According to Politico, in forthcoming book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” journalists Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns detail the furor over Kamala Harris’s controversial Vogue cover. Although the shoot was planned well in advance, the VP was reportedly surprised to discover what was easily her most casual look on the day had been chosen as the cover image, having anticipated something more dignified.
“Harris was wounded. She felt belittled by the magazine, asking aides: Would Vogue depict another world leader this way?” Martin and Burns claimed. However, Harris’s own staff chose her looks, rather than the magazine’s in-house team, while President Biden’s office advised them to stop making a fuss, describing the controversy as “first world problems.”
When Harris’s incoming press secretary, Symone Sanders, challenged Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief argued the photo was chosen because it made the VP more “relatable.” Harris preferred an image of her posing in a stately powder blue suit, which was later released as a limited-edition cover. As Grazia reported at the time, Wintour acknowledged the outcry during an interview on “Sway,” The New York Times‘ podcast.
She clarified, “It was absolutely not our intention to, in any way, diminish the importance of the vice president-elect’s incredible victory. We want nothing but to celebrate Vice President-elect Harris’s amazing victory and the important moment this is in America’s history, and particularly for women of color, all over the world.'”
