Former Biden administration officials are pushing back against former Vice President Kamala Harris over an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, in which she claims allowing Joe and Jill Biden to decide on their own whether he should seek reelection was “recklessness.” Harris also accused the White House of working to undermine her as vice president over past grievances.
The excerpt from her book, “107 Days,” first published by The Atlantic on Wednesday, has drawn criticism from former Biden administration officials.
Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.
Point phone camera here
‘Simply not good at her job’
One former Biden official, who was not identified, told Axios, “Vice President Harris was simply not good at her job. She had basically zero substantive role in any of the administration’s key work streams, and instead would just dive bomb in for stilted photo ops that exposed how out of depth she was.”
They added that Biden is “not the reason she struggled in office or tanked her 2019 [presidential campaign]. Or lost the 2024 campaign, for that matter. The independent variable is the vice president, not Biden or his aides.”
A dozen Biden aides interviewed
Former Biden officials accuse Harris of blaming the former president for her own shortcomings, according to Axios, citing interviews with a dozen former aides.
The former vice president said in her memoir that she was too timid to speak up about Biden exiting the race because of their past clashes during the 2019 campaign.
“I’m not sure the very robust defense of not having the courage to speak up in the moment about Biden running is quite as persuasive as she thinks it is,” one aide told Axios. “If this is her attempt at political absolution: Lots of luck in your senior year.”
‘We’re not going back!’
Harris also accuses the White House of failing to defend her after she was labeled “border czar” and even feeding into negative talking points from conservatives about her.
“On the border stuff in particular I’d also say, if she spent a fraction of the time and energy doing the work that she did on complaining, about how she was perceived, she would have been perceived a whole lot better,” the same aide said.
When asked about Harris potentially running for president in 2028, another former White House official remarked, “We’re not going back!” in reference to Harris campaign slogan.
Others guarded in their reaction
Former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, however, was more forgiving.
“I thought she did a good job as [vice president] and I feel badly that she found the experience negative,” Klain told Axios.
Some defended Harris
Other former White House aides even came to Harris’ defense.
“We all know that the Biden folks treated her and her team like sh*t,” one aide told Axios. “We never thought she would actually say anything. The staffers across a range of ages and positions that I’m talking to are proud of her.”
Harris’ memoir is scheduled for release on Sept. 23.
