The source said decisionmaking in the office is also 'really slow' with every decision passing through chief of staff Tina Flournoy.

One source said it's clear that Harris 'feels adrift without her people' including her sister Maya, who was a senior adviser on her presidential campaign. 'I think she's been wanting to leave for a long time but she's young and she needed supervision,' said one source familiar with the office dynamics. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and a well-known political personality in her own right who worked as a high-profile pundit on CNN before joining the Biden campaign. Sanders is a former campaign aide to Sen. It became clear in recent days that Sanders, 31, was also the voice in numerous blind quotes in news reports about friction in the office, two sources said. So who was managing Symone? Ashley wasn't managing Symone. Speaking directly of Sanders and Etienne, another source added that Sanders had 'a title that's a rival to the communications director. I think there was a constant fear of backstabbing.'

One source with knowledge of the situation said staffers in the communications shop were 'tripping over' each other. One administration official noted Sanders, Velz and Evans had all worked on the Biden-Harris campaign, making it likely they were ready for a break or change of scenery. Harris praised Sanders when asked about her looming departure during a trip to Charlotte to promote the recently signed bipartisan infrastructure bill, but she did not answer a follow-up question about whether the changes marked a reset for her office. 'They had to turn over the office,' said one Democratic operative familiar with the dynamics in the vice president's office. Sources suggested the close of the year provided a natural time for some officials to transition out, but acknowledged a reset could be helpful.

Those planned exits became public a few weeks after Harris's office confirmed her communications director, Ashley Etienne, would leave the position at the end of the year. News of Sanders's departure was followed by reports that two more press aides would depart in the coming weeks: Peter Velz, the vice president's director of press operations, and Vince Evans, the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for Harris, are planning to leave those positions soon, a source confirmed. 'No one seems happy,' said one source close to the vice president's office. The turmoil has raised worries among Democrats about her prospects as a presidential candidate.

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