‘Exasperation and dysfunction’: Dems leap to defend VP following CNN hit piece

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 14: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a virtual roundtable with experts on the southern border crisis at the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office at Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House on April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. Vice President Harris convened the meeting to discuss assessments and recommendations for the immigration crisis in the region. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Democrats, including White House press secretary Jen Psaki, leaped to the defense of Vice President Kamala Harris after CNN published a so-called “hit piece” on Sunday night.

“For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country – from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband,” Psaki wrote on Twitter.

The multi-paged CNN piece detailed “mutual exasperation” and “dysfunction” between Harris and President Joe Biden’s offices as her approval rating dipped to 28% last week.

“She’s perceived to be in such a weak position that top Democrats in and outside of Washington have begun to speculate privately, asking each other why the White House has allowed her to become so hobbled in the public consciousness, at least as they see it,” Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jasmine Wright wrote.

Dovere and Wright also highlighted a conflict between Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was recently criticized for taking a nearly two-month paternity leave while the country’s supply chain fell apart.

“Suspicion has sprouted out of the bitterness,” Dovere and Wright wrote. “Last month, White House aides leapt to the defense of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was being hammered with outrage by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and like-minded online pundits for taking paternity leave after the adoption of his twins in September. Harris loyalists tell CNN they see in that yet another example of an unfair standard at play, wondering why she didn’t get any similar cover any of the times she’s been attacked by the right.”

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers echoed alleged “Harris loyalists,” on “New Day,” complaining about the overall way Harris is treated in the media.

“I have a larger issue with the tone and tenor by which Kamala Harris is covered, and I think we saw that in this article,” Sellers said. “I had to push back heavily on this article and throw a little cold water on it.”

New York Times contributor Don Winslow characterized the article as “racist and misogynistic.”

“The written hit piece on @CNN today on @VP Kamala Harris – sent to millions – was racist and misogynistic and if you allow it to go unchecked you are failing her, President Biden and this country at a time when Trump and Republicans are trying to burn this country to the ground,” Winslow wrote on Twitter.

Harris’ spokesperson released a statement on Twitter, calling the article “unfortunate.”

“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…some in the media are focused on gossip – not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered,” Symone Sanders wrote on Twitter.

Sanders did not respond to the Independent Chronicle’s request for comment.

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