Kamala's latest staff upheaval: Deputy press secretary quits, DNC runs VP's Twitter account

Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP

Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for Kamala Harris, is leaving and moving over to the Pentagon. She is one of a long line of staff to leave Kamala’s office amid stories of her poor leadership style and a dysfunctional office. Singh leaves after Kamala’s recent trip overseas which received mixed reviews.

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Singh joined Kamala’s team while she was still a senator in March 2020. Singh’s resignation leaves only one of the four-person senior press shop that began with Harris as vice-president – Herbie Ziskend, who will be promoted to senior advisor for communications. She previously worked on the presidential campaigns of Michael Bloomberg and Corey Booker. Singh is staffer number nine to leave the vice-president’s office since June.

Singh’s departure follows that of communications director Ashley Etienne and senior adviser and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders, both of whom left at the end of 2021.

Ernesto Apreza, Harris’ senior adviser for public engagement, will become deputy press secretary. Assistant press secretary Rachel Palermo, who worked on the transition team after serving on Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, will serve as deputy communications director.

It isn’t clear if Singh’s resignation is due to the latest shakeup of Kamala’s press team or if it is a part of new communications director Jamal Simmons’ efforts to change direction in the office. Both Biden and Kamala are getting out more and traveling to counter their abysmal poll numbers. The problem with that plan is that both Kamala and Sleepy Joe are gaffe-prone on their best days and downright bad behind a microphone. Simmons said, “We will miss her institutional knowledge, strategic counsel and rapid-fire e-mail fingers.”

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A now deleted tweet posted on Kamala’s official Twitter account was deleted and re-posted on Tuesday after her return from Europe. It featured a Kamala gaffe where it looks as though Kamala is including Ukraine in NATO. That was awkward because it plays directly into Putin’s hands. Putin insists that Ukraine cannot be allowed to join NATO. Kamala’s gaffe was mostly a continuation of her series of misspeaking about U.S policy. She tweeted that the United States is supporting Ukraine “in defense of the NATO alliance” which implies that Ukraine is a part of NATO. It is not.

“When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security,” a tweet from the @KamalaHarris account stated. “The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”

The remarks made in the tweet, which featured a photo of Harris greeting American and Polish service members, come on the heels of similar statements she made while addressing House Democrats over the weekend at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting in D.C.

“Russia’s invasion threatens not just Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens democracy and security across Europe,” Harris said. “So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”

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After those unfortunate words came out of her mouth, things got tricky. The White House edited the transcript of her remarks, altering her words to appear as though she properly spoke. The transcript was altered to add “[and]” to make it appear as though she said the United States supports Ukraine and defends surrounding NATO countries.

And, this is where we learn that the DNC manages Kamala’s Twitter account. The DNC posted a tweet with the original quote about the NATO alliance and then deleted it to replace it with the corrected version. Is this the first we are learning that the DNC is playing the role of social media manager for Kamala?

A new version of the tweet posted Tuesday night now reads: “When I was in Poland, I met with U.S. and Polish service members, thanking them for standing with our NATO allies for freedom, peace, and security. The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people and in defense of the NATO alliance.”

Regardless of if Kamala just misspoke or if she was relaying a more aggressive tone than bumbling Biden has delivered on the United States’ support of Ukraine within NATO obligations, her blunder played right into Putin’s hands. He is looking to annex Ukraine and push away NATO influence in the region. Ukraine is looking to the future and wants to be a part of democracy-oriented nations, the opposite of what Putin wants for Ukraine. He expects Zelensky to pass on applying for NATO membership as part of a deal to end his invasion into Ukraine. Zelensky has signaled he may go along with that stipulation.

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So, how is that revamping of Kamala’s office going? It doesn’t look like things are getting better. With Kamala designated to be hidin’ Biden’s person to manage relationships with foreign leaders, traveling abroad to reassure everyone that the United States isn’t completely rudderless in foreign policy, it’s going to be a very long three more years.

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