The Left burned some $110 million in a failed effort to help Jaime Harrison oust Lindsey Graham. If you’ve watched any cable news lately, you know how that worked out. As a consolation prize, Jaime Harrison got to chair the DNC since that’s the reward for blowing an expensive election. In reality, Jaime Harrison got the job because he was another Clyburn ally and Biden is deep in hock to Clyburn for his position.
After getting the job last year, there’s leaking that he wants out ahead of the expected catastrophic 2022 midterms.
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison is frustrated, isolated and trapped in a job he long thought he wanted, according to party insiders, a dynamic driven by escalating tensions with the White House over his role.
This is all but copied from the Kamala Harris stories.
At the same time, he’s not flying to meet with donors or visiting DNC headquarters. Instead, since he first took the post a year ago, Harrison has mostly stayed in his home state of South Carolina, according to people familiar with his schedule, as well as people who frequently see him around town. That has been a major point of consternation for the White House.
Well I’m sure South Carolina will be a key player in… the 2022 midterms?
Harrison has been frustrated enough to consider an escape route to depart before the midterms, when Republicans are expected to make gains in Congress, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. But Harrison, who has long had his eye on running for Congress when House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., retires, can’t make any move that would be perceived as harmful to the party or the president.
In other words, he expects Clyburn’s job. Even though it would be a massive step down. And he’s not actually doing his job at the DNC.
Harrison expected to get an easy role during a political ascendancy, apparently without realizing that midterms are usually catastrophic for the ruling party. That’s also why the party was willing to let Biden have his way. Now Biden and Harrison aren’t getting on.
In an interview with NBC News, Harrison said he plans to serve his full four-year term, but left room for uncertainty.
“That’s my goal,” he said. “I made a commitment to the president.”
I’m sure Republicans are hoping that he will.
But the bigger story here is that the circular firing squad is alive and well.
NBC News spoke with more than two dozen current and former DNC officials, White House officials, fundraisers, donors and Democrats in touch with the White House, who nearly universally described a strained relationship between the White House and Harrison.
The thinking among Harrison’s critics, according to one person close to the conflict, is that the chairman’s whereabouts would be much less of an issue if he were in constant virtual contact with donors. While Harrison is doing some of that work, the White House isn’t pleased with the pace, the source said — a sentiment echoed by an adviser with Biden’s political operation.
A former DNC official who is in contact both with Harrison and the White House put it this way: “He’s been marginalized — but it’s with good cause.”
Another former party official said, “You don’t hear about him. You don’t see him. There’s nothing there. He’s not out there fighting the fight.”
The Biden White House is blaming its own DNC chair for the upcoming loss and he’s blaming them right back.
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