President Joe Biden is still butthurt about being pressured to suspend his re-election campaign and his staff is reportedly taking it out on Vice President Kamala Harris' team.
Axios journalist Alex Thompson appeared on CNN’s This Morning with Kasie Hunt to discuss his recent report on rising tensions between Biden and Harris’ respective camps, alongside communications strategists Matt Gorman, Meghan Hays, Newshour’s Laura Barrón-López.
“The president is not used to being in a supporting role. He’s definitely not used to being in a supporting role in an election that he intended to be running in. And that’s really what’s happening here,” said Thompson, a CNN political analyst, about reports that the two camps aren’t working together. “There’s not sort of a deliberate sabotage here. And that’s why they said, ‘They are in their feelings.’”
ADVERTISEMENT
Thompson, citing inside sources, reported that Harris’ staff thinks Biden’s team is still “in their feelings” about the changing of the guard since the president stepped aside and supported Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Thompson’s reporting pointed to Biden holding an impromptu Oct. 4 press conference just as Harris was kicking off a rally in Michigan as an example of the two teams not effectively coordinating who should have the spotlight and when.
“President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after leaving the race, rejecting other approaches that would divide the party, and has attested to her leadership abilities and continually made clear his support for her,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios.
On CNN, Thompson added, “The fact is Joe Biden is an emotional person, and that really trickles down to the staff, too. They are wounded. They feel in some ways betrayed by their close allies. And the fact is the Harris team is very gently tiptoeing around all of those feelings.”
