Kamala Harris pleaded with Biden to endorse her after he exited 2024 race: ‘Important for your legacy’
WASHINGTON, DC: Kamala Harris reportedly begged Joe Biden to explicitly show his support for her as the Democratic presidential nominee soon after the former president dropped out of the 2024 race.
Amie Parnes and NBC News’ Jonathan Allen in their upcoming book, ‘FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House’, revealed that the former vice president told Biden, “You need to endorse me,” moments before he publicly revealed his decision to exit the race in July 2024, as reported by OK! Magazine.
The writers said, “She knew that if Biden stepped aside without explicitly backing her, it would be taken as a statement that he lacked confidence in her ability to win or to do the job — or both.”
Kamala Harris asked Joe Biden to endorse her as Democratic presidential nominee
“That could mean crib death for a battle that she had not yet begun to fight. She also knew that a failure to throw his weight behind her would suggest that he had made the wrong decision in choosing her as his number two in the first place,” Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen wrote.
Scheduled to release on April 8, the book further reveals that Biden called Harris hours before making the announcement that he was dropping out of the 2024 election race. The 60-year-old attorney spoke to him about the importance of timing.
She reportedly told the 82-year-old former president, “This is important for your legacy — to show that you have absolute faith in your VP.”
James Clyburn advised Joe Biden to immediately name his successor
But Joe Biden was not convinced with Kamala Harris' idea and suggested a few days' break. But Harris said it would create “too much daylight” and could risk “mischief and confusion” in the media.
Even Representative James Clyburn thought the same.
As he checked Biden's statement, the South Carolina Democrat reportedly claimed that “there’s something missing” and advised Biden not to “leave the field without endorsing a successor” because it would result in a “power vacuum".
Gavin Newsom was top contender to become Joe Biden’s successor
The book also shared that at that time, Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, was the first choice as Joe Biden’s successor.
The book said, “'[Barack] Obama’s going to try to rope me into some kind of mini- primary,' Clyburn thought. ‘It will be easier to fend him off if I’ve already endorsed Harris'."
“When Obama called that evening, the conversation lasted less than a minute. Clyburn said the party should unify behind Harris and that ‘anything else will lead to a real tough convention, which will lead to defeat at the polls,’” the book added.
However, the Democrats eventually did face defeat in the 2024 election race and Donald Trump went on to become the President of the United States for the second time.
