There appears to be growing tensions and disagreements between the White House and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, according to Axios.
“Many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his re-election bid and are still adjusting to being in a supportive role on the campaign trail,” according to national political correspondent Alex Thompson.
“They’re too much in their feelings,” one Harris ally reportedly told Axios about the White House.
Thompson wrote that the main problem with some Harris campaign staff is that White House staff “aren’t sufficiently coordinating Biden’s messaging and schedule to align with what’s best for the vice president’s campaign.”
Thompson brought up recent disagreements, like how President Joe Biden held an unplanned press conference on Friday while Vice President Kamala Harris was in Michigan at an event.
In another interesting event, Biden praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for how he handled the recent storms, just a short time after Harris criticized DeSantis for not answering her calls. Thompson wrote that someone who knew about the situation said Biden didn’t know about Harris’s words before he praised DeSantis.
“The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign,” a Harris aide told Thompson.
Despite “sore feelings” among some Biden aides, the report added that most of them are “actively rooting” for Harris to win.
However, there is ongoing conflict with some White House employees moving to the Harris campaign, particularly Biden staffers who believe “Biden’s team has labeled them as disloyal for leaving or even considering it.”
“On Harris’ campaign, there’s also awkwardness between some who were on Biden’s original campaign staff and the Harris allies who’ve been installed in recent weeks,” Thompson wrote. “In the weeks after Harris became the Democratic nominee, there were squabbles about whether Biden’s main surrogates on television would continue in those roles or if new faces would emerge, two people familiar with the matter told Axios.”
“Harris’ team has been trying to add staff to the vice president’s official office to handle the bigger workload. It’s been frustrated at the White House’s pace in getting people detailed for that, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Axios reported.
“The White House has been working to help Harris’ team but has been frustrated by some of the rules about who can be detailed and when. Several Biden aides have joined Harris’ campaign, but some feel like they’ve been labeled as disloyal by Biden’s team for leaving or even considering it,” the report added.
In a comment to Fox News Digital, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said, “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.”
“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. This builds on a strong, trusting relationship between both teams, which has been critical to successfully executing an unprecedented transition to a new candidate,” Bates concluded.
Jacqui Heinrich, a senior White House reporter for Fox News, said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that the Biden team is getting more and more annoyed with Harris putting the president in “tough spots.”
His sources close to Biden told him that they thought Harris’s decision to get into a fight with DeSantis was “dumb” and that she made the situation happen.
Sources say Biden has been “bending over backward” to give Harris chances to show leadership, but Harris has messed up a few of those chances.
