U.S. VP Harris’ prime aide Sanders to depart workplace in newest departure

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walks with Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Spokesperson Symone Sanders to board Air Pressure Two at El Paso Worldwide Airport in El Paso, Texas, U.S., June 25, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Dec 1 (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris’s senior adviser and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders is leaving by the top of the yr, the most recent high-profile departure from her workplace amid rising considerations over Harris’s communication technique and the way nicely she is being positioned for future roles.

Sanders labored for President Joe Biden for practically three years, and infrequently traveled with Harris on home and international journeys.

She labored with the vp as she navigated advanced points resembling voting rights in the USA and fixing root causes of migration from Central America’s Northern Triangle international locations.

“VP values Symone and she or he is beloved…grateful to have her by way of the top of the yr,” a White Home official who didn’t want to be recognized mentioned, confirming her departure.

Earlier this month, Ashley Etienne, Harris’s communications director, additionally left the administration.

A separate White Home official accustomed to the state of affairs mentioned the departures come amid considerations Harris isn’t being adequately ready or positioned, and as a substitute is being sidelined.

Messaging challenges have been a continuing battle for Harris’s workplace by way of the primary yr of this administration.

In June, she was grilled throughout an interview by an NBC anchor over why she had not visited the U.S.-Mexico border regardless of being put answerable for the nation’s migrant disaster.

This was adopted by a lady who claimed to be a reporter who made her means into the vp’s information convention in Mexico. Extra just lately, Harris’s first in-studio interview was scuttled after anchors on the present examined optimistic for COVID-19 on the final minute.

Sanders, who didn’t reply to a request in search of remark, despatched a be aware to employees on Wednesday asserting her choice.

“From my first days on the President’s marketing campaign to touring with the VP when she joined the ticket, to witnessing the historic swearing in of the President and Vice President. It has been an honor,” she mentioned.

Sanders labored for the presidential marketing campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 earlier than changing into an adviser on Biden’s 2020 presidential marketing campaign. She ceaselessly defended Biden on tv and helped him construct help with Black voters.

She additionally made it identified, each privately and in her memoir, that she was desirous about changing into the White Home Press Secretary and the primary Black lady to carry the job however was handed over for the position earlier this yr.

Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, Extra reporting by Kanishka Singh; Enhancing by Lincoln Feast and Kim Coghill

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