Political | Process

Word of Sanders’s exit comes amid reports turmoil between the West Wing, Harris’s office, and some of the vice president’s advisers. 

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• Peter Velz, the vice president’s director of press operations, is also leaving Harris’s office “in the coming weeks,” along with Vince Evans, deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, according to reports.

• Harris’s communications director, Ashley Etienne, a former top adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Obama administration official, resigned in November, while several advance staffers headed for the exit over the summer. A CNN report last month said Harris’s chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, had struggled to recruit new staff.

• Few of Harris’s presidential campaign staff followed her to the White House, likewise from her Senate office to the campaign, and before that, from her California Attorney General’s office to Washington. Former advisers have said that Harris is tough on her staff.

• One former Harris adviser who remains close to the vice president told the Washington Examiner that Sanders’s departure was “not the least bit surprising” and cited her prominent public profile. “I’m not a fan of the ‘celebrity staffer,’ and I can’t imagine Kamala is either,” the ex-adviser said.

• Sanders is well regarded by Democratic operatives. One former Harris presidential campaign staffer praised her as a “f***ing genius” communications adviser.

• In a letter to staff  late Wednesday that was reported by Politico, Sanders wrote, “Shortly, Politico, CNN and lord know whoever else is going to report that I am leaving the office at the end of December. It’s true and I’m sorry you all found out like this.”

• She added: “I’m so grateful to the VP for her vote of confidence from the very beginning … I am immensely grateful and will miss working for her and with all of you,” she added. “We are fighters. Our President and VP are fighters and I will continue to be on the team, fighting for them.”

SOURCE: WASHINGTONEXAMINER