Awkward! White House Announcer Appears to Snub VP Harris at Infrastructure Signing

In an embarrassing exchange or lack thereof, the White House announcer skipped over Vice President Kamala Harris during the signing ceremony of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The announcer stated, “please welcome Heather Kurtenbach” which forced the vice president to say “In a moment” so she could give her speech.

Media is speculating whether or not the mistake was purposeful following a disastrous CNN report on Harris. “The snub is very likely a flub, but it nevertheless served as a metaphor for Harris’ current travails, coming just a day after a CNN report that her office is facing internalized dysfunction and an absence of focus and that President Biden’s aides were fed up with hers” reports Fox News.

Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package into law during a ceremony on the White House lawn Monday, after months of negotiations. A spokesperson for Harris pointed Fox News to tweets from vice presidential staff as well as White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s tweet defending the vice president’s “vital role” in the administration.

The CNN’s piece about the vice president and her office’s operations is painful from the first paragraph:

Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff — deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when President Joe Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns.

The exasperation runs both ways. Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers — who spoke extensively to CNN — reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden’s team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president.