Kamala Harris reveals Biden snapped at her before her debate with Trump
WASHINGTON, DC: Former Vice President Kamala Harris recounts a tense phone call with Joe Biden just before her pivotal September 2024 debate against Donald Trump in her upcoming memoir, '107 Days'.
Harris describes how Biden confronted her over alleged remarks to donors, leaving her "angry and disappointed" ahead of the high-stakes event.
She explains how the call disrupted her focus and shares how she managed to recover emotionally. Simon & Schuster will publish the memoir on September 23.
Kamala Harris reveals conversation with Joe Biden before 2024 Trump debate
According to the memoir obtained by The Guardian ahead of its publication next week, Kamala Harris described how, while preparing for the high-stakes debate from her hotel room in Philadelphia, Joe Biden called to wish her luck, but quickly shifted the conversation.
After briefly asking if she’d return to Philadelphia before the election, Biden told her his brother had been speaking with influential power brokers in the city. He listed several names and asked if Harris knew them. She didn’t.
“Then he got to his point,” Harris shared in the memoir. “His brother had told him that those guys were not going to support me because I’d been saying bad things about him. He wasn’t inclined to believe it, he claimed, but he thought I should know in case my team had been encouraging me to put daylight between the two of us.”
Harris responded by asking Biden to have the group contact her directly. But the conversation didn’t end there.
According to the memoir, Biden pivoted to defend his own poor debate performance against Trump three months earlier. Harris wrote, “Joe then rattled on about his own former debate performances. ‘I beat him the other time; I wasn’t feeling well in that last one.’ He continued to insist that his debate performance hadn’t hurt him much with the electorate. I was barely listening.”
She compares her own upcoming debate with Trump to “a big prizefight,” emphasizing its global stakes and her need to stay focused.
She added in the memoir, “I just couldn’t understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself. Distracting me with worry about hostile power-brokers in the biggest city of the most important state.”
Her husband, Doug Emhoff, “could see how angry and disappointed I was. ‘Let it go,’” she said in the book. “‘Don’t worry about him. You’re dealing with Trump. Let it go.’”
Kamala Harris highlights tensions between herself and Joe Biden during 2024 campaign
During the 2024 presidential campaign and its aftermath, Kamala Harris largely refrained from criticizing Biden, defending him even amid questions about his mental sharpness.
But in 107 Days, she reveals underlying tensions between them. One example came in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Harris writes that “Joe struggled to talk about reproductive rights in a way that met the gravity of the moment.”
She acknowledges a clear difference between Biden’s capacity to govern and his ability to campaign, and expresses concern about the latter. “His voice was no longer strong, his verbal stumbles more frequent,” she notes.
Kamala Harris’ memoir uncovers behind-the-scenes strain with Biden’s team
A particularly awkward moment occurred on July 4th, when pressure was mounting on Biden to withdraw after a weak debate performance. Harris embraced him and observed, “he felt so frail.” Meanwhile, her husband, Doug Emhoff, was taken aside to meet with Jill Biden.
According to Harris, “She seemed tense, even angry. ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded. ‘Are you supporting us?’ Doug assured her they were. ‘OK. That’s really important. We need to know that.’”
When Harris rejoined her husband, she noticed he was visibly disturbed. “Doug runs cool. He’s slow to anger. But I could tell something had gotten to him,” she writes. Later, he vented his frustration: “They hide you away for four years, give you impossible, shit jobs, don’t correct the record when those tasks are mischaracterised, never fight back when you’re attacked, never praise your accomplishments, and now, finally, they want you out there on that balcony, standing right beside them. Now, finally, they know you are an asset, and they need you to reassure the American people. “And still, they have to ask if we’re loyal?”
Harris shared many of those same frustrations. She recalled a time when Biden’s team criticized her—not for underperforming, but for giving a speech too effectively. “Their thinking was zero-sum,” she writes. “If she’s shining, he’s dimmed.”
