Former Vice President Kamala Harris blamed "recklessness" for former President Biden's 2024 presidential bid, according to an excerpt published Wednesday from her new book "107 Days."
Why it matters: Without attacking the Biden's acuity, Harris sounded off on the dynamics that contributed to his decision to run against then-former President Trump.
What she's saying: "'It's Joe and Jill's decision.' We all said that, like a mantra, as if we'd all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness?" she wrote, per the excerpt published by The Atlantic.
- "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."
State of play: Harris' book, "107 Days," is scheduled for release on Sept. 23. It chronicles the period between when Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and when Trump won the election.
- Her presidential campaign was the shortest in modern U.S. history.
Zoom in: In the excerpt, Harris acknowledged Biden's poor debate performance in June, blaming it on exhaustion from a stacked travel schedule.
- "I don't believe it was incapacity," she wrote. "If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country."
Friction point: Harris also said Biden's White House didn't adequately defend her when Republicans or conservative media mounted attacks or smeared her job performance.
- "They had a huge comms team; they had Karine Jean-Pierre briefing in the pressroom every day," she wrote. "But getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible."
- She said the people around Biden "didn't like the contrast that was emerging" when she started polling well and the president was not.
Go deeper: Kamala Harris using DNC to help sell her new book
