92% Of Kamala Harris’ Staffers Left In Her First Three Years As VP Due To Her Laziness and Anger
While Democrat donors are all-in on Kamala Harris as the nominee, those who have worked for her do not share the same level of fondness.
Kamala Harris’ office hired 47 staff members when she took office in 2021. Note: these are staffers who only work under Harris; not Joe Biden. Of those 47 staffers, only four remain.
"Chaos reigns on the vice president’s staff," wrote OTB founder Adam Andrzejewski. "Furthermore, the turnover chaos isn’t getting better. In the trailing 12-month period, 24 staffers left — that’s almost half the employees."
Most of the staffers quit of their own accord, no longer wanting to work for Harris.
In 2021, the Washington Post described Harris’s staff as "wilting in a dysfunctional and frustrated office, burned out just a few months after her historic swearing-in and pondering exit strategies."
There is a pattern. The Post article found that near unrepresented turnover rates were also the case when Harris was district attorney and attorney general in California.
"Critics scattered over two decades point to an inconsistent and at times degrading principal who burns through seasoned staff members who have succeeded in other demanding, high-profile positions. People used to putting aside missteps, sacrificing sleep and enduring the occasional tirade from an irate boss say doing so under Harris can be particularly difficult, as she has struggled to make progress on her vice-presidential portfolio or measure up to the potential that has many pegging her as the future of the Democratic Party."
LAS VEGAS - Sen. Kamala Harris laughs while speaking at the "Conversations that Count" event during the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit at The Mirage Hotel & Casino on March 1, 2019. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Specifically, former staffers agreed on one consistent issue while working for Harris: she doesn't put in the work.
"Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared," detailed the article.
Harris is like a television host who walks into the studio unaware of the news cycle and then aggressively chides her producers who put together rundowns she didn't review – think CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell.
"It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work," one former staffer said.
"With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why."
Former Harris aide and Democrat strategist Gil Duran spoke on record about what he experienced during his time under Harris, telling the Post that "one of the things we’ve said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this, and it’s her."
Duran quit his job with Harris in 2013, after just five months.
"Who are the next talented people you’re going to bring in and burn through and then have [them] pretend they’re retiring for positive reasons," Duran asked Harris in a subsequent column, to which she did not respond.
Future staffers, beware.
The press will – and has – blamed the high turnover on racism and sexism. But, in reality, Kamala Harris is not a likable person. She never has been.
She was unpopular as a DA and AG, by both conservatives and progressives. The Democrat Party awarded her frontrunner status during the 2020 primaries, but she had to bow out before the calendar officially struck 2020. She had that little support.
The cackle, the entitlement, the laziness, the diva mentality – it's cringe. Don't take it from me. Take it from the nearly 92 percent of her staffers who quit less than four years into her vice presidency.