Kamala Harris is losing her ninth employee since June in Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, who is moving to the Department of Defense.
Singh served with the vice president for over two years, joining the then-senator’s team in March 2020 during the presidential campaign to manage communications after working on campaigns for Michael Bloomberg and Corey Booker.
The vice president’s office staff flee the ship after a year full of messaging errors and a flurry of personal attacks on the vice president, combined with viral rumors of office toxicity and tensions between the offices of Harris and President Biden.
The vice president’s office can have up to 50 employees at any given time.
Of the four people in the senior press office that started with Harris, only one remained, Herbie Ziskend. According to an email sent to ‘s internal address, Ziskend will be promoted to Senior Communications Adviser.
Vice President Harris’ Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh goes to the Pentagon.
Harris has lost nine employees since June
Of the four people in the senior press center that started with Harris, only one remained, Herbie Ziskend.
VP forced to cancel St. Patrick’s Day breakfast with Irish Taoiseach after second gentleman tests positive for COVID-19
Kamala Harris was forced to cancel the traditional St. Patrick’s Day breakfast for visiting Irish Taoiseach after her husband tested positive for COVID-19.
Instead, she wished Michael Martin a happy St. Patrick’s Day in a phone call on Wednesday.
“The Vice President expressed her regret at not being able to host a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in honor of Taoiseach and Mary Martin,” the White House said in a statement.
“Breakfast at the Naval Observatory has been canceled as a precaution after a second gentleman tested positive for COVID-19.”
They also discussed the Ukrainian crisis and Harris thanked Martin for the humanitarian assistance to Ireland.
He still has to visit the White House for a reception on Thursday.
Singh’s departure follows the departure of Chief Communications Officer Ashley Etienne and Senior Advisor and Chief Representative Simon Sanders, who left at the end of 2021.
Ernesto Apreza, Harris’s senior public relations adviser, will become deputy spokesman. Assistant press secretary Rachel Palermo, who served on the transition team after Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, will become deputy director of public affairs.
The reshuffle of the vice president’s press team is being led by a new director of communications, Jamal Simmons. The reset came as both the President and Vice President sought to increase public participation to combat poor poll results.
President Biden sent Harris on a high-stakes trip to Munich in late February when world leaders met to try to distract Russia from invading Ukraine. She then visited Poland and Romania last week to reassure the United States of its security commitment after awkward disputes over providing MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.
Harris then spoke at her party’s winter caucus in Philadelphia late last week, where she told Democrats they need to make sure Americans “got what they ordered.”
“Our job is to show people that in many ways they got what they ordered,” the vice president said Saturday. “Much of what they demanded, they got, so let’s go out there like we did and remind them…because we know they will show up again.”
In February, the vice president lost the head of her speechwriting team, Kate Childs Graham.
Siskend paid tribute to his departing colleague on Twitter.
“Kate is driven, hard-working, fun – a great colleague and friend,” he said.
“I will miss working with her every day, but look forward to her next adventure.”
This follows a string of farewell messages as employees leave the office, many of them vacating their positions in the press office.
Kate Childs Graham is the latest official to step down as vice president. She is expected to leave her position as director of speech writing around the end of February.
Last July, Vice President Kamala Harris sang “Happy Birthday” to Childs Graham (left) and domestic policy adviser Rohini Kosoglu aboard Air Force Two.
Aides are annoyed by the idea of a reboot, but reports say Harris is trying to restore his public image by doing more to promote his work in the White House.
Herbie Ziskend, associate director of communications for the vice president, gave his colleague a rave review on Twitter.
The most famous was Sanders, who has since taken a position at MSNBC.
But that began after Harris’s widely criticized visit to Central America in June, when she was ridiculed for delivering a simple “don’t come” message in her role as coordinator to address the root causes of migration out of the region.
There was also a case of misidentification at a press conference on this trip.
Harris called Univision’s “Maria Fernanda” to ask a question, but it turned out to be a fan with the same name as the Miami reporter.
Vice President Development Director Carly Satkowiak and Deputy Development Director Gabrielle DeFranceschi, who was in charge of travel planning and coordination with local officials and the media, left the office shortly after the trip.
Next to leave was Rajan Kaur, who was Harris’ director of digital strategists but left in July after deciding not to move to Washington from Brooklyn.
Etienne left in November.
Sanders, one of Harris’ top public figures, left at the end of the year, around the same time as communications director Peter Welz and Vince Evans, who said they were leaving to become executive director of the congressional black caucus.
Press Secretary Simon Sanders and Communications Director Ashley Etienne left the company last year. A total of eight officials have left since Harris visited Central America last June.
The year began with many reports that Harris planned to face negative coverage, with a busier media schedule and a campaign schedule that her supporters say is better suited to her political skills.
Her first year in office came to a head in December when she was branded a “hooligan” who subjected her employees to “constant heartbreaking criticism” from insiders quoted in The Washington Post.
Former employees said the vice president exhibits the same aggressive management style that has plagued much of her political career.
At the same time, she was a lightning rod for Republican criticism.
Conservatives have focused attention on her role in an attempt to address the root causes of migration to the US from Central America, which does not appear to have stopped arrivals at the southern border so far.
And her poll numbers remain below 40 percent. The moving average of Real Clear Politics shows that 38.6 percent of respondents give her a positive assessment, while 53.7 percent have a negative opinion of the vice president.