NYT: Harris campaign staff are afraid that they will not be paid their salaries.
Employees of the campaign headquarters of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who lost in the US presidential election, are afraid that they will not be paid their salaries amid rumours that the vice-presidential campaign has about $20 million in debt after failed campaign concerts, the pro-Republican newspaper New York Post reports citing Harris’ staff.
According to the newspaper, the day before the election, October 4, Harris’ headquarters organised concerts in seven swing states, where famous artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, rapper 2 Chainz performed, in addition to TV host Oprah Winfrey at one of the concerts.
‘The mutual accusations erupted over the fact that Kamala Harris‘ campaign spent up to $20 million on concerts in swing states on Monday night (4 November – ed)… which raised concerns that rank-and-file employees and vendors would not be paid amid reports that the campaign was in debt by the same amount,’ the publication wrote.
Sources told the newspaper that the gigs made a significant dent in the Democratic headquarters’ purse strings, which was no secret to anyone. They were supposed to encourage more voters to go to the polls and cast their ballots, but as a result, the concerts went virtually unnoticed in the general news flow.
According to the publication, a week before the election, Harris’ chiefs of staff found out that more than a billion dollars raised for the campaign had been exhausted and tried to reduce the cost of the concerts, but failed. In some cases, on the contrary, the cost of hosting events has gone up.
According to the newspaper’s sources, Harris’ staff and vendors at headquarters have been paid properly so far, but people are worried.
One source told the New York Post that the funds for the concerts were wasted because many millions of voters had already cast early ballots at that point. In addition, the source estimated that voters are more concerned about their own financial problems than celebrities telling them that ‘America will cease to exist.’