According to a new book about the Biden presidency, there have been real tensions between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, with the president venting to friends that he has been "annoyed" with her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, complaining about the VP's official assignments.
Biden has reportedly been frustrated with Harris and called her a "work in progress."
Politico published these quotes on Tuesday from an excerpt of the upcoming book, "The Fight of His Life," by Chris Whipple. The book provides an inside look at the Biden presidency’s first years. Whipple told Politico he was given "extensive access to Biden administration officials while writing the book."
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Whipple’s access to the administration gave him a view to squabbling between the Biden and Harris, after the VP's husband reportedly provoked frustration in the president for complaining about her policy assignments.
Politico wrote, "word got back to [Biden] that second gentleman DOUGLAS EMHOFF had been complaining about Harris’ policy portfolio — which her allies felt was hurting her politically."
Upon hearing this, "’Biden was annoyed,’ wrote author Chris Whipple."
As the book stated, Biden felt as though "He hadn’t asked Harris to do anything he hadn’t done as vice president — and she’d begged him for the voting rights assignment."
Whipple also wrote that Biden confided in a friend that he viewed the vice president as "a work in progress."
In addition, a senior White House adviser blamed Harris’ stumbling on advice given to her by her inner circle. The adviser expressed "[Harris’] inner circle didn’t serve her well in the presidential campaign — and they are ill-serving her now."
Whipple told Politico that some of the tensions within the Biden administration have died down in its second year, remarking that Biden has had a much better presidency in 2022.
He said, "What makes this such a great story is that Joe Biden and his team really turned it all around, I think." He described it as "a tale of two presidencies – the first year and the second year."
Whipple’s work features other moments of tension and frustration in the Biden White House, like those surrounding Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. Politico wrote, "The book captures [White House Chief of Staff Ron] Klain’s anger at the public and private critiques of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan by LEON PANETTA, the former chief of staff to BILL CLINTON who also served as CIA director and defense secretary under BARACK OBAMA."
It also details the letter former President Donald Trump left Biden "before leaving the Oval Office." Politico wrote, "Biden’s reaction? ‘That was very gracious and generous…Shockingly gracious.’"
White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson declined to comment on the veracity of the claims in the book beyond saying, "We don’t plan to engage in confirmations or denials when it comes to the specifics of those claims. The author did not give us a chance to verify the materials that are attributed here."
