A book by progressives focusing on progressive figures sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris at a time when there was speculation about her potential replacement as Joe Biden’s vice president. It detailed White House aides’ concerns about Harris’s struggle to articulate a clear political agenda and her heavy reliance on personal appeal.
Now, with Harris locked in a close presidential race against former President Donald Trump, the book is being revisited eight months after its initial release.
In the summer of 2023, a wave of Democratic Party leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, were showcasing their leadership credentials amid mounting calls for Joe Biden to step aside. As that moment passed, attention shifted to Harris, with left-wing critics scrutinizing her historically low favorability ratings, the Daily Caller reported.
Enter The Truce: Progressives, Centrists, and the Future of the Democratic Party, released in January. By then, the left had ample time to consider replacing Harris and, arguably, the book provided them with plenty of ammunition to make that case. “It was rotten from the start,” a top aide from her 2020 campaign noted. “A lot of us, at least folks that I was friends with on the campaign, all realized that: ‘Yeah, this person should not be president of the United States.’”
The book, written by Hunter Walker and Luppe B. Luppen, was published well before Harris emerged as the presumed successor for the Democratic presidential ticket, compliments of President Joe Biden. “Kamala is not ready for prime time,” a senior White House staffer told the authors. “She ain’t made for this.”
It also features scathing remarks from insiders of her 2020 campaign, depicting Harris as a lackluster and ineffective leader with no clear political vision or strategy for governing. Some staffers recounted conflicts stemming from tensions between Harris’s family and the top consulting firm she had hired for advice.
Staffers described significant dysfunction revolving around the strained relationship between Harris’s sister Maya, who chaired the campaign, and Juan Rodriguez of Bearstars Strategies, who was serving as the campaign manager. The rift between Rodriguez and Maya Harris grew so severe that they were forced to work in separate wings of the campaign headquarters and held separate meetings with the staff.
“It was the most awkward day of my life,” a senior staffer told the authors. “People were literally having a thirty-minute audit meeting with Juan about how the campaign was going and then they were walking across the hall into the same meeting with Maya … I remember Juan popping into my office to find out how the meeting with Maya went.”
The dysfunction within the campaign went beyond family dynamics. Staffers reported that mismanagement of funds was a recurring issue, the Caller noted further.
“She cared less about how much money I was raising for her and more about what I was doing to create a good inclusive workspace,” a consultant told the authors. When Harris withdrew from the primary race in December 2019, she stated that a lack of funds was the primary reason for her decision.
The authors described the money management issues as part of a broader “toxic climate” within the campaign. In November 2019, state operations manager Kelly Mehlenbacher resigned, and her resignation letter, which was leaked to The New York Times, echoed this sentiment.
“This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,” she wrote then.
Kelly Mehlenbacher: “This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly… With less than 90 days until Iowa we still do not have a real plan to win (NYT)”
” … because we have refused to confront our mistakes, foster an environment of critical thinking and honest feedback, or trust the expertise of talented staff, we find ourselves making the same unforced errors over and over,” she added.
