always aware of the criticism of her, right?” Sanders-Townsend said that really it was the fault of Harris’s critics, saying, “When I worked there, we didn’t hide it from her. But it did not deter her. It was something though that I think any candidate, any candidate, any person in power needs to be aware of the criticism.
She added, “Because when you’re not aware, the last thing you want is your candidate, your principal, the vice president of the United States of America to be out there and someone says something and they’re like ‘Well what’s that all about?’ ‘Well, ma’am, we discussed that this morning at 10 a.m.'”
Watch them here:
But while Sanders-Townsend tried to pass off the bad experience on Harris’ critics, Harris does not have a great track record as a boss. Particularly, a watchdog organization focused on government spending called Open the Books found that 91.5% of the Vice President’s staff has left since she was sworn in. Twenty-four of the employees from April 2023 to this past March departed, Open the Books found, and of the 47 staffers that started with Harris, only four have reportedly stayed with her.
VP Harris’s work matters matter because she is now the 2024 presumptive nominee for the Democrats since Biden dropped out of the race. Announcing as much, as a reminder, Biden posted on X, “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
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