Kamala Harris is being sidelined by the White House amid a deepening rift with President Joe Biden, her aides have privately warned.
Dozens of current and former officials working for the US vice president have opened up about her “dysfunctional” relationship with Mr Biden as the pair dropped to record low approval ratings in the latest polls.
Ms Harris, who spent just four years in Washington before becoming second in line, feels she has not been adequately prepared for the role, according to the aides who spoke to CNN.
Mr Biden has repeatedly said he would model his relationship with Ms Harris on his own vice presidency in the Barack Obama administration, arranging weekly lunches together and vowing that she would be the “last person in the room” on any major decision.
Ms Harris’s allies argue that Mr Biden has handed her a politically impossible portfolio, which includes the potentially ruinous job of tackling illegal migration along the US border with Mexico.
Aides argue the portfolio has become a millstone for Ms Harris, 57, the likeliest candidate to succeed Mr Biden should the 78-year-old Democrat not run for re-election in 2024.
“They’re consistently sending her out there on losing issues in the wrong situations for her skill set,” a former senior aide told CNN.
Mr Biden’s team, in turn, was said to be furious when Ms Harris gave a disastrous interview in which she was criticised for laughing off a question on why she had not visited the border amid a mounting humanitarian crisis.
White House aides have privately argued that she has brought some of the heated criticism from Republicans upon herself, making it difficult for Mr Biden to jump to her defence. They have also criticised her lack of support on Mr Biden’s key legislative priorities.
The growing tensions come as the administration hit a “historic low point” earlier this month in a USA Today poll which found Mr Biden’s approval rating had sunk to 38pc. Ms Harris’s approval rating fell to 28pc.
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