Kamala Harris doesn't like labels like 'cautious', tracks reporters who 'don’t fully understand her': Report
Speculation is rife over the future role that Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to play in the power corridors of Washington given the fact that she is assisting a president nearing his 80s and as a result, the Democratic leader is under regular media scanner. Harris recently found herself in the middle of a controversy over not visiting the southern border despite President Joe Biden putting her in charge of the snowballing crisis involving illegal migrants intending to enter the American territory from countries in Central America.
And now, it has been reported that Harris is extra careful about handling the media and even maintains a list of reporters and other political players whom she thinks don’t fully understand her or appreciate her life experience. The Atlantic came up with a report on Monday, May 17, which said: “The vice president and her team tend to dismiss reporters. Trying to get her to take a few questions after events is treated as an act of impish aggression. And Harris herself tracks political players and reporters whom she thinks don’t fully understand her or appreciate her life experience.”
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According to the report, the vice president carefully monitors words that journalists use to label her. “She particularly doesn’t like the word cautious, and aides look out for synonyms too. Careful, guarded, and hesitant don’t go over well,” the report from Edward-Isaac Dovere said.
The Atlantic piece further added that Harris “continues to retreat behind talking points and platitudes in public, and declines many interview requests and opportunities to speak for herself” including for Dovere’s article. It said sometimes, Harris appears so uninterested that television producers have started wondering whether spending thousands of dollars to send people with her on trips is a worthy idea since not much usable material can be expected at the end. Kim Foxx, who Harris mentored after the former became the first Black woman to be elected as the state’s attorney in Cook County, Illinois, has an explanation for this. “There’s a reality of doing this work as a woman and a Black woman—and it often isn’t talked about a lot publicly—that there’s a presumed resilience around people who are first,” Foxx told the Atlantic. “There is a celebration of what it means to break the ceiling, and not nearly the conversation of what the cuts to your head look like.”
Conservative news site The Washington Free Beacon slammed Harris, 56, saying the Atlantic article inspired little confidence in the vice president’s ability to become the president one day even though she is considered one with a strong ambition to lead the country one day. It taunted Harris over her “overwhelming political abilities” and said she was in the race for the White House in 2020 but bowed out even before the election year started.
The Free Beacon even equated Harris with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who also failed to win the presidential election more than once. It said in many ways, “Harris is merely a non-White version of Hillary Clinton”. “Both women are possessed by ruthless ambition, yet lack the necessary skills to succeed in politics at the national level. They are most comfortable when regurgitating talking points and platitudes. Objectively speaking, they share a knack for unsettling laughter and launched their political careers by dating powerful men,” it said, referring to the reports that Harris had dated elderly politician Willie Brown decades ago who helped her to launch her career.