Last month two of VP Kamala Harrisâ top travel aides resigned, and a Politico article alleging an “abusive” work environment under her watch soon followed.
As they reported at the time, in interviews with 22 current and former VP aides, administration officials and associates described a “tense and at some times dour office atmosphere where allies, in an attempt to protect Harris, created an insular environment where all ideas are ignored or harshly dismissed. They also said Harris refuses to take responsibility for anything and blames staffers for her failures. “‘People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and itâs an abusive environment,’ said another person with direct knowledge of how Harrisâ office is run. ‘Itâs not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. Itâs not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like sâ.”
According to the Washington Examiner, this is the norm for those who’ve worked for Harris even before she was VP:
Barbara OâConnor, a communications professor at California State University, Sacramento, said that at least 20 interns who had worked in Harrisâs attorney general and Senate offices sought her advice in tears. OâConnor said that she helped several of them transfer out of Harrisâs offices at the time.
There have also been high-dollar settlements linked to the veep’s former staff.
In 2011, a settlement was reached between the California Justice Department and a top aide to then-Attorney General Harris. Upon leaving, Terri Carbaugh, chief deputy attorney general, signed a nondisclosure agreement and received a $34,900 settlement, an amount just below the $35,000 limit that would have necessitated approval by the state Department of Finance.
A spokesperson for Harris said last July that Harris would support releasing Carbaugh from the nondisclosure agreement if the former staffer desired. After the Sacramento Bee inquired in 2018 about $400,000 the California Justice Department paid to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit involving a longtime aide, the staffer resigned.
The American public already found VP Harris unlikeable without having to work for her – as evidenced by the fact that she was among the first high profile Democrats to shutter their 2020 presidential campaigns, and her current underwater approval rating that indicates she would lose to Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 matchup.
Matt Palumbo is the author of Dumb and Dumber: How Cuomo and de Blasio Ruined New York, Debunk This: Shattering Liberal Lies, and Spygate
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