Harris said Biden was qualified to serve as President, but called his decision to run for re-election last year “reckless”.
“Of all the people working in the White House, I was in the worst position to convince Joe Biden to drop out of the race. If I advised him not to run, I would appear selfish in Joe’s eyes. He would see it as blatant ambition, even disloyalty, even if my message was ‘don’t let my opponent win’,” former US Vice President Kamala Harris said in an excerpt of her book 107 Days released on September 10.
107 Days is scheduled to be published on September 23, chronicling Harris’s brief bid for re-election last year.
According to the former US vice president, those in the White House always had to remind themselves that it was Mr. Biden and his wife Jill Biden who made the decision to run for re-election.
“Was it glorious or reckless? In retrospect, I think it was reckless. The risk was simply too high. It should not have been decided by one person’s ego and ambition. It should have been an impersonal decision,” the book reads.
On July 21, 2024, Mr. Biden decided to withdraw from the race for the White House, after being pressured by a series of Democratic leaders due to his unconvincing performance in the first live debate with his opponent Donald Trump. Ms. Harris later became the Democratic candidate, but still lost to Mr. Trump.
According to the former US vice president, Mr. Biden is still capable of running the country until the end of his term, despite questions about his mental health.
“Joe Biden is smart, experienced, and deeply committed, and he can do the job of president. On his worst day, he is more knowledgeable, more judgmental, and more compassionate than his opponent. But at 81, Joe is tired. The debate came after he had just finished two trips to Europe and one to the West Coast, so it was no surprise that Joe lost,” Harris said in the book.
A few months ago, a leaked recording of a conversation between Biden and special prosecutor Robert Hur appeared to show the former US president suffering from memory loss and lack of concentration. The recording brought Biden’s mental health back into the spotlight, more than 100 days after Trump took office.