In her bad books! Harris keeps an enemies list of reporters who ‘don’t appreciate her life experience’ and doesn’t like words such as ‘guarded’ or ‘hesitant’ used to describe her
- The vice president was profiled in The Atlantic for a story on Monday
- Harris was reported to keep a list of reporters who ‘don’t fully understand her’
- Washington Post journalist Chelsea Janes is believed to be on her list
- She covered a Harris event and said sorority ‘skee wee’ salute was ‘screeching’
- Harris is known for being cagey and aloof around reporters
- She has got a new cell phone and old friends reportedly find it hard to reach her
Kamala Harris keeps a list of journalists who she believes ‘don’t fully understand her or appreciate her life experience,’ according to a new profile of the vice president.
Harris, 56, is known for keeping reporters at arm’s-length.
On Monday a journalist with The Atlantic claimed that she went further, and kept records of reporters who displeased her.
Among them was Chelsea Janes, a Washington Post reporter who covered the 2020 election and is now their national baseball writer.
Kamala Harris keeps a list of reporters who do not understand her, The Atlantic reported
Chelsea Janes, who wrote about the election for The Washington Post, is reportedly on the list
Janes in 2019 attended a Harris campaign event where Harris’ sorority greeted her with their distinctive cheer, which Janes described as ‘screeching’.
‘She often mentions an episode in which a Washington Post reporter mistook the cheer of the historic Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha for “screeches,” I was told,’ the reporter wrote.
‘She particularly doesn’t like the word cautious, and aides look out for synonyms too. Careful, guarded, and hesitant don’t go over well.
‘But she continues to retreat behind talking points and platitudes in public, and declines many interview requests and opportunities to speak for herself (including for this article).
‘At times, she comes off as so uninteresting that television producers have started to wonder whether spending thousands of dollars to send people on trips with her is worthwhile, given how little usable material they get out of it.’
Harris was described in the article as being aloof and unwilling to engage with journalists
Harris talks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two on May 4
Harris, who was a senator for California before she became president, has long had a reputation as being cagey around the media – unlike Biden, whose garrulousness is legendary. Once he became a serious presidential contender he toned that down, under pressure from his aides, and granted very few interviews on the campaign trail.
Harris is similarly reticent.
In September her team was forced to bat away a story that she had not taken any formal questions from the press since she was named as Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, over a month previously. Harris had spoken to local media and some digital outlets such as The 19th, focusing on women, and The Grio, focusing on black issues.
She had not, however, held formal press sessions, according to a Reuters fact check.
The Atlantic reported that Harris, unlike Mike Pence and Biden before him, would not come to chat with reporters while flying with them on Air Force Two.
Harris’s friends, the magazine said, also found her aloof – the vice president was given a new cellphone on taking office, and her old friends have struggled to contact her.
‘They often can’t get through,’ the magazine said.
Harris’s behavior raised eyebrows online.
One Twitter user likened her to Richard Nixon, who famously kept lists of his enemies.
Another wondered whether she was going to set the FBI on them.
Another remarked: ‘She “tracks” reporters? Seems… interesting, to say the least.’
