Former Vice President Kamala Harris said Democrats left it to President Biden to decide whether to continue pursuing another term last year, but she defended his ability to do the job.
Harris wrote in an excerpt from “107 Days” published on the Atlantic on Wednesday that whether Biden, then 81, should seek reelection, and she and others left the decision to him and first lady Jill Biden.
Harris said: “Is it grace or reckless? Looking back, I think it’s reckless.”
The remarks are the first public criticism of Byton’s decision to run for another election – a poorly-fated decision that left him out in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance, allowing her to lead the Democratic vote and ultimately lose to Republican Donald Trump.
“The stakes are too high,” Harris wrote in the book. “This is not a choice that should be left to the individual, that is, an individual ambition. It’s not just a personal decision.”
Biden’s office did not immediately comment Wednesday.
Throughout the campaign, Harris avoided criticism of the president she served next to him and defended him in doubt about his spiritual acuity.
In the excerpt, Harris continues to defend Biden’s ability to do the job, but describes his “tiredness” in 2024, especially when his “debate collapses.”
“On his worst day, he was more knowledgeable and capable of making judgments than Donald Trump did his best. “I don’t think the debate collapse that happened after two back-to-back trips and Hollywood fundraisers flying to the West Coast was surprising. I don’t think this is incompetent. ”
She added that if she believed Biden was incapacitated, she would say so out of loyalty to the country.
Harris also accused those near Biden of poor media coverage throughout the vice president and threw her under the bus to improve Biden’s open position.
She wrote that as the first female vice president, she was under high levels of scrutiny, but said: “The president’s inner circle seems to be good when the story is unfair or inaccurate. Indeed, it seems that they seem to decide that I should be knocked down a little bit.”
Harris wrote that she often learned that Biden’s staff “added fuel to the negative narrative surrounding her,” such as the story about her vice president’s office chaos and high turnover.
The former vice president also accuses Biden employees of fear of her escalating him and describes her speech in Selma, Alabama last March, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and providing more humanitarian aid to people there.
“It spread and the West Wing was upset, and obviously I was condemned too well,” Harris said.
She suggested reducing Biden’s decline, especially “bearing his age concerns.”
Harris’ success will be a sign of Biden’s good judgment, she wrote, and assured the public that she could step in if something happened to the president.
“My success is important to him,” she wrote. “His team didn’t get it.”
Harris’ book, titled as a tribute to her abbreviated presidential election, will be published by Simon & Schuster on September 23.
