AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed that former President Joe Biden phoned her last year at an inopportune time to confront her for allegedly criticizing him behind his back.
The moment came in September of last year, just minutes before her only debate with President Donald Trump. Harris had secured the Democratic nomination after Biden dropped his reelection bid in the wake of a disastrous debate performance in June. During that debacle, Biden repeatedly stumbled over his words and at one point declared, “We finally beat Medicare.”
In her upcoming book, 107 Days – named for the length of her campaign – Harris discusses her abbreviated 2024 run. In an excerpt obtained by The New York Times, Harris tells of a phone call she received from Biden right before her debate with Trump. She said Biden had heard from his brother that Harris had been talking smack, and that the president decided to ask her about it right before the debate:
Ms. Harris wrote that she had a genuine rapport with Mr. Biden, and her personal reverence for him did shine through at several points. Her hurt and confusion were palpable when she recounted several things he did that she felt may have jeopardized her chances of beating Mr. Trump.
Minutes before she was to step onstage at a presidential debate in September 2024, she received a call from Mr. Biden. He relayed that his brother told him that she was bad-mouthing him, and that several “power brokers” in Philadelphia were threatening not to support her because of it.
Mr. Biden went on to insist that his own disastrous debate performance had not hurt him with voters, and that he had beaten Mr. Trump.
“I just couldn’t understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself,” Ms. Harris wrote. “Distracting me with worry about hostile power brokers in the biggest city of the most important swing state.”
The next day, Biden visited a firehouse in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. During the stop, Biden wore an attendee’s “TRUMP 2024” hat.
A spokesperson for Biden did not reply to a Times request for comment.
The post Kamala Harris Reveals Biden Awkwardly Confronted Her ‘Minutes’ Before VP’s Debate With Trump: ‘I Just Couldn’t Understand Why’ first appeared on Mediaite.
