Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) criticized Vice President Harris for refusing to meet with him when they were both in California’s congressional delegation, claiming that Harris had a reputation for a toxic office culture.
“When she got elected to the U.S. Senate, I was the majority leader. I reached out to meet with her, not once would she meet with me,” McCarthy said in a Fox News interview Sunday. “If I talked to the Democrats inside the California delegation, they didn’t care for her because she would not meet.”
The former Speaker also went after Harris for her office culture, claiming that her offices have consistently had high turnover and poor reviews from past employees.
“It’s known in Washington, it is a heroic work environment,” McCarthy continued. “If you work for her, nobody lasts very long. Even as VP when she didn’t do anything, she could not keep staff.”
“How she treats people around her is a real indication of what she’ll do in the future,” he added.
Harris has long dealt with a revolving door of staff from her tenure as a district attorney in San Francisco to state attorney general to the Senate and now the vice presidency. During just one week in July 2022, she lost 13 staffers, including her head speechwriter.
“It’s always been a problem,” one former Harris aide told The Hill in 2022. “You have to have your people around you.”
“Politics is about relationships and the relationships with the people around you,” a second former staffer said at the time. “I think there’s a lot of improvement needed there. And it’s a tough problem to fix, because the only solution is time.”
The Hill has reached out to the Harris campaign and the White House for comment.
Harris’s rapidly assembled presidential campaign has opened to massive support among Democrats and quick momentum.
McCarthy has long been critical of Harris’s politics, but he came to her defense last week when some Republicans labeled the vice president a “DEI hire,” a remark referencing diversity, equity and inclusion and denounced as racist.