92 Percent Of Kamala Harris’ Staff Left In Her First Three Years As VP
Of the 47 staff members hired when Harris took office in 2021, only four reportedly remained in her employment as of March 2024.Of the 47 staff members hired when Harris took office in 2021, only four reportedly remained in her employment as of March 2024.Are Democrats SERIOUSLY considering ‘DEI hire’ Kamala Harris for president?
After Joe Biden’s disastrous first debate, Democrats are scrambling to figure out who will lead them into the 2024 election.
Vice President Kamala Harris is a contender, but as Sara Gonzales highlights, she’s not a good one. To put it simply, Gonzales calls her “one of the worst DEI hires.”
“This whole thing imploding with Joe Biden, an old white man, and Kamala Harris, who everyone knows cannot handle the job, but they’re afraid to be like, ‘Well, how do you jump over Kamala? Because you guys sold her as like the first black, the first woman, the first, what, Indonesian?’” Gonzales says.
Understandably, this is causing a rift between Democrats.
“Now they are in this position where there’s a lot of infighting, because they’ve just sold all these DEI measures as, like, the most important qualifications for the job,” Gonzales says, noting that Stephen A. Smith recently had a delegate on his show who illustrates her point perfectly.
“There’s a long list of Democrats: Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer. The list goes on, and on, and on,” the delegate, who is a black woman, tells Stephen. “If you pick a white man over Kamala Harris, black women, I can tell you this, we gonna walk away, we gonna blow the party up.'”
“Democrats, you’ve done it to yourselves,” Gonzales comments.
“You radicalize all of these people on all of these initiatives, and then they’re mad that you’re not going far enough against Israel, and they’re not going to vote for you. You radicalize these people on climate change, and they’re mad that you still use, you know, private jets, and they’re not going to vote for you,” she continues.
While it’s a complete mess, Gonzales doesn’t mind.
“‘If you don’t choose her, we’re going to blow the party up.’ I love this. I can’t wait to watch that happen,” she says.
Want more from Sara Gonzales?
To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Female Secret Service agent with troubling history allegedly becomes violent with colleagues: 'Never should have been hired'
An erratic and apparently violent outburst from a female Secret Service agent earlier this week has sparked questions regarding agency hiring practices and recent initiatives to increase the number of female agents.
Michelle Herczeg seemed to have a bad day on Monday. The Secret Service agent arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around 9 a.m. as part of a security detail for Vice President Kamala Harris, who was scheduled to depart the base later that morning.
Before Harris ever arrived, Herczeg began exhibiting strange behavior. According to reports, Herczeg gained access to another agent's phone and proceeded to delete apps on it. The man eventually recovered his phone and otherwise went about his business.
Herczeg then allegedly began engaging in other bizarre behavior, such as mumbling to herself and hiding behind curtains. She even reportedly started throwing various items, including feminine napkins, and warning her colleagues that they were "going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God," a source told Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics.
When the special agent in charge attempted to intervene, Herczeg allegedly began screaming and insisting that other female agents on Harris' security detail would support her and allow her to continue working.
The situation then seemed to reach a tipping point. Agents suggested that Herczeg was suffering from some kind of mental-health episode, and the SAIC relieved Herczeg of her assignment.
Herczeg did not take the news well.
According to Crabtree's reporting, Herczeg chest-bumped the SAIC and tackled him to the ground, where she began punching him repeatedly. Other agents then attempted to restrain Herczeg but harbored concerns because her service weapon was still in its holster.
Eventually, the agents managed to handcuff Herczeg, seize her firearm, and escort her from the premises, Crabtree reported.
"She snapped entirely," a source told RCP.
Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed only that a "U.S. Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews" had exhibited "distressing" behavior and that the individual had been "removed from their assignment." He gave few other details since the agency is treating the incident as a "medical matter."
"The U.S. Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously," he said.
Guglielmi's statement did not name the agent or use pronouns that would give clues about the person's gender.
Guglielmi may not want to discuss the agent's gender, but plenty of other people do. Crabtree noted in a tweet thread about the incident that "there are DEI concerns among the USSS community about the hiring of this agent."
Not only has Herczeg supposedly shown "other strange behavior before this incident," but she may have been hired as part of a recent push to increase the number of female agents. The Secret Service is one of many federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that have signed onto the 30x30 Pledge, which seeks to have women comprising 30% of their force by 2030.
BREAKING: Sources within the Secret Service community tell me the agent assigned to VP Kamala Harris was armed during the fight - that the gun was secured in the agent's holster until other agents physically restrained the agent and took the gun from the agent's possession.
I'm… https://t.co/kxLLOlFy4b
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) April 24, 2024
Even with an emphasis on hiring more female agents, Ronald Kessler, a reporter who has covered the Secret Service for some time, believes that Herczeg "never should have been hired."
Indeed, Herczeg has a troubling record. In 2016, when she was a senior corporal with the Dallas Police Department, she filed a $1 million discrimination lawsuit, claiming among other allegations that another officer had assaulted her and other colleagues had "targeted" and "treated [her] less favorably" because she's a woman.
"[DPD] tolerates unprofessional behavior such as fraternization and unprofessional male and female working relationships based on an atmosphere which finds the male officer in charge, regardless of rank or ability," the lawsuit claimed.
The lawsuit never went anywhere. A trial court dismissed it in 2021, and a Texas appeals court later upheld the lower court's decision. The appeals court then denied a rehearing of the suit the following year.
Kessler said that lawsuit should have been enough to "exclude" Herczeg from consideration at the Secret Service. Because the competition to be accepted into the agency is so fierce, "you really have to have a pristine record," he claimed.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi denied that the agency had "lowered" its hiring standards so that more women could qualify and thus fulfill the agency's 30X30 Pledge. He called any accusations to the contrary "categorically false."
Herczeg did not respond to the New York Post's request for comment.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Senior adviser, multiple press staffers ditch Kamala Harris’ team as VP continues to falter
The mass exodus taking place from Vice President Kamala Harris' team has now reached all the way to top-level staffers.
Symone Sanders, the vice president's senior adviser and chief spokesperson, is reportedly expected to leave the White House by the end of the year, Politico reported this week. It's the latest in a string of departures from Harris' team as criticism of the vice president continues to grow.
Sanders, who previously served as a senior adviser for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, was one of Harris' "most vocal and public defenders during the first year of her historic vice presidency," the Washington Post noted. Though the outlet added that Harris' office "has been beset by concerns about messaging discipline and staff dysfunction."
In a statement to the Post, a spokesperson for Harris confirmed the news, saying, “Symone has served honorably for three years. The President and Vice President are grateful for Symone’s service and advocacy for this Administration. She is a valued member of the White House and a team player — she will be missed.”
Sanders reportedly issued a note to staff Wednesday night that said in part that she is thankful for Harris' "vote of confidence from the very beginning" and is "immensely grateful" for her time serving in the position.
The news comes just weeks after Harris’ communications director, Ashley Etienne, a veteran of the Obama administration, announced her resignation. Etienne is also expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks.
Moreover, two other press staffers have also reportedly announced plans to leave Harris' team.
"Peter Velz, director of press operations, and Vince Evans, deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the vice president’s office, have also told others in the vice president’s office that they are leaving, according to two administration officials," the Post reported.
"Both are expected to take new jobs in or close to the administration," the outlet added.
Harris is a largely unpopular figure in American politics. Her current approval rating sits at just 28% — the lowest among modern vice presidents — and her time in office has been plagued by an array of cringeworthy moments and instances of incompetence, perhaps most notably her failure to manage the immigration crisis at the southern border.
Last month, CNN reported "exasperation and dysfunction" within the vice president's office, as members reportedly complained she's "not being adequately prepared or positioned" to lead, but instead is being "sidelined" and "constrained" by the Biden administration.
The vice president's troubles have no doubt made working on her team a less-than-desirable situation. Now it remains to be seen who else, if anyone, will jump ship next.
Biden off-loads another hot-button political issue onto VP Harris — this time it's 'voting rights'
Vice President Kamala Harris will now be leading the charge on two areas of major policy concern for the Biden administration — first the border crisis, and now, voting rights.
What are the details?
President Joe Biden announced this week that Harris, despite fierce criticism over her handling of the ongoing immigration crisis at the southern border, would lead the administration's efforts on the important matter.
Since taking office in January, Biden has been vehemently critical of election security reforms being advanced by Republican-led legislatures in states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas — often mischaracterizing or outright lying about what the laws seek to accomplish.
Once again portraying Republican efforts as "un-American" and "assaults on democracy" in a speech Tuesday, the president relayed that Harris's appointment signifies how seriously the administration takes the issue.
"To signify the importance of our efforts, today I'm asking Vice President Harris to help these efforts and lead them, among her many other responsibilities," Biden said while commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
"With her leadership and your support, we're going to overcome again, I promise you. But it's going to take a hell of a lot of work," he added.
Democrats, coming off a presidential election win, seem to have a vested interest in preserving the extraordinary pandemic-related relaxation of voting rules that took place in 2020. They have framed the issue as one of voting rights.
Republicans, on the other hand, have argued that the measures are needed to ensure the integrity of the electoral system, especially following an election that many Republican voters believe was subject to rampant abuse and fraud.
Why does it matter?
Given that the issue is certainly a hot-button one in today's politics, it is somewhat curious that Biden has chosen to offload it onto Harris.
Perhaps the appointment is seen as a second chance for Harris after fumbling the border crisis response. More than likely it will serve for her as an escape from the scrutiny surrounding her management of the immigration crisis.
After all, CNN reported this week that Harris' team has been trying to "distance her from the fraught situation at the border."
In addition to raising questions about Harris, the appointment may also serve as fuel for critics to raise questions about Biden's vigor. It hasn't yet been a year into his presidency and already Biden has delegated two of the most sensitive political issues facing him to his younger second-in-command.
Kamala Harris reportedly tracks and dismisses journalists who don't 'fully understand' or 'appreciate' her
Vice President Kamala Harris keeps a running tab on journalists and politicians whom she thinks don't "fully understand" or "appreciate her life experience," The Atlantic reported this week in a profile of the former California senator.
Harris, who is frequently criticized for sidestepping questions and hiding behind talking points, apparently uses the list to avoid interviews with certain individuals.
"The vice president and her team tend to dismiss reporters. Trying to get her to take a few questions after events is treated as an act of impish aggression," the article states. "And Harris herself tracks political players and reporters whom she thinks don't fully understand her or appreciate her life experience."
One example of a supposedly blacklisted journalist is Washington Post reporter Chelsea Janes, who soured in Harris' eyes after she mistook the "skee-wee" cheer of the historic Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha for "screeches."
Harris also reportedly takes issue with certain words used to describe her, for instance, she "particularly doesn't like the word cautious, and aides look out for synonyms too. Careful, guarded, and hesitant don't go over well," the article says.
Nevertheless, "she continues to retreat behind talking points and platitudes in public, and declines many interview requests and opportunities to speak for herself (including for this article)," the article notes, adding that "at times, she comes off as so uninteresting that television producers have started to wonder whether spending thousands of dollars to send people on trips with her is worthwhile, given how little usable material they get out of it."
Coming to Harris's defense, however, was progressive Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx, who called the vice president's behavior a necessary tactic for a pioneering black woman.
"There's a reality of doing this work as a woman and a Black woman — and it often isn't talked about a lot publicly — that there's a presumed resilience around people who are first," Foxx told The Atlantic. "There is a celebration of what it means to break the ceiling, and not nearly the conversation of what the cuts to your head look like."
Another contributing factor could be that the vice president seems to cackle, or laugh nervously, whenever she's put on the hot seat by a reporter or faced with a question for which she doesn't have a prepared answer.
Last October during an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," Harris did just that — laugh nervously — at the suggestion that President Joe Biden was a Trojan horse for her socialist policies.
Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com
freebeacon.com
Biden Admin Compares Jan. 6 to 9/11 & Pearl Harbor | The News & Why It Matters | Ep 931