Former Vice President Kamala Harris has revealed that something felt off when Joe Biden called her before his disastrous June 2024 debate with Donald Trump, and she believes the former president never really wanted to face off against his political rival.
In a wide-ranging interview with British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast released Thursday, Harris shared candid reflections about her complicated relationship with Biden and the 2024 campaign that ultimately saw her replace him as the Democratic nominee.
Biden called me from debate camp, Harris recalled. I could tell something was a little off. And I was concerned. I don’t think he wanted to debate, is my point. He didn’t want that debate.
When pressed by Bartlett about how she knew, Harris said they’d had conversations about it and believed Biden had been talked into the debate. It’s like any competition, she explained. If it’s sports, you gotta want it, right? If you don’t want to be in the competition, it will absolutely have an impact on your performance. And I don’t think he, I’m pretty sure he did not want to debate.
The comments stand in stark contrast to Harris’s immediate defense of Biden following that same debate. When CNN’s Anderson Cooper questioned whether the then president should step aside after the halting performance, Harris shot back firmly, declaring Biden was extraordinarily strong.
Harris was watching from the Fairmont Hotel in Los Angeles that night, taking vigorous notes as Biden mangled his talking points and uttered now infamous lines like “We finally beat Medicare.” She knew she had multiple press interviews lined up afterward and expected there would be something to clean up, as there always is with debates. Then, you know, we saw what we all saw, she told Bartlett.
In her newly released memoir, “107 Days,” which hit shelves in September and has already sold 350,000 copies in the United States, Harris doesn’t hold back about what she views as the recklessness of allowing Biden to make the reelection decision alone. She writes that the mantra around the Bidens during the early 2024 campaign was “It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,” which everyone repeated like they’d been hypnotized.
Was it grace, or was it recklessness? she writes in the book. 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.
Harris told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last month that she worried it would seem self-serving to advise Biden not to seek reelection, though she now admits she had a certain responsibility she should have followed through on. When I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I’m talking about myself, she said.
The former vice president’s book and book tour have drawn mixed reactions from Democratic circles. More than 15 Democratic operatives interviewed by various outlets criticized the memoir, with one calling it essentially a bunch of finger pointing and blaming others. Democratic strategist Michael Hardaway labeled it unhelpful.
Harris also revealed in the podcast interview that Biden called her right before she was about to step onto the debate stage with Trump in September 2024. While he wished her luck, he then spent time asking if she was bashing him to powerbrokers. I just couldn’t understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself, she writes in the book.
When Bartlett asked Harris whether she remains friends with Biden and if their relationship is good, she described it as very complicated. I have a great deal of affection for him, she said. And there were times that I’ve been quite candid about where he greatly disappointed me and frankly, you know, angered me.
Despite losing the 2024 election to Trump, with 226 electoral votes to his 312, Harris has hinted she’s not done with politics. During a recent BBC interview, she said, I am not done. I have lived my entire career as a life of service, and it’s in my bones.
The podcast appearance is part of a 15-city book tour that includes stops in the United Kingdom and Canada, as Harris continues to navigate her political future while processing one of the most truncated presidential campaigns in American history.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
