Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Newsmax on Monday that the recent CNN story about tension between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris is an indication that the administration is in ''serious trouble.''
''This administration is in serious trouble,'' McClain said on ''Spicer & Co.'' ''Whether it's an athlete and their coach, whether it's business partners, or whether it's parents, you may disagree behind the scenes, but when that door opens, you have a united front, and clearly this administration does not have a united front.''
McClain was reacting to a CNN story Sunday that there is tension between Biden and Harris, and their staffs, behind the closed doors of the White House.
''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,'' the news network reported Sunday.
''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.''
The story drew the ire of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who defended Harris in a Sunday night post on Twitter.
''For anyone who needs to hear it [Vice President Harris] is not only a vital partner to [President Biden], but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country —from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband,'' Psaki’s post said.
The article, which said that people in Harris’ corner were ''getting frantic'' because of her ''weak'' position, with some polls showing her with just a 29% approval rating, 10 points behind Biden’s current low 39% approval rating.
CNN contributor Bakari Sellers, a former Harris campaign worker, even took his own network to task for the story.
"I have a larger issue with the tone and tenor by which Kamala Harris is covered, and I think we saw that in this article," Fox News quoted him as saying on CNN. "I had to push back heavily on this article and throw a little cold water on it.
''I spent a little time with the vice president’s office and no one’s frantic, but more importantly she just got back from a flawless overseas trip to France dealing with a very prickly issue where we had some freezing of our diplomatic relations with France, and she by all means performed extremely well."
McClain said that the challenges facing the country and the way the Biden administration has handled them does not give it much of an opportunity to make Harris ''look good.''
''With everything that's happened in this short, 10 months, you got the border crisis, you got the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation is up, you got the supply chain issues, you've got labor issues. What really is there to make her look good at,'' McClain said. ''What really has this administration done to make her look good? I mean, for God's sake, she really hasn't even been to the border.''
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