Kamala Harris Has a Disturbing Pattern of Creating Toxic Work Cultures

Kamala Harris was first elected to public office in 2003. Since that time, she has been criticized for creating a toxic work environment in each of her roles.

One former staffer entered therapy to “resolve trauma from the on-the-job abuse” suffered under Harris, according to Business Insider. Another former staffer, Gil Duran, who worked for her when she was attorney general of California, publicly accused her of having “destructive patterns.” Another aide, who also worked for her before her elevation to the vice presidency, told the Washington Post, “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why.” (RELATED: The Spectator P.M. Podcast Ep. 66: Border Czar? Even the White House Wasn’t Impressed)

Harris’ pattern of creating toxic work environments came under extensive scrutiny when her 2020 campaign derailed. The New York Times, citing 50 current and former staff members, reported that her campaign was “riven between competing factions eager to belittle one another.” When Harris’ state operations director, Kelly Mehlenbacher, resigned from the campaign, she said, “This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly.”

Biden Administration Concerned by the Treatment of Harris’ Staffers

When the same pattern of toxicity emerged under Harris’ vice presidency, it drew unprecedented attention. In June 2021, just six months into her tenure as vice president, Politico published an article headlined “‘Not a healthy environment’: Kamala Harris’ office rife with dissent.” The article reported that her team was “experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust.” Numerous former staff members and associates stabbed her in the back by describing their negative experiences to Politico. One staffer said, “[P]eople often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s**t.” Politico reported that the bullying was so bad that Biden’s team was “concerned about the way Harris’ staffers [were] treated.”

Reports of the toxic environment in the vice presidential office prompted many former staffers, from California to Washington, to exchange messages in group texts about their similar experiences. “So many [former Harris staffers] recognized themselves in it, or recognized treatment they had seen or treatment they had heard about and dismissed,” explained a former staffer to Business Insider. (READ MORE: For Kamala Harris ‘Weird’ Is the New ‘Deplorable’)

Several staffers shared their experiences with Business Insider:

• Former staffers reported that Harris was known for abruptly ending calls if she didn’t receive the “answers she wanted.”
• Former aides noted that she often required briefings three days in advance but would frequently accelerate the timeline without notice, and then criticize staffers when they weren’t prepared. One staffer described being subjected to “verbal abuse” for not being ready to brief the vice president on a revised schedule.
• Staffers said she could demand to be given a Pilot Precise V7 Roller Ball pen at any given moment.
• An aide said there was “a sense of paranoia” in her office and that “you never knew when [Harris] was going to snap at you.”

By the end of the first year of her vice presidency, the White House had reached a breaking point of frustration. In November 2021, CNN reported: “Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff — deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now.”

A Revolving Door of Staffers

Staffers departed the vice presidential office in unprecedented numbers. Within the first 15 months of Harris’ vice presidency, the following top staffers quit:

• Gabrielle DeFranceschi: deputy director of advance​
• Vincent Evans: deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs​
• Ashley Etienne: communications director​
• Tina Flournoy: chief of staff​
• Kate Childs Graham: chief speechwriter
• Rajan Kaur: head of digital strategy​
• Symone Sanders: senior adviser and chief spokesperson​
• Karly Satkowiak: director of advance​
• Sabrina Singh: deputy press secretary​
• Peter Velz: director of press operations​

By late 2021, there was widespread media speculation about whether the dysfunction in Harris’s office might undermine her ability to run a presidential campaign. The Washington Post questioned whether concerns about her management style could “hamper her ability” to effectively “manage the presidency.” That article described her as “an inconsistent and at times degrading principal” and pointed out that many staffers who had negative experiences under her had been content working for other high-profile politicians. (READ MORE: Kamala’s Pee-wee Herman Strategy)

Harris’ allies consistently offer the same excuse for her conduct: they argue that her reputation for creating a toxic environment is a result of people’s discomfort with a black woman being a tough boss. “[I]f she were a man with her management style, she would have a TV show called The Apprentice,” one ally told the Washington Post. Politico meanwhile reported that Harris’ defenders “note that women in power — Black women in particular — are subjected to standards that men often don’t have to clear.”

Given the pattern of toxicity observed throughout Kamala Harris’ career over the past 20 years, we can expect that reports of similar issues will soon surface from her presidential campaign.

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