Ahead of the release of a new book by former Vice President Kamala Harris and her whirlwind 2024 presidential campaign, a newly published excerpt sees Harris criticizing the inner circle of former President Joe Biden. Her comments about Biden’s decision to run for reelection and her differences with Biden’s close advisors show Harris putting new distance between herself and the former president.

Harris second-guesses ‘reckless’ approach to Biden reelection decision

In a passage published by The Atlantic from the memoir 107 Days, Harris questions the process that led to Biden deciding to run for a second term in office. “‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris says of the approach taken by her and others surrounding President Biden as he decided to run for reelection. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” Harris says now of the approach of leaving the decision to Biden and his wife, Jill. “The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.” Harris also notes that, as the person who would have benefited if Biden decided not to run, she was not in a strong position to question his decision about reelection. “I knew it would come off as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run.”

Harris calls out Biden staff for ‘adding fuel to negative narratives’ about her

Harris has more sharp criticism for White House staffers surrounding Biden, who she claims undermined her and refused to support her out of apparent concern for upstaging Biden, even before she became the presidential candidate. She points to a March 2024 speech in which she called for a ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid concerning the war in Gaza. Harris explains that her comments  “went viral, and the West Wing was displeased,” saying that she  “was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.” More generally, she complains. More generally, Harris says that she discovered that members of Biden’s staff were “adding fuel to negative narratives” by supporting negative stories about Harris and alleged dysfunction in the vice president’s office. And “when Fox News attacked me on everything from my laugh, to my tone of voice, to whom I’d dated in my 20s, or claimed I was a “DEI hire,” the White House rarely pushed back with my actual résumé,” Harris complains.

Harris denies Biden was mentally incapable of being president

Harris also addresses the issue of Biden’s mental competency, addressing critics who have accused Harris and others “of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity.” Harris says of Biden, “On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best,” Harris said of Biden, before acknowledging that “at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles.” Harris seems to blame exhaustion rather than impairment. “I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity,” Harris explains, adding that she would have spoken up publicly if she believed Biden was unfit to be president. “As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country,” Harris declares.

Even as Harris defends Biden’s mental faculties, her criticisms of Biden’s “ego” and his staff’s actions stand in sharp contrast to the mutual support Harris and Biden showed for one another, publicly at least, in 2024. As Harris promotes her new book and contemplates her political future, she appears to be establishing distance between herself and the administration in which she served.