Kamala Harris was all smiles when she arrived at Joe Biden’s former Delaware campaign headquarters on Monday.
She was there to lift the spirits of blindsided staffers, who after 15 months of toiling to re-elect the president, suddenly found themselves working for her.
“It is my great honor to have Joe’s endorsement in this race,” she boasted to cheers from a crowd who were now on her payroll.
But as the assembled readily applauded, some must have harbored private concerns.
For, behind the recent public self-branding of Harris as a kindly, jovial “Momala,” she has earned a nasty reputation as an alleged ‘soul-destroying’ workplace “bully.”
Only four of the initial 71 staffers hired by Harris during her first year in office still remain in a job. The rest either quit or were fired, according to analysis by non-partisan watchdog Open The Books.
That translates to a 92 percent staff turnover rate – and, say critics, is a likely sign that the issues on Team Harris have more to do with her than anyone else.
During research for my recent Harris biography (“Amateur Hour,” published in January), the horror stories I heard from many of her former employees and read about in numerous reports – shocked me.
As far back as the 2010s, when Harris served as California’s Attorney General, she was allegedly known for running a “toxic” workplace.