FLASHBACK TO NOVEMBER 2019: Kamala Harris occasionally struggles with ‘performance anxiety,’ current and former aides say.

One of her issues has been what several current and former aides described to Politico as a “kind of performance anxiety that washes over in her tense times.” That’s led to struggles in big moments, such as when Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) attacked Harris’ record as a prosecutor during the second Democratic primary debate. Harris appeared indecisive in her response to the criticism, and Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of the Daily Kos, points to the exchange at the moment Harris’ campaign began its downward trend. “Why wouldn’t you take that head-on in a prime-time audience?” Moulitsas told Politico.

The aides say Harris can sometimes have trouble listening to questions and comments — at least three times since beginning her campaign, the senator has said she misheard a question, Politico notes. Most notably, she said she didn’t hear a man call President Trump’s agenda “mentally retarded” even though video shows her laughing right after he said it. Harris apologized after the video was played back to her, calling it “upsetting.”

She also reportedly can be overeager in attempts to please her questioners and will sometimes revert to “comfortable scripts in her head” because she’s afraid she’ll flub an answer.

That last bit is a quirk of hers I’ve noticed on more than one occasion but it’s worse than just reverting to a script. Harris seems unwilling to contradict whoever is speaking and go along with it.

It made her an ineffective senator and, no doubt, would make her an even worse president.