Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made like all was well Thursday as they promoted President Biden’s agenda in North Carolina — while the VP’s office continued to unravel and as speculation grows about which of the two will be the future Democratic Party standard-bearer.
“I want to thank Secretary Pete Buttigieg … for joining me today and for serving our nation as the secretary of our Department of Transportation,” Harris said during remarks at a public bus and rail garage in Charlotte. “You’ve been doing extraordinary work, and thank you for that.”
Gossip about Harris and Buttigieg ramped up last month after the veep’s allies suggested to CNN that she had been sidelined inside the White House and was not getting the same level of support as other officials. The same report described the working relationship between Harris and Biden as “an exhausted stalemate.”
“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 the outlet, referring to the administration’s support of Buttigieg taking paternity leave amid the global supply chain crisis.
Since the report came out, whispers have grown louder that Buttigieg could challenge Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination in either 2024 or 2028.
“It’s 2021,” Buttigieg said when asked about the speculation aboard Air Force Two Thursday. “And the whole point of campaigns and elections is when they go well you get to govern. And we are squarely focused on the job at hand. I am excited to be part of a team led by the president and the vice president and I think the teamwork that got us to this point is really just beginning.”
When asked if Thursday’s event was meant to promote a united front, Buttigieg added: “As transportation secretary, I get to be the face of a lot of these investments that we’re doing, but we would not be here without the leadership of the vice president as well as the president; of course, and so many others. So I am glad we’re able to shine a light on that today.”
While on stage, Buttigieg said Harris “did so much” to ensure the passage of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill through Congress.
“Her message was about the need to think big, not to get lost in the details or the politics, but to remember the unique nature of the opportunity in front of us,” the former South Bend, Ind. mayor recalled. “And she was exactly right, and it helped shape the conversation. It’s just one very small example of the countless ways in which her presence has made an impact on this monumental legislation.”
The trip to North Carolina also came hours after chief Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders announced she would leave her post at the end of the year.
“I’m so grateful to the VP for her vote of confidence from the very beginning and the opportunity to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” Sanders wrote in a statement.
Sanders is the second major departure from Harris’ office after it emerged last month that her communications director Ashley Etienne would be leaving to “pursue other opportunities.”
At the White House press briefing Thursday, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jen Psaki whether Sanders’ departure meant Harris is no longer satisfied with her staff or people are no longer happy working for her.
“Peter, I would say that working on a presidential campaign — maybe covering one too, I would say to be fair — and working in the first year of a White House is exciting and rewarding, but it’s also grueling and exhausting,” Psaki said.
“If you look at past precedent, it’s natural for staffers who have thrown their heart and soul into a job to be ready to move on to a new challenge after a few years and that is applicable to many of these individuals,” she added. “It’s also an opportunity as it is in any White House, to bring in new faces, new voices and new perspectives.”
Doocy then asked whether the departures were related to “bad headlines” about Harris — including several reports of low morale among her staff.
Psaki deflected the question and pointed out that Sanders had been part of the Biden-Harris team for “two and half or three years.”
“She’ll always be a part of this Biden Harris family, and it’s only natural after a couple years to be ready for something new,” Psaki said.
Amid her staffing woes, Harris and Biden have been subject to rapidly dropping job approval numbers over recent months. According to an Economist/YouGov poll done late last month, around 43 percent of US adults have a favorable opinion of the vice president while approximately 50 percent have an unfavorable opinion.
The same poll found that approximately 44 percent of US adults approve of Biden’s job as president compared to the 50 percent that disapprove.
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