We’ve talked before about the scattered reports over the last 15 months or so regarding alleged tensions between the Biden and Harris camps, with Biden’s team reportedly annoyed over the veep’s inability to appropriately handle the tasks given to her by Joe Biden, and the Harris camp’s mindset being that Biden’s staff is all too eager to pin his multitude of failures on her.
Those tensions appeared to boil over into the public sphere directly between the two players at the center of it all in November 2021 when Biden, Harris, and their respective spouses visited a D.C. soup kitchen at Thanksgiving to prepare plates for those in need. Videos and photos from the event showed Biden appearing to snub Harris at various points, with him spending most of his time talking to the kitchen’s chef.
More recently, we learned from an upcoming book written by two New York Times reporters that the situation between both sides has gotten worse, with Biden comms director Kate Bedingfield letting some inconvenient truths slip out about Harris:
“In private, Bedingfield had taken to noting that the vice presidency was not the first time in Harris’s political career that she had fallen short of sky-high expectations: Her Senate office had been messy and her presidential campaign had been a fiasco. Perhaps, she suggested, the problem was not the vice president’s staff,” Martin and Burns write.
A new report from RealClearNews White House reporter Philip Wegmann lends further credence to claims that there is a growing rift not just between the two camps, but between Biden and Harris directly.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, Biden vowed to have lunch once a week with Harris as that was a tradition he and former President Barack Obama had when they were both in office, which Biden viewed as way to have meaningful discussions about agendas and policies beyond the smoke and noise outside the White House.
But according to RCN, those lunches haven’t happened that often since they took office, which suggests there is indeed trouble in paradise:
And yet, according to a review of the president’s public schedule by RealClearPolitics, Biden and Harris have only sat down to lunch twice this year, a significant drop when compared to the 12 times they shared the meal together by this same point last year.
For Biden and Harris, lunch this year has followed major developments. The two shared a meal on February 8, when the search for a Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer was ongoing, and another lunch on March 30, shortly after Biden returned from Warsaw to rally the West after Russian invaded Ukraine.
[…]
Still, the lack of lunch comes amid whispers of a rocky start to their working relationship. Biden has tried to duplicate the dynamic with Harris that he enjoyed with Obama, but he reportedly hasn’t been able to recreate the same sense of camaraderie. In an excerpt of their new book, “This Will Not Pass,” obtained early by Politico, Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns of the New York Times write that “their weekly lunches lacked a real depth of personal and political intimacy.”
White House aides Wegmann spoke to blamed scheduling conflicts and the pandemic for the reason Harris and Biden haven’t lunched together hardly any this year, but that doesn’t pass the smell test. The pandemic was inarguably more widespread last year than it has been this year – plus, as he’s routinely demonstrated, Joe Biden has no qualms about walking around maskless in a crowded room while standing close to folks and talking and laughing with them. So outside of when Harris’ husband and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff caught the coronavirus in mid-March, what’s the excuse?
Only they and those closest to them know, but I suspect that part of the reason is that Biden is aware that Harris has not only failed in the responsibilities he’s handed to her but that she has also become a big liability for Democrats, as evidenced by the White House sending her to obscure parts of the country that Democrats have no realistic chances of winning, and in a crucial election year at that.
The other part, I’m guessing, is that Biden was never overly fond of her to begin with. Remember, Biden was forced to pick her by the “woke” wing of the party who indicated in 2020 that there would be hell to pay if he didn’t choose a black woman to be his running mate. Plus, Dr. Jill is not a Harris fan.
Being backed into a corner over such matters instead of being allowed to pick someone who you truly feel comfortable with who you believe complements you is bound to create resentment, especially considering Biden is no spring chicken and really needed someone to be able to shoulder the load that comes with the positions they both hold.
Harris has shown on multiple fronts that she’s just not that person. For all of Biden’s faults – and there are many – I can’t really blame him for not wanting to be around her much. I wouldn’t want to, either. Then again, in Kamala Harris’ defense, I wouldn’t want to be around Creepy Joe much, either.
This article was originally published by RedState. Read the original article.
