Vice President Kamala Harris has been sowing dissent in the West Wing, saying behind closed doors that she is "not interested in echoing" one of President Joe Biden's favorite anti-Republican catchphrases, "ultra-MAGA."
Harris finds the phrase so "inadequate" and "inauthentic" that she refused to say it on this year's midterm campaign trail, Politico reported Thursday.
That "seemingly minor distinction over semantics" indicates larger White House tensions over Harris's role and greater ambitions as the vice president "labors in a backup role defined by loyalty," Politico wrote.
The report comes as the veep faces widespread criticism for her job performance. While Harris is ostensibly in charge of dealing with the Biden administration's response to the United States-Mexico border crisis, she has been to the border only once. Over the last few months alone, Harris has endorsed a conspiracy theory, told a bizarre lie about grapes, and reached levels of unpopularity so high that fellow Democrats don't want to associate with her. When Harris recently flew to Florida and North Carolina to campaign for Democratic Senate candidates Val Demings and Cheri Beasley, respectively, neither Demings nor Beasley showed up with the vice president.
Democrats are panicking about their electoral chances if Harris has to take over from Biden, who will turn 80 this month. Biden in the last few weeks appeared to forget that he passed student-loan cancellation through executive order and incorrectly said his son died in Iraq, leading to worries about his mental fitness.