Jen Psaki REJECTS claims Kamala is 'unhappy' and says VP is 'not looking for a ...

The White House said Monday that recent reports that Kamala Harris feels 'unhappy' are not true or reflective of the vice president's relationship with President Joe Biden.

'There have been a lot of reports out there and they don't reflect his view or our experience with the vice president,' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at Monday's press briefing.

'The president relies on the vice president for her advice, for her counsel,' Psaki continued. 'She's somebody who's not only taking on issues that are challenging, she's not looking for a cushy role here – no vice president is, not president is.'

'She's somebody who's a valuable member of the team,' she said, adding that Harris will be on the road to promote the $1.2 trillion bipsartisan infrastructure bill, which is being signed into law Monday afternoon.

Harris will attend the signing and make remarks.

When asked at the Monday briefing if Harris would have Biden's automatic endorsement should she run for president, Psaki deflected.

'I don't have any predictions of whether she will run, when she will run,' she told Fox News' Peter Doocy. 'I will leave that to her.' 

Senior Biden aides came out to throw water on the CNN article published Sunday night with background from nearly three dozen sources suggesting the president has 'given up' on Harris after a poll showed her approval at 28 percent.

The White House rushed to the defense of Harris as her murky relationship with President Joe Biden emerged, including claims aides are frustrated the vice president is being sidelined.

But publicly, Harris' team dismissed the rumors as petty 'gossip.'

'It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America's oldest ally and demonstrated U.S. leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip - not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered,' the vice president's spokesperson Symone Sanders told CNN.

Psaki responded to the reports with a tweet in defense of the vice president.

'For anyone who needs to hear it,' she began in her Sunday evening tweet. '@VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.'

Harris' Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh reposted Psaki's tweet and posted her own on Sunday that read: 'Honored to work for @VP every day. She's focused on the #BuildBackBetter agenda and delivering results for the American people.' 

Harris and her top aides, White House insiders told CNN, are frustrated with Biden for handing her 'no-win' issues like the border crisis.

They also claim that the president defended 'white man' Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, more vigorously than her.

Two liberal commentators for CNN are not happy with their outlet publishing the story.

Bakari Sellers, who backed Harris' ill-fated presidential bid, complained on 'New Day' on Monday about the way media treat the first female vice president.

'I have a larger issue with the tone and tenor by which Kamala Harris is covered, and I think we saw that in this article,' he said. 'I had to push back heavily on this article and throw a little cold water on it. I spent a little time with the vice president's office and no one's frantic, but more importantly she just got back from a flawless overseas trip to France dealing with a very prickly issue where we had some freezing of our diplomatic relations with France, and she by all means performed extremely well.'

CNN legal and national security analyst Carrie Cordero quoted the article's headline 'Inside the frustrating and dysfunctional start to Kamala Harris' vice presidency' and tweeted to show she was unhappy with the piece: 'Alternatively, 'Accomplished, Brave & History-Changing @VP Doesn't Conform to Mythical Expectations of a Pandemic-Era, Post-Insurrection Vice Presidency.'

Harris will attend on Monday the signing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. 

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted: 'Think about how many speeches, from how many officials, you've heard about how we are falling behind China on growth / investment / etc....Thanks to the Infrastructure Bill, next year will be the first time in 20 years where the US invests MORE than China on infrastructure.'

He also retweeted a gif showing Biden saying: 'America is back!'

On Monday, Biden will sign into law the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at a White House ceremony where he and Harris will deliver remarks on the historic passage.

But at the same time, reports indicate Biden's relationship with Harris is in crisis and her staff is furious that she is being 'sidelined.'

The reports claim the president's team are increasingly frustrated by how the vice president is playing with the American public – specifically with some of her mannerisms like taking on accents and laughing at inappropriate times. 

Harris' approval rating has plunged even further than Biden's in recent months, with rumors swirling that the president is considering appointing her to the Supreme Court as a backdoor method of selecting a new VP. 

At the same time, Biden's staff are privately disappointed with Harris over self-inflicted controversies, like her 'awkward' laughter when asked about visiting the border by NBC's Lester Holt.

Publicly, the White House insists the relationship between Biden and Harris remains harmonious and productive.

But privately, according to these reports, they blame her failure on the border crisis for sliding poll numbers. 

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Biden at 53 percent disapproval and 41 percent approval – down 11 points from April and an all time low for the president so far.

The same poll shows seven in 10 Americans think the economy is in 'bad shape,' suggesting that surging inflation, workers shortages and supply chain backups are to blame.  

Privately, Harris aides gripe that she's been set up to fail, and handed a portfolio that is not commensurate with her historic status as the first woman, and first woman of color, to hold the vice president's office.

'They're consistently sending her out there on losing issues in the wrong situations for her skill set,' a former high-level Harris aide told CNN.  

Typically, the incumbent vice president is considered an automatic lock for the party's next open-field presidential primary.

For Democrats, it's not clear whether that day will come in 2024, if Biden decides not to seek re-election at age 80, or 2028. 

Biden has vowed both publicly and privately to seek reelection, but there is growing chatter in Democratic circles that the president may decide to just serve one term – which means talk of a successor will become a focus in the media.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been thrust into the limelight by being handed control of the bipartisan infrastructure deal – being signed Monday afternoon by the president.

And this fall, Democratic Senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren were all on the campaign trails of various candidates, helping to boost their profiles and remain relevant to the public.

Whatever Biden's decision, top Democrats are already eyeing Harris' poll numbers and assessing whether she is vulnerable to a primary challenge.

Some have even begun quietly laying the groundwork for their own campaigns. 

For Harris and her loyalists, it's a political do-or-die moment less than a year into her term, with top aides fearing that she'll pay the price for her loyalty to the president, and her willingness to take on what they view as thankless assignments.  

Aides say White House rushed to Buttigieg's defense but left Harris out in the cold 

Several Harris aides claimed that West Wing staff have given her the cold shoulder in public controversies, while rushing to the defense of other top administration officials. 

For instance, when Buttigieg faced mockery from Fox News host Tucker Carlson and other conservative pundits for taking paternity leave for his newborn, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hit out forcefully, defending Buttigieg as a 'role model'. 

'It's hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a white man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn't want to take themselves,' a former Harris aide told CNN.

Perhaps adding to the tension in that case is the Buttigieg's position as a likely challenger for the next open-field presidential primary. As an openly gay man, Buttigieg would also win 'historic first' status for the Democrats if he secured the nomination.

As transportation secretary, Buttigieg has seen his political star rise dramatically with the passage of Biden's

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