Report: Kamala Harris Hires Crisis Experts to Repair ‘Long-Term Planning’ Outlook

US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks following a meeting with the Jamie Smith family in
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty

Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly hired two public relations gurus to repair her “long-term planning” outlook, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

Lorraine Voles, dubbed a “crisis communications expert,” and former Obama speechwriter Adam Frankel, who worked with the vice president during the presidential transition, have experience drumming up public relations constructs for the White House and the business community.

The White House told the Examiner the two “offered to be of assistance” and will concentrate on “organizational development, strategic communications, and long-term planning.” The White House did not note how long Harris would need the crisis management team but said the two “are on temporary assignment.”

Voles bills herself as a “crisis management” and “marketing and rebranding” expert with “broad experience navigating the choppy waters of public relations crises, including for embattled mortgage lender Fannie Mae during the 2008 financial crisis,” according to her Linkedin entry.

US Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs from Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore on August 24, 2021. (Photo by Roslan Rahman / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs from Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore on August 24, 2021. (ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Voles is also along time Clinton White House aide, who apparently has strong ties to Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain.

Frankel, meanwhile, worked for former President Obama as a speechwriter during his presidential race, the Examiner reports. “He is also married to Stephanie Psaki, a senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services and the sister of White House press secretary Jen Psaki.”

The hires come as Harris’ polling numbers are below 50 percent on the back of her inability to stop migrants from crossing the southern border, which Biden tasked his vice president to stop in the spring.

In a notable public relations failure on June 8, Harris told NBC News’ Lester Holt she had visited Guatemala to stop migrants from crossing the southern border.

But when Harris was asked why she had not yet inspected the border, Harris stated that she had not yet visited to Europe.

“Do you have any plans to visit the border?” Holt asked.

“At some point, you know, we are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So this whole … thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border,” Harris said.

Holt pressed, “You haven’t been to the border.”

“And I haven’t been to Europe,” Harris answered with a voluble cackle.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.