An upcoming book by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of the New York Times revealed what was happening behind the scenes at the White House, especially surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris. Excerpts from the book claimed that Harris felt disrespected when White House aides did not stand when she would enter a room.
The book by Martin and Burns, titled “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” revealed that the vice president felt disrespected when White House staff did not stand when she would enter a room. This was reportedly part of the perceived snubs that Harris was apparently fixated on. The book also describes the tense relationship between Harris’s staff and President Joe Biden’s West Wing.
“Some of Harris’s advisers believed the president’s almost entirely white inner circle did not show the vice president the respect she deserved,” Martin and Burns wrote, according to excerpts published by Politico Tuesday. “Harris worried that Biden’s staff looked down on her; she fixated on real and perceived snubs in ways the West Wing found tedious.”
According to excerpts, Harris’s chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, told Biden’s senior adviser Anita Dunn, about her frustration when White House staffers did not stand when Harris would enter the room as they do with Biden. The book said that Harris apparently saw it as “a sign of disrespect.”
Dunn, who served in the White House from January to August 2021, told Politico that the West Wing “has a high degree of respect for the Vice President and the hard work she is doing for this President and our country.”
Before Harris was ultimately chosen as Biden’s vice president, she was seen as a frontrunner to be the now-president’s running mate in his campaign. According to the book, first lady Dr. Jill Biden initially had her reservations when it came to her husband choosing Harris as his running mate. The future first lady apparently questioned why Biden would ultimately pick someone who gave a biting remark to him as his running mate and now vice president.
The remark was made by Harris during the Democratic primary in 2019 during her initial presidential bid. Harris criticized Biden’s opposition to bussing, which was a way to racially integrate public schools back in his early days as a senator.