❓WHAT HAPPENED: Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the Democratic Party’s decision to leave former President Joe Biden’s reelection bid up to his discretion, calling it “recklessness” in her new book.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and the Bidens’ inner circle.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Harris’s comments appear in her new book 107 Days, to be released on September 23, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness.” – Kamala Harris
🎯IMPACT: Harris’s remarks mark a rare public critique of Biden’s campaign decisions and highlight ongoing internal tensions within the Democratic Party.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has described the decision to allow then-President Joe Biden to determine whether to seek reelection in 2024 as “recklessness,” according to an excerpt from her new book, 107 Days, published in The Atlantic. Harris reflects on the discussions surrounding Biden’s decision to run for a second term, stating, “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness.”
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote.
Biden, who was 81 at the time, eventually dropped out of the race in July 2024 following a catastrophic debate performance against Donald J. Trump, in which he appeared cognitively impaired. This resulted in Harris being installed as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee without a primary contest. She ultimately lost the election in a landslide to Trump, who became only the second American in the country’s history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
Harris criticized the Democrats’ decision-making process, writing, “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.” Nevertheless, Harris continues to defend Biden’s ability to govern in the book, despite acknowledging his struggles with fatigue during the campaign.
She writes, “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. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles.” She attributes his debate challenges to exhaustion from a demanding travel schedule.
Harris also accuses Biden’s inner circle of fueling negative narratives about her tenure as Vice President, including stories about her office being in disarray. She claims the then-President’s staff was “adding fuel to negative narratives” and even sought to diminish her success, citing an instance where the Biden White House was displeased with a speech she gave in Selma, Alabama, that went viral. “I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well,” Harris writes.
The book underscores Harris’s belief that her success would have reflected positively on Biden, particularly given concerns about his age. “My success was important for him,” she writes. “His team didn’t get it.”
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
_04.jpg){kind=link}
