Kamala Harris Hires Jen Psaki’s Brother-in-Law for Help

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the White House in Washing
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Paul Bois

As Kamala Harris battles her flatlining approval rating, the vice president has made some new hires in her inner circle to help improve her image, including White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s brother-in-law.

“Vice President Harris has brought on two new senior advisers in recent months as part of an effort to bolster her office’s capacity amid a heightened media profile and a growing portfolio,” a White House official told The Washington Post.

Of her new hires, Harris enlisted Adam Frankel, a former speechwriter for President Obama and current brother-in-law to Jen Psaki.

According to the White House official, his hiring was to “focus on organizational development, strategic communications and long-term planning.”

SAN LEANDRO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 08: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a No on the Recall campaign event with California Gov. Gavin Newsom at IBEW-NECA Joint Apprenticeship Training Center on September 08, 2021 in San Leandro, California. With six days to go until the California recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom was joined by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as he continues to campaign throughout the state. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a No on the Recall campaign event with California Gov. Gavin Newsom at IBEW-NECA Joint Apprenticeship Training Center on September 08, 2021 in San Leandro, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Harris also hired Lorraine Voles, who previously worked as the director of communications for Vice President Al Gore and who recently “served as senior vice president for communications and marketing at Fannie Mae and vice president of external relations at George Washington University.”

Kamala Harris has been polling abysmally in recent weeks, with a recent Gallup poll showing her deadlocked at an approval rating of 49 percent and a disapproval rating of 49 percent. The recent hirings have been interpreted as an attempt to keep her above water, per WaPo.

 The hires come amid a sense of anxiety among some Democrats about Harris’s first year as vice president. Many in the party view Harris, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for president, as a leading candidate to take the mantle from the 78-year-old President Biden either in 2024, should he choose not to run for reelection, or in 2028.

But she has been taken on politically difficult assignments — such as addressing the root causes of migration in Central America and tackling the volatile area of voting rights — where it is difficult to make immediate progress.

While the president is surrounded by many aides who have worked for him for decades, most of Harris’s White House staff had never worked for her before she took office, either in her Senate office or during her presidential campaign.

Recently, as the Southern border crisis continued to worsen, Kamala Harris compared images of border patrol agents on horseback intercepting Haitian migrants to the days of slavery.

“First of all, I’ve been very clear about the images that you and I both saw of those law enforcement officials on horses – I was outraged by it,” she said ABC this past Friday. “It was horrible and and deeply troubling. There’s been now an investigation that has been conducted, which I fully support and there needs to be consequences and accountability.”

“Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country,” she added.

US Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs from Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore on August 24, 2021. (Photo by Roslan Rahman / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs from Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore on August 24, 2021. (ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The photographer who captured the viral moment said the images have been misinterpreted, especially the now-debunked assertion that agents were using whips.

“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” photographer Paul Ratje told KTSM-TV.

“He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture,” he added.

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