How High Staff Turnover Could Be One Of Kamala Harris's Greatest Weaknesses

5 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," journalist Kelli Goff spoke about Vice President Kamala Harris's high staff turnover.

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Transcript

00:00Kelly, I'm glad you brought up the staff turnover.

00:02There have been reports this week

00:03that put that number just in the VP office at a 90% turnover.

00:08I remember the headlines from when

00:09she ran as a candidate herself in the 2020 election.

00:13There were reports of staff turnover then.

00:15You mentioned the attorney general.

00:16How big a factor is this?

00:18And what does it tell you about her leadership style?

00:21Well, here's the problem.

00:22So there are male candidates, I want

00:24to be clear, who've had high staff turnover too.

00:26I think the problem is I equate it

00:28to the Dan Quayle phenomenon, which

00:32is Dan Quayle was ridiculed as sort

00:34of the good-looking, intellectual lightweight who

00:37was picked because he was young and attractive

00:39and kind of balanced out President Bush's ticket.

00:42So there was already this built-in stereotype.

00:45So that way, when he misspelled potato,

00:48which we'll all recall at the elementary school,

00:50it played into what was already a negative stereotype held

00:53by many, which is that this guy's not very bright.

00:56Now, if Bill Clinton, who'd been a Rhodes Scholar,

00:57misspelled potato, it would just be a hilarious story

01:00that people would say, even a Rhodes Scholar misspells

01:03potato once in a while, right?

01:05I think the problem with Vice President Harris,

01:07if you already have these built-in question marks

01:09about her likability, and then people see the staff turnover

01:13numbers, it plays into that.

01:16Whether that's right or wrong, it plays into that.

01:18Because at the end of the day, regardless

01:20of why a staff member leaves, you chose them.

01:24So if it didn't work out, there has to be a reason.

01:26It's sort of like all of us who have the friends

01:28who keep going through messy breakups.

01:30And at a certain point, you go, the guys may all be jerks,

01:32but you keep choosing them, right?

01:34So that's what I think is really kind of the problem for her.

01:39You asked about her strength.

01:40I mean, obviously, with Roe v. Wade

01:43having essentially been neutered,

01:45and that's something, obviously, I care a lot about.

01:48I made the film, Reversing Roe,

01:49which is on the history of abortion,

01:51legal cases throughout America,

01:53particularly in the courts.

01:55But I think that's one of the issues

01:57that they have seen as one of her strengths, right?

02:00She can get on the campaign trail and talk about that.

02:03But again, it kind of becomes a chicken or the egg,

02:05which is if you don't have the leadership style

02:07that can actually sustain the strategic battles, right,

02:11needed to implement policy or challenge policy,

02:15I think that it gives certain voters pause.

How High Staff Turnover Could Be One Of Kamala Harris's Greatest Weaknesses

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