Vice President Kamala Harris‘s senior advisor and chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders, is leaving by the end of the year, Becker News reported.
Harris has been pushing back against reports from within the White House that suggest a growing rift between her and other top officials, even as her own public approval numbers remain deep underwater and few see her as a viable replacement should something befall President Joe Biden.
As one Harris’s top allies, Sanders’s departure has raised even more eyebrows.
“Sanders was seen as one of the central staffers for Harris as a candidate and is known to be personally trusted by Harris herself, the staffer most frequently (or visible) by her side,” Axios reported.
The reported rift between the president’s and the vice president’s office—first disclosed in a CNN bombshell last month was the presumptive reason for the resignation of Harris’s former communications director, Ashley Etienne.
“Etienne, a former staffer to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, joined Harris’ team shortly after the election,” the Daily Mail reported. “At the time she said she would stay only a year. Vanity Fair first reported the news.”
CNN claimed the information for this piece came from “nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials.”
The Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers “spoke exclusively to CNN,” it said.
The entire piece smacked of a torrent of leaks from inside the Harris inner circle, fueling considerable palace intrigue and gossip that even some conservative media outlets partook in.
Writing for Human Events, conservative pundit Charlie Kirk speculated that the culprit behind the leaks might be none other than Michelle Obama, seeking to neutralize a potential competitor in the 2024 Democratic primary.
Yet, the tension between the Biden and Harris camps originated even before their accession to the White House, as Harris very obviously has presidential ambitions.
“Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined,” CNN reported.
“The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically,” it continued. “And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden’s team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president.”
According to Becker News, “there has been serious talk going around Washington D.C. that Kamala Harris may soon find herself ‘pursuing other opportunities’ so the Biden team can get her out of the White House.”
