An excerpt from Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming book "107 Days" — published Wednesday in The Atlantic — details deep friction between her team and President Joe Biden’s aides in the tense weeks before Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
According to Harris, Biden’s staff resisted efforts to elevate her public profile, fearing voters might prefer her as the nominee instead of the president.
The excerpt describes Harris’ reasoning for not urging Biden to step aside:
“Of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out. I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win,” Harris wrote. “It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.”
Harris said the phrase became a mantra among staff.
“We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.”
Harris recalled having to “prove her loyalty” to Biden’s team, who rarely defended her publicly — even during controversies such as staffing turnover within her office.
“Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well,” she wrote. “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. My success was important for him. His team didn’t get it.”
Biden withdrew from the Democratic primary on July 21, 2024, following a disastrous debate performance that intensified concerns about his ability to serve well into his 80s. He immediately endorsed Harris, ending speculation about a contested convention.
Harris’ campaign raised $81 million within a day and $310 million by the end of July. But despite the historic moment — the first woman of color to lead a major-party presidential ticket — her momentum stalled.
While national polls showed a dead heat with Donald Trump heading into November, Trump carried six key battleground states, securing a decisive Electoral College win.
