DeSantis Spokeswoman Launches Explosive Charge Against Psaki Tweet Calling Harris a 'Vital Partner'
With defenders like Jen Psaki, Kamala Harris doesn’t need enemies.
Already a target of conservative criticisms for her leftist politics and poor performance in office, Harris over the weekend was the subject of a searing story on CNN about the fraught relations between her staff and President Joe Biden’s.
When Psaki decided to take to Twitter on Sunday night to allegedly back Harris up, it sounded half-hearted at best. But to the spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, it sounded even worse than that.
“For anyone who needs to hear it,” Psaki wrote. “@VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country — from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.”
For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) November 15, 2021
The post did little to bolster the vice president’s case, judging by much of the reaction in the political world. The fact that it was published at all just seemed like more evidence that Harris is floundering.
As the liberal website Mediaite noted, while the tweet was supposed to be supportive, it only drew more attention to the CNN story.
Then on Monday night, Psaki was interviewed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and asked to explain her post on national television. Psaki’s words were complimentary, but her demeanor was oddly … giggly.
Check it out here. Does this look sincere to you?
“I’ve watched the president and the vice president in meetings and watched them work together up close and I just wanted to be clear about what I saw,” Psaki said. “That’s my role as the press secretary in this White House, to send a clear message to the American people.”
But whatever damage Psaki was trying to control (if she really was trying) had already been done.
Sean Spicer, a former White House press secretary in the Trump administration, wrote on Twitter:
“You know it’s really bad… Concerned about the perception of the @vp (even @CNN is reporting it) the White Press press office had to issue this statement to reassure everyone that in fact @KamalaHarris is a ‘vital partner’ — usually actions speak for themselves.”
Spicer’s comment was typical of how many viewed the Psaki tweet.
That negative reaction might have looked like it backfired, but to DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw, it was just what President Joe Biden’s team wanted.
A communications professional herself, Pushaw wrote in a Twitter post that the Psaki tweet was actually aimed at making Harris look bad.
“My 2 cents as a comms person: Psaki knows EXACTLY how her Tweet about Kamala Harris comes across,” Pushaw wrote. “The Biden Admin is trying to use Kamala as a scapegoat for all their failures. They’re planting negative stories about her. I don’t pity her obviously, but it is pathetic of Biden.”
My 2 cents as a comms person: Psaki knows EXACTLY how her Tweet about Kamala Harris comes across. The Biden Admin is trying to use Kamala as a scapegoat for all their failures. They’re planting negative stories about her. I don’t pity her obviously, but it is pathetic of Biden.
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) November 15, 2021
The White House is using Harris as a fall guy for its own failings, Pushaw wrote.
It was clear from the beginning, when Biden put “border” in Harris’ portfolio. Handling the border crisis should be the president’s job, but he wanted to avoid responsibility & accountability while damaging Harris politically. She walked into it because of her ambition.
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) November 15, 2021
This isn’t sympathetic to Kamala Harris — it’s my observation on how Biden operates. He NEVER takes responsibility for ANYTHING, always deflects blame onto others, whether he’s blaming governors, the former president, or his own team. He knows the media won’t hold him accountable
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) November 15, 2021
Of course, there’s no way from the outside to know if Pushaw’s take is correct. But if it’s true, it would be explosive.
This isn’t a high school election we’re talking about. And it’s not some hit show streaming on Netflix that the Washington elite love to chatter about.
It’s the president and vice president of the United States, with the power to affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world.
Still, as a woman currently spending her own career in the crucible of contemporary politics, Pushaw has a vantage point most Americans don’t.
And since she’s seen her own share of smears from the mainstream media since her boss became a contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — and a thorn in the side of the Biden administration — it’s a good bet she’s got a pretty good idea of how the liberal media mindset operates.
Plus, there’s the unavoidable fact for Biden’s camp that the president’s in a precarious position.
On the home front, the twin crises of rampant inflation and an illegal immigration invasion — both exacerbated by Biden policies — are damaging Biden’s political standing and his party’s prospects in the 2022 midterms.
Internationally, after the disgrace of the Afghanistan withdrawal, the president lacks both moral authority and military credibility, a disastrous combination for the leader of the free world.
As Pushaw pointed out, for Biden to take responsibility for that state of affairs would fly in the face of pretty much every minute of his performance in office so far.
“He NEVER takes responsibility for ANYTHING, always deflects blame onto others, whether he’s blaming governors, the former president, or his own team. He knows the media won’t hold him accountable,” she wrote.
The mainstream media won’t hold Biden accountable, since its media outlets — very much including CNN — are responsible for putting him into office.
So turning fire on a vice president who’s been demonstrably inept at every turn would be one way to take the heat off the White House.
And having the White House press secretary herself take to Twitter on a Sunday night apparently burning with the desire to leap to speak out on Harris’ behalf would be a way to give Biden’s team cover while still making sure anyone who hadn’t heard about the story would know it was being read at the highest levels.
No conservative needs to shed a tear over Kamala Harris being in a tough position. She’s a partisan hack who has no business being a heartbeat away from the American presidency. Her behavior during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings alone should have disqualified her from ever holding higher office.
Her ludicrously low poll numbers now are just a reflection of the lack of support she had even in her own party during the Democratic primary campaign, when she dropped out in December 2019 before a single caucus gathered or primary vote was cast.
And now it looks like she could be being thrown under the bus by a White House that needs to give Washington something to talk about besides its own incompetence.
No. Kamala Harris doesn’t need enemies at all. In the Biden administration these days, apparently, that’s what friends are for.
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