{"id":216626,"date":"2025-09-10T22:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216626\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T22:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:33:12","slug":"harris-book-says-leaving-reelection-decision-to-biden-was-recklessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216626\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris book says leaving reelection decision to Biden was ‘recklessness’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> says it was \u201crecklessness\u201d for Democrats to leave it to President Joe Biden to decide whether to continue seeking another term last year, but she defends his ability to do the job, according to an excerpt of her new book.<\/p>\n

Harris, in an excerpt of \u201c107 Days\u201d<\/a> published Wednesday in The Atlantic, writes that as questions swirled about whether the then-81-year-old Biden should seek reelection, she and others left the decision to him and first lady Jill Biden. <\/p>\n

\u201cWas it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

The remarks are the first time Harris has been publicly critical of Biden\u2019s decision to run again<\/a> \u2014 an ill-fated decision that saw him drop out<\/a> in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance<\/a>, leaving her to head up the Democratic ticket and ultimately lose to Republican Donald Trump<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Harris says leaving reelection decision to Biden was \u2018recklessness,\u2019 but she defends his abilities\n <\/p>\n

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on Kamala Harris criticizing Joe Biden\u2019s decision to run for reelection last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stakes were simply too high,\u201d Harris writes in the book. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t a choice that should have been left to an individual\u2019s ego, an individual\u2019s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s office did not immediately have a comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris attend a Department of Defense Commander in Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Jan. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci, File)<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris attend a Department of Defense Commander in Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Jan. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Throughout the campaign and in its wake, Harris had avoided much criticism of the president she served beside and defended him amid questions about his mental acuity<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the book excerpt, Harris continues to defend Biden\u2019s ability to do the job but describes him in 2024 and especially at the time of his \u201cdebate debacle\u201d as \u201ctired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 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\u2019s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles,\u201d Harris writes. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s 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\u2019t believe it was incapacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds that if she believed Biden were incapacitated, she would have said so out of loyalty to the country.<\/p>\n

Harris also blames those close to Biden for unflattering media coverage throughout the time she served as vice president and throwing her under the bus to boost Biden\u2019s public standing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Vice<\/p>\n

Vice President Kamala Harris listens during an event with President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)<\/p>\n

Vice President Kamala Harris listens during an event with President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

She writes about receiving a high level of scrutiny as the first female vice president<\/a> but says \u201cwhen the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president\u2019s inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris writes that she often learned that Biden\u2019s staff was \u201cadding fuel to negative narratives\u201d that surrounded her, such as stories about her vice presidential office being in disarray and having high turnover. <\/p>\n

The former vice president also accuses Biden\u2019s staff of being afraid of her upstaging him, describing a speech<\/a> she gave in Selma, Alabama, in March of last year in which she called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and more humanitarian aid to be delivered to people there. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt went viral, and the West Wing was displeased,\u201d Harris says, \u201cI was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.\u201d<\/p>\n

She suggests that diminishing her also diminished Biden, especially \u201cgiven the concerns about his age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 success, she writes, would be a marker of Biden\u2019s good judgment and a reassurance to the public that if something happened to the president she could step in. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy success was important for him,\u201d she writes. \u201cHis team didn\u2019t get it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 book, whose title is a nod to the length of her abbreviated presidential campaign, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of former Vice President Kamala Harris at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/kamala-harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Former Vice President Kamala Harris says it was \u201crecklessness\u201d for Democrats to leave it to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[64,276,84,69,90,171,57,32071,82,27593,3466,50,24463,80,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-216626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-district-of-columbia","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-jill-biden","17":"tag-joe-biden","18":"tag-kamala-harris","19":"tag-language","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-political-debates","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}