Tensions between the West Wing and the Harris camp are reportedly at an all-time high, according to a new CNN report by Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jasmine Wright that provides a behind-the-scenes look at what has been described as chaos and dysfunction in the Biden-Harris administration.
Key West Wing aides communicated to the outlet that they are worn out by Harris and her camp amid a frenzy of public criticism and an approval rating worse than that of the US president.
Meanwhile, some of those who defended Harris' position asserted that they believe she has been placed in a losing situation, likening the sidelining to a recent satirical article from The Onion: "White House Urges Kamala Harris To Sit At Computer All Day In Case Emails Come Through."
The Sunday report was compiled based on interviews with White House aides, as well as nearly three dozen former and current aides of Harris, Biden administration officials, Democratic operatives, political donors, and outside advisers.
Despite Harris being a "heartbeat away" from the presidency, a number of sources - including a top donor to Biden - have claimed that the vice president has been placed in a position that could be damaging for the future of the party and, more importantly, the country as a whole.
"You should be putting her in positions to succeed, as opposed to putting weights on her," a top Democratic donor told CNN. "If you did give her the ability to step up and help her lead, it would strengthen you and strengthen the party."
Some suspect Harris may have been appointed to deal with the Northern Triangle diplomacy as an attempt to dash any future presidential aspirations. One former, high-level aide noted that the White House was "consistently sending [Harris] out there on losing issues."
Those in Harris' camp also made reference to how the White House was quick to come to the defense of US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who received backlash after being granted paternity leave, but appeared laissez-faire when it came to media criticism of the vice president.
"It's hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a white man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn't want to take themselves," a former Harris aide told CNN, recounting an October conversation with several ex- and current aides.
At the same time, the report claimed that one overarching belief is that the vice president's staffers have repeatedly failed her and that Harris appears to be influenced predominantly by family members, like sister Maya Harris, brother-in-law Tony West, and niece Meena Harris.
The latter issue has been addressed in recent months, according to several sources familiar with operations in Harris' office.
Both the White House and the Harris camp have since issued responses to the report, with the latter panning it as "gossip."
"It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America's oldest ally and demonstrated US leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip - not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered," said Symone Sanders, chief spokesperson and a senior adviser to Harris.