MSNBC’s Joy Reid asserts that Kamala Harris is not being treated fairly by the ‘white, male’ media

MSNBC host and commentator Joy Reid spoke out over the weekend about what she feels is unfair media coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Reid blamed the ‘white, male media’ for treating Harris with a bias that would not be found during the tenure of her predecessors, in an interview with The Root.

‘Think about her portfolio, voting rights, immigration and the border, and police reform. The things on her plate are the toughest things that the Biden Administration has to deal with outside of inflation and the war in Ukraine,’ said Reid.

Reid blames a white, male media class for cementing a narrative about Harris that has been hard for the Vice President to overcome: ‘Most of the media is still white and male. And their take on Kamala Harris becomes the take. It becomes conventional wisdom.’

Harris has recently come under fire for leading a newly launched ‘task force to address online harassment and abuse.’ The task force seems to be a replacement for the Biden Administration’s ‘disinformation board,’ which was axed due to concerns over potential bias against conservative ideas and speech.

MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid spoke out about what she believes is unfair treatment of Vice President Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris unveils the ‘task force to address online harassment and abuse,’ after a previous attempt to launch a ‘disinformation board’ was shut down

Recent polling from FiveThirtyEight shows Harris’ approval rating hovering around 35.5%, while President Joe Biden’s is slightly higher at 39.8%.

Since being named VP, Harris has made several blunders that have stuck with her, including an apparent reluctance to visit the US-Mexico border, despite being charged to oversee it.

As border patrol agents continue to see a rise in illegal immigration, Harris herself admitted in December she has not done enough to ‘get out of D.C.,’ and the effect has been noticeable, even from within her own party.

Texas Democratic representative Henry Cuellar then told the New York Times ‘she was tasked with that job, it doesn’t look like she’s very interested in this, so we are going to move on to other folks that work on this issue.’

Harris has also come off as unprepared when making official speeches and remarks, often mixing up words or laughing at inappropriate times.

In one confusing speech made during a bilateral meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness in March, Harris said ‘we also recognized, just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way its impact has been the pandemic.’

Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar has said Vice President Harris doesn’t seem ‘interested’ in the growing issues at the US-Mexico border, despite President Biden tasking her with overseeing it 

Staffers who work in the Biden administration and under Harris have complained of an unsupportive and unsustainable work environment, which led to nearly two dozen black staffers quitting their jobs since late 2021.

Washington D.C. has one of the highest costs of living of any city in the country, and many staffers have left their positions due to low pay and lack of upward mobility.

‘We’re here and we’re doing a lot of work but we’re not decision-makers and there’s no real path towards becoming decision-makers,’ one staffer told Politico in March.

On top of the exodus of staffers, Harris has seen some of her most senior advisors leave the administration, including her head of public engagement Cedric Richmond in December. In April, it was announced her chief of staff, Tina Flournoy, was also departing the administration.

But Reid chalks her low approval rating up to Harris not being able to show who she really is often enough, which leaves people with the wrong impression.

‘She’s just a regular sister in the same way people would always say that Michelle Obama is like if your cousin became First Lady. Kamala Harris is like if your cousin became VP of the United States,’ said Reid. ‘I think she doesn’t get to show that personality often enough, and so people haven’t had a chance to get to know her.’

In a meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Harris repeatedly stumbled over her words and made confusing remarks about COVID and the economy

Harris is the first black and Asian-American woman to ever be Vice President, and has reportedly confided in allies about the associated hardships of not being a white male in the same position.

Reid says the only reason that Harris is in the positions she’s in is because black women in America demanded it.

‘Black women told Joe Biden “If you want our support, you can’t have it for free. We’re gonna need a VP who looks like us so that we know we’re on the team.” Kamala Harris is a very important figure in our history, and her presence matters.’