Kamala Harris characterized Joe Biden‘s decision to run for reelection in 2024, and remain in the race, as “recklessness,” writing in her upcoming book that the choice “should have been more than a personal decision.”
In an excerpt in The Atlantic from her upcoming book 107 Days, Harris wrote, “‘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? 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.”
But she wrote that she was in the “worst position to make the case that he should drop out.”
“I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win.”
That said, Harris wrote that she did not see Biden as incapacitated.
She wrote, “Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president. On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best. But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”
In the excerpt, Harris also was critical of the White House staff’s lack of defense of her when she came under criticism, including when she was dubbed “border czar” even though she had been tasked with trying to solve the root causes of migration to the United States.
“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.”
Harris is embarking on a book tour later this month and next. In announcing her decision not to run for governor of California next year, she said, “For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office.” She did not rule out a run for president in 2028.
It’s not entirely unusual, post-presidency, for a vice president to expose fissures with his or her boss or the White House staff. Mike Pence publicly broke with Donald Trump over the January 6th attack on the Capitol, when the president fomented anger of a riot that featured chants of “Hang Mike Pence.” There also were reportedly tensions between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
There were some calls for Biden to forgo a run for president, including from David Ignatius, The Washington Post columnist who had close ties to the White House and the president himself. At 81, Biden faced questions about his age throughout his campaign, but his decision to run cleared the field of serious challengers and he handily secured the delegates to win the Democratic nomination. His disastrous debate performance in June, 2024, led to calls from prominent Democrats that he drop out. After about three weeks of refusing to do so, he eventually did.
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