Former vice-president Kamala Harris took a swing at former president Joe Biden in her new book, describing his refusal to drop out of the 2024 presidential election as “recklessness.”
Harris wrote that Biden’s initial decision not to step aside was driven by “ego” and “ambition,” while dissecting her harried and short-lived presidential campaign in her new memoir, 107 Days.
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote, in an excerpt obtained by The Atlantic.
“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,” she continued.
The former vice-president was thrust into a national presidential campaign with a little more than three months until election day after Biden was pressured to drop out due to his frailty – which was on display for all to see during his disastrous debate against Donald Trump.
Harris took over the reins with energy, and although she out-raised Republicans, her campaign failed to reach the same number of voters that Biden managed to win over in 2020, and she suffered a resounding loss to Trump.
The general consensus from insiders was that Biden’s stubborn refusal to drop out hurt Democrats’ chances of maintaining control of the White House.
The former president has taken a different stance, saying he regrets dropping out because he believes he could have beaten Trump, despite polling that showed Biden was trailing significantly.
In her new book, Harris says she was loyal to Biden and, of all people in the White House, was “in the worst position to make that case that he should drop out” because it would have come across as self-serving.
“During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps. But the American people had chosen him before in the same match-up. Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again,” Harris contends in her new memoir.
The former vice-president also confirmed rumors that there was tension between her and Biden’s staff. She claims the White House was not eager to defend her record when conservative media branded her a “DEI hire,” or her accomplishments in office when they called her a failed border tsar. Harris lamented that the former president’s team operated by a rule: “If she’s shining, he’s dimmed.”
She claimed they did not understand that when she performed well, it reflected positively on Biden – especially at a time when the country was insecure about the president’s leadership because of health-related concerns.
“My success was important for him,” Harris writes. “His team didn’t get it.”
In her book, which comes out September 23, Harris makes a point to push back on allegations that Biden was unable to perform duties.
Rumors that Biden was unable to make critical decisions and was being propped up by aides have been repeated by Trump and his allies to paint Biden as unsuccessful and weak.
But Harris says that even on Biden’s worst day, “he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.”
She admits, though, that Biden was “tired” at 81 years old.
However, that does not translate to incapacity, Harris wrote. While she proudly admits she was loyal to the president, she says she was “more loyal” to the United States, and in the event Biden was unable to perform duties, she would have said so.
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