Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren The White House has long been annoyed by the persistent negative stories about Vice President KAMALA HARRIS. But now they’re taking increasingly aggressive steps to push back on them. After Reuters last week published a piece about how Harris was “gearing up for another national campaign” despite bad poll numbers and concerns about her from Democrats, senior White House officials publicly rushed to her defense. “Harris is an invaluable, relentless voice for the American people at home and around the world,” White House chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS tweeted. Communications director BEN LABOLT also tweeted that the Reuters story was “silly season material,” along with a thread detailing Harris’ recent work on issues such as expanding access to high-speed internet — which was promptly quote-tweeted by deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND. The swift and pointed public criticism of the Reuters story from senior officials wasn’t a one off. Indeed, the White House has pushed back against criticism of Harris before. But the current round is part of an intentional effort to do more to defend the vice president. And it is another sign that she remains firmly on the ticket, coming as President JOE BIDEN gets ready to launch his expected reelection campaign. Even Biden has gotten in on the action. When “Veep” star JULIA-LOUIS DREYFUS visited the White House last week, Biden made a sly, off-handed supportive comment to Dreyfus and Harris, saying: “By the way, she left as president.” (Harris replied: “Oh that’s right!”) The official White House Twitter account tweeted out the 18-second video. As we were working on this top today and as Women’s History Month draws to a close, the White House posted another tweet in praise of Harris: “This month, I call attention to one remarkable woman in particular: Kamala. She’s shattered barrier after barrier... thank you for your partnership in the progress we’ve made.” The White House’s more aggressive posture is a late — but welcomed — move to those close to Harris. When she first took office, the vice president was bludgeoned by story after story about turmoil within her staff. Internally, there was discontent, both with the turnover and the media coverage. There was a sense that the White House could do more to defend her. At the time, a former aide said the vice president’s staff had also pushed for the Democratic National Committee to do more to insulate Harris from the attacks. “It’s almost as if they forgot that she was part of the administration,” said DONNA BRAZILE, a former acting chair of the DNC who is close to the White House. But, Brazile added, things have since begun to change. “There’s an effort afoot to make sure that [the public doesn’t] forget that Kamala Harris is doing an outstanding job,” she said. In a statement, White House spokesperson ROBYN PATTERSON said that “attacks on the Vice President are nothing new.” “For years, we’ve watched Republicans belittle her qualifications, her experience, and her enormous leadership on complex issues of deep importance to this administration and to the American people. It’s a familiar playbook. The President and Vice President are a team and POTUS – and the entire Biden-Harris administration — have her back every day of the week,” she said. The White House’s more public defense of Harris comes amid senior-level staff changes. Both Zients and LaBolt are new to their posts. “The White House is smart in terms of making sure that when they see unreasonable and unrelenting attacks on their administration, they are out there defending,” said top Democratic strategist and close Harris adviser MINYON MOORE when asked about the White House’s recent defense of Harris. “They are protecting each other and their accomplishments is the way I see it.” Harris’ early struggles were, in part, self-inflicted. The vice president stumbled in early interviews and was handed tricky portfolio items, like stemming migration to the southern border. She also saw a number of top aides leave her office. But the White House has long argued that coverage of Harris is over-torqued and relies on sources who aren’t actually close to her. Specifically, officials noted that the Reuters piece quoted BUD JACKSON, a Democratic strategist who, as one White House official quipped, “hadn’t worked on a campaign since WESLEY CLARK.” “The quality of who’s taken on the record makes a lot of these stories into satire,” said the official, who declined to speak on record. Jackson defended his resume to West Wing Playbook, saying he’s worked in politics for decades. “I agree with the White House if they believe that the establishment is unfairly measuring the vice president's performance. The point that I made is that folks have unrealistic expectations of a vice president. It's a difficult position to be in,” he said. A spokesperson for Reuters, for its part, said: “We stand by our reporting.” MESSAGE US — Are you “Veep” star JULIA-LOUIS DREYFUS? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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