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Former Vice President Kamala Harris is getting candid about former President Joe Biden's decision to run for reelection.
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, "107 Days," Harris described the move to allow Biden to independently decide whether he wanted to run for reelection in 2024 as "recklessness."
“In retrospect, I think it was recklessness," Harris writes, per the excerpt obtained by The Atlantic.
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” she continues. “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.”
In her upcoming memoir, Harris also opens up about internal tensions with the Biden team. The former vice president accuses aides of undermining her ascent and failing to recognize the importance of her public success as a benefit to Biden, who was under scrutiny for his health and age.
“When polls indicated that I was getting more popular, the people around him didn’t like the contrast that was emerging,” Harris writes. “None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well... My visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.”
“His team didn’t get it," she adds.
In the book, Harris also acknowledges that she's inherently loyal, which may have been a liability to her ascent and campaign. The former VP recalled her 2023 appearance on The View, where she was asked what she would have done differently than Biden.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said at the time, a quote that was later used against her by Donald Trump’s campaign.
Harris' memoir also addresses questions about Biden's age and health.
“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,” she writes. “That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles... 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.”
"107 Days" is set to be released later this month. Harris is gearing up for a 15-city tour to promote her new book as her political future remains uncertain.
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