Washington: Meena Harris has been told to stop taking advantage of her aunt Vice President Kamala Harris’ glory and the White House. Reports said that Meena, a social-media-influencer, has long used her aunt’s fame to boost her own personal brand - but now that Kamala Harris has entered the White House, aides have become increasingly concerned about the ethical implications of the promotional pattern.
“Some things can’t be undone,” a White House official, speaking about niece Meena, 36, said. “That being said: Behavior needs to change,” the official said of Meena, whose ventures have reportedly become a sensitive issue in the newly formed Biden-Harris White House.
Meena is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur who boasts more than 800,000 followers on Instagram, where her posts range from the political to the personal. She is the author of children’s books, including one titled “Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea,” and she is the founder of a women’s charitable clothing brand called “Phenomenal.” Her latest book, “Ambitious Girl,” was released the night before her aunt was sworn in as the first female vice president and Indian American in the White House, the report adds. The niece has also appeared on “The View” and the “Today” show, and was profiled this year in Vanity Fair and by The New York Times, it said.
After the election, White House lawyers told the younger Meena she could not produce any products that used the vice president’s name or likeness, a White House official said. The official went as far to say that the book bearing her aunt’s first name, along with a Phenomenal sweatshirt printed “Vice President Aunty,” are not allowed under existing ethics rules, the paper reported.
But even after federal lawyers briefed Meena on the new rules she must follow, she still flew on a private plane to the inauguration with a Biden donor and shared the trip on Instagram. Her online store also continues to tell sweatshirts printed with the viral quote, “I’m speaking” - words spoken by her aunt during a debate with then-Vice-President Mike Pence, the Post added.
Meena was instructed by ethics lawyers during the Biden-Harris transition to refrain from using the vice president’s image. She had permission to sell out of the products related to Kamala, but not restock them, according to reports. According to Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the vice president, “It’s the White House’s policy that the vice president’s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities that could reasonably be understood to imply an endorsement or support,” reports noted.
In a statement, Meena defended her practices. “Since the beginning of the campaign, I have insisted on upholding all legal and ethical standards and will continue to strictly adhere to the ethics rules of the Biden/Harris White House,” she reportedly said.
“With regards to Phenomenal, it was always our plan to remove the likeness of the vice president from the website before the Inauguration, and refrain from using her likeness in any products or campaigns going forward,” according to the report.
