Former Vice President Kamala Harris is breaking her silence on the behind-the-scenes tensions of the Biden administration, calling Democrats’ handling of the 2024 election “reckless” in an explosive excerpt from her upcoming memoir, 107 Days.
Harris, who went on to become the Democratic nominee after Biden exited the 2024 race, argues that allowing the then-president to independently decide whether to run for reelection was a failure of leadership.
“The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego,” Harris writes, describing the decision as “recklessness” that put the country at risk.
Harris on Biden’s Inner Circle
Beyond questioning the reelection decision, Harris pulls back the curtain on her struggles within Biden’s team, alleging that aides actively undermined her work as vice president. She claims the president’s staff often fueled negative press about her office and refused to defend her against Republican attacks that painted her leadership as “chaotic” and plagued by high turnover.
“When the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it,” Harris writes. “Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more. Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed.”
Harris insists her success was not just personal but essential for Biden’s credibility, given persistent questions about his age and health: “None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well. That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands.”
Loyalty vs. Country
Despite her criticisms, Harris maintains a delicate balance between loyalty and critique.
“As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country,” she writes, stressing that her frustrations stemmed not from personal rivalry but from what she saw as strategic and political blind spots.
She also defends Biden against claims that he was incapable of serving, dismissing suggestions that his presidency was illegitimate or unfit.
Biden’s Response
Biden, in earlier interviews, downplayed suggestions that Harris was sidelined during his presidency. In May 2024, he told ABC’s The View that her eventual loss in the presidential race was not about her qualifications but rather sexism and racism from voters and critics.
“I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president … I wasn’t surprised because they went the sexist route, the whole route,” Biden said at the time.
He also insisted he would have beaten Donald Trump had he stayed in the race, noting his seven-million-vote advantage in 2020 as evidence.
A Memoir of Frustration and Reflection
107 Days, scheduled for release later this year, documents Harris’s turbulent final stretch in the administration and her transition into a presidential candidate.
Her candid reflections may reignite debates over Democratic strategy in 2024 and the challenges faced by women — particularly women of color — in the highest levels of American politics.
Harris’s revelations underscore the deep divisions and difficult decisions that shaped the Democratic Party during one of the most consequential election cycles in recent history.
