As California attorney general, Kamala Harris consistently berated staff members, instructed them to stand and call her "general" when she entered the office, and banned many of them from looking her in the eye, according to the father of one of Harris's former interns.
The father, Terry McAteer, penned a 2019 op-ed recounting the horror stories from his son Gregory's short time as a public policy intern in Harris's attorney general's office.
"Senator Harris vocally throws around 'F-bombs' and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others," McAteer wrote. "The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day."
He continued: "As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, ‘Good Morning General.' Never once during the month-long internship did Harris introduce herself to our son … and staff was too intimidated by her to introduce him."
"Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members," McAteer wrote. "I don't know about you but this is not the workplace of someone who respects her staff. For a woman of color to have employees stand when she enters the room smacks of a bygone era that we, as Americans, deplore and find demeaning."
Staff issues continued to haunt Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as she rose to the Senate and vice presidency. During Harris's first three years as vice president, her office had a staff turnover rate of 92 percent, according to an Open the Books investigation. Axios attributed that turnover in part to "burnout," as well as "career harm by being too closely linked to a flagging operation."
McAteer's op-ed came as Harris ran for president in 2019, a campaign that she ended before the Iowa caucuses. McAteer painted Harris's treatment of staff as a leadership issue and questioned the then-senator's ability to serve as president.
"Furthermore, that [Harris] didn't show the quality of leadership skills or even being a decent boss—much less the 'class' to approach Gregory at least once during the month to say 'Hi, I'm Kamala Harris and I want to thank you for volunteering in my office'—is really troubling," he wrote.
"Finally, what is up with the 'don't look her in the eye' instruction? I know I wouldn't want to work in that hostile environment!"
At the time, McAteer said his son greenlit the op-ed.
"I had Gregory read this piece before submitting it and he is willing to put his own integrity on the line because the truth is important to him," he wrote. "In fact, integrity and character are still virtues that can and should be upheld in our politicians and politics; we just haven’t seen them in a while."
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.