Former vice president Kamala Harris, in a preview of her forthcoming memoir 107 Days, criticizes the decision to allow President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to decide whether he would seek re‑election in 2024 and faults White House staff for what she describes as a lack of public support during her own presidential campaign.
In the excerpt published this week, Harris writes that staffers repeated the line "It's Joe and Jill's decision" as if "we'd all been hypnotized" and concludes, "In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn't a choice that should have been left to an individual's ego, an individual's ambition." She also writes that she does not believe Biden's withdrawal from the race was the result of incapacity, adding, "As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country."
The memoir excerpt further accuses members of the White House staff of failing to defend Harris against negative coverage and, at times, contributing to it. "Getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible," she wrote. "I often learned that the president's staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more." Harris frames the passages as part of a larger effort to explain her decisions and her perspective on the final months of the 2024 campaign.
The passages follow a period in which Harris publicly defended President Biden against criticism stemming from a special counsel's review. At the time, she called some comments in Special Counsel Robert Hur's report "gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate" and questioned aspects of Hur's characterization of the president's demeanor. Months later, audio of Hur's interview was released; Biden aides and other officials said the audio matched elements of the special counsel's description.
Harris's memoir excerpts and public statements come amid continued scrutiny of how the Biden White House and the Democratic Party handled concerns about the president's fitness for a second term and how those dynamics affected top-tier Democrats. In the excerpt, Harris describes the period surrounding a widely reported debate performance as pivotal to the course of the campaign.
The preview also addresses Harris's perspective on loyalty and responsibility. She acknowledges her own involvement in the campaign and expresses regret about leaving the decision of whether to run in the hands of the president and his family. The passages underline a tension between personal loyalty to a political ally and what Harris frames as a duty to the country.
The memoir is the latest account from senior Democrats reflecting on the tumultuous final stretch of the 2024 election cycle, and it adds to public debate about internal deliberations in the White House and party leadership. The excerpt has prompted commentary across news and opinion outlets as readers and political observers assess Harris's account and its implications for how the 2024 campaign has been understood.
Harris's full memoir is expected to provide a more extensive narrative of her decisions and experiences during the campaign. The previewed passages will likely figure into ongoing discussions inside the Democratic Party about candidate selection, communication, and crisis management during high‑stakes election periods.