White House staff say Kamala Harris has ‘rabbit ears’ for criticism, claims bombshell new book, and reveals her demands for a majority female office and black chief of staff

Kamala Harris has spent her time as vice president obsessing over her public image and frustrating aides with demands, according to an explosive new book.

The White House was reportedly annoyed by Harris’ “bunny ears” for his criticism, and it would be almost immediately aware of any negative news or complaints about his management style.

“She let herself be driven by criticism,” writes journalist Franklin Foer in his forthcoming book The Last Politician, adding that she antagonized Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, by “making life exceedingly difficult by self-imposed all sorts of constraints”.

Harris, 58, reportedly struggled to find her footing as she alternated between not taking on high-profile assignments, like her role as Biden’s “border czar,” and shunning the spotlight.

Although Biden is widely expected to keep her on his slate for re-election in 2024, Harris reportedly took the administration the wrong way by demanding to distance herself from “women’s issues or anything that has about race” while wanting his office to be predominantly female. with a black woman as chief of staff.

Joe Biden speaks at an event celebrating lower drug prices in the East Room of the White House on August 29.

When President Biden was chosen by then-candidate Barack Obama to become vice president in 2008, the conventional wisdom was that the veteran senator was chosen to bolster Obama’s rather short political resume.

But the same can’t be said for Harris, according to Foer, who wrote that while Biden “helped fill the gaps” in Obama’s support, the current president “didn’t need Harris the way he did. ‘Obama needed Biden’.

This would have led to a disjointed career as vice president where Harris became paranoid about the optics of her candidacy, Foer claimed, leading to criticism over “what one of her colleagues described as ‘ears rabbit”.

“Whenever there was a hint of criticism directed at her – whether in the West Wing or in the press – she immediately seemed to be aware of it,” he wrote.

“Rather than dismissing her, she wanted to know who was speaking ill of her and what they were saying.”

Whenever she uncovers a “devastating story” that she says was leaked by an insider, Harris reportedly responds by “briefly eliminating an aide she suspected of cooperating with reporters.”

The White House infighting has apparently distracted Biden’s number two from her high-profile assignments, as the upcoming book claims she struggled to commit in the face of a challenge.

“Instead of diligently sticking to the mission in Central America, she seemed to accept the common misconceptions about it,” Foer wrote.

“It was futile work, so she let it go, missing an opportunity to carve her way to meaningful accomplishment.”

While his tenure was viewed by many as an uphill struggle, Foer’s assessment partly blames Biden for not giving him a platform for success.

Although the president treated her with “impeccable respect,” Foer wrote that he “simply did not trust her with the substantial role he played in the Obama administration.”

“At first he said they would have weekly lunches,” Foer added. “But those started to be off the charts.”

Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, was reportedly tasked with showing Harris the vice-presidential ropes after working for Biden and Al Gore, and Foer said he considers himself Biden’s “resident expert.” administration.

“But he struggled to help her productively. He felt like Harris continued to make life excessively difficult for himself by imposing all sorts of restraints on himself,” Foer continued.

“She told him she didn’t want to work on women’s issues or anything to do with race,” Foer added, despite those issues considered by many to be her forte.

“She wanted her office to be female-dominated — and to have a black woman as her chief of staff,” he continued, demands that allegedly angered Klain as he tried to help her.

Foer wrote that, “to Klain’s ears, she was making too many rules, and they were making it hard for her to fit in.”

This dissension led her to let herself be “guided by personnel she did not know and whom she did not particularly trust”, and upset her image and the degree of responsibility she wanted on several occasions, Foer wrote.

While constantly searching for a determinative problem, Harris was reportedly “reluctant to accept them when they were suggested to him”. In one instance, Foer claims she asked for the low-key “Scandinavia Relations” assignment because it was “out of the spotlight.”

When she finally demanded a significant public role and chose the right to vote, the upcoming book claims Klain “hesitated”, disappointing Harris because it was “not the vote of confidence she needed”.

“The Last Politician” will be released Tuesday by Penguin Random House.