WASHINGTON − There’s no love lost between Kamala Harris and her successor in office.
“JD Vance is a shape-shifter. And a shifty guy,” Harris writes in her new book.
The comments about Vance are one of several occasions in which Harris slams the sitting vice president and potential 2028 presidential candidate in “107 Days,” her campaign memoir that will be released on Sept. 23.
The former Democratic nominee for president, who stepped in to lead her party’s ticket after Joe Biden quit the 2024 race under severe pressure, has not ruled out a future bid of her own. In a nod to her own possible plans, Harris uses the book as a vehicle to put many of her prospective rivals on notice.
More: Kamala Harris strikes back at allies she felt didn’t act that way: New book takeaways
Amid score-settling, AOC gets the Kamala Harris nod
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz − each is treated to a Harris brushback.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez comes in for praise in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ new, score-settling campaign memoir, “107 Days.”
One leader in the Democratic Party who earns praise: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who by Harris’ assessment “goes deep into policy” but has a “joyful-warrior vibe” and a talent for breaking down complex issues.
That, coupled with AOC’s commitment to justice for working people, Harris writes, “make her an invaluable leader in this moment.” Some of the other Democrats she considers future leaders include Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett and California Rep. Robert Garcia.
Regrets? Harris has a few
The former vice president acknowledges mishandling a question about what she’d do differently from Biden if elected during an appearance on “The View.” It was not until her staff informed her during the commercial break that she needed to play clean-up on her answer that Harris realized she’d made a mistake.
“I had no idea I’d just pulled the pin on a hand grenade. I wasn’t braced for the explosion that was coming,” she writes.
Whoopi Goldberg gestures next to Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris as they appear on ABC’s “The View” in New York, October 8, 2024.
Harris also admits that “recklessness” led top aides − herself included − to say silent on Biden’s reelection bid.
“People hate Joe Biden,” campaign adviser David Plouffe had to tell her at one point.
Harris says she felt she owed Biden her loyalty, even after he called her on the day of her debate against Trump and insisted his own, terrible debate performance had not hurt him with the electorate.
“I just could not understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself,” she said.
Denial on the southern border
In another section, Harris rebuts Donald Trump on immigration. Yet, she assessed that illegal entries surged so much during the Biden era that some voters agreed with Trump’s claims the country was being invaded.
“We couldn’t gaslight the people who felt that way by denying the problem,” she says.
But more often than not Harris blames somebody else for campaign difficulties. Biden. His staff. Vance. The media. Trump. Her running mate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris says the amount of time she spent campaigning with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney was exaggerated and defends her decision to try to win over soft Republicans.
More: Burdened by what had been: Kamala Harris couldn’t convince voters
Harris reacts to Walz’ debate performance
That slap at Vance comes in a passage about the vice presidential debate, in which Vance faced off against Walz.
Harris writes that Vance understood that his “default meanness” wouldn’t play well against Walz’s folksy disposition and patience and toned down his “anger and insults” during the debate in response.
It worked, she says, and Walz fell for it.
More: Kamala Harris begins ‘107 Days’ book promo with Rachel Maddow interview
Kamala Harris called Vice President JD Vance “shifty” in a new memoir, and panned her former running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ performance in the 2024 vice presidential debate.
“There were no cat ladies, no pet-eating Haitians, no personal insults. Just a mild-mannered, aw shucks Appalachian pretending he had a lot of common ground with that nice Midwestern coach,” she writes.
Harris says the scene that played out in her living room as Walz nodded in agreement with Vance was much as Saturday Night Live would go on to portray it: with her wondering aloud what was happening and griping to her husband, Doug Emhoff, about her running mate’s performance.
“While I did not in fact spit out wine, it was otherwise uncanny in its portrait of our evening,” Harris said of the comedy skit.
Knives out for JD Vance
In another passage, Harris writes about the time Vance held up her motorcade. He was at the same Wisconsin airport as she was and exited his car when she was about to pull away to inspect Air Force Two.
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” he told reporters.
Book cover jacket image for ‘107 Days’ by Kamala Harris
Harris rips her successor for violating every rule of security and protocol with the move. “Had I known he was pulling that juvenile stunt, I would’ve been inclined to step from my car and use a word I believe best pronounced correctly. It begins with an m and ends with an ah.”
The incident took place a day after she named Walz her running mate. Harris says she was peeved at Vance at the time for attacking the Minnesota governor for comments he made about his military service.
Walz had been part a National Guard deployment to Italy to support U.S. operations in Afghanistan before he retired from the military in 2005 after more than two decades of service to run for Congress. But in 2018, he’d referred to weapons he’d “carried in war,” prompting attacks from Vance.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Vice President-elect JD Vance pose for a photo at the White House on the inauguration day of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s second Presidential term in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2025.
Vance accused Walz of “stolen valor” and claimed he abandoned his unit.
Walz had not seen combat. But neither had Vance, she writes. His military service consisted of four years in the public affairs department of the Marines.
“I was appalled that Vance would stoop so low to wound and rattle a fellow veteran, a better man,” Harris says.
This article has been updated to include additional information.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris slams ‘shifty’ JD Vance in new book. Key highlights