She’s a heartbeat away from the presidency—literally. And while it started as a joke among right-of-center types (“Can’t wait for the Harris presidency to begin on January 21, 2021”), it has apparently planted serious fears in the hearts of Joe Biden’s team.

A recent report about internal discord in the White House by CNN journalist and Biden favorite Edward-Isaac Dovere gently paints Harris as a woman struggling to create purpose in a largely purposeless job, before switching to more cringe-worthy accounts, including Harris’s family members’ informal say within her office, her overly cautious tendencies, and her “staff problems, which have been a feature of every office she’s held, from San Francisco district attorney to U.S. Senate.” Above all, her office feels “sidelined” by the president, whom she blames in part for her lengthy saga of political gaffes.

Sensitive to Harris’s loyalties, the Biden team seems to want to make a clear statement about who is in charge in this his versus hers staff war. Meanwhile, all poor Harris wants is more power and more responsibility—except, not the border, and not diplomacy, and not any of the things the Biden administration has tasked her with. She wants the White House to run cover for her embarrassing moments, of which there have already been many, and for which she blames the West Wing for failing to prepare or “position” her adequately (gone are the days when politicians knew anything that didn’t come from hand-delivered, bullet-pointed talkers). In other words, it is the Biden team’s fault she doesn’t have responsibilities, and it’s the Biden team’s fault again when she blunders spectacularly in the ones it has given her. She’s a black, Asian woman, for crying out loud, is that not enough for you people? Where is her Nobel Peace Prize?

But the internal White House discord, and Harris’s overall underwhelming performance as vice president—a genuine feat, given her partner in crime—smell of a fresh political wind that bodes well for Republicans in the next presidential election. Painted by some as the real mastermind behind a puppet Biden presidency, it turns out she’s just another petty female politician, and painfully uncomfortable to boot. While politicos on the left and right seem ready to assume a Biden second term is not in the cards, a Harris presidency is—or at least, was supposed to be—the real goal of the next three years.

Except, the more the world sees of Harris, the less inclined it is to think of her. Her embarrassing attempts at relatability (apparently Middle America doesn’t know what an OfficeMax or a Kinkos is), her cringeworthy interview responses as she tried to cover her failure to visit the southern border, and her proud ownership of the U.S.’s Afghanistan withdrawal, despite its disastrous handling, are uncomfortable—but nothing compared to her garish, untimely laugh, which makes even Biden’s errors look good.

Four years of Harris, like four years of Hillary, might just be so unappetizing a prospect that even the promise of electing the United States’ first female president couldn’t chase that shot.