Kamala Harris’ book rips open Democratic wounds, and does her no favors – San Bernardino Sun

If Democrats hoped that their wounds from the 2024 election would soon begin healing, former Vice President Kamala Harris just ripped open the scab. 

Harris’ book, “107 Days,” is due to be released on September 23rd, but an excerpt was published by The Atlantic. In it, the former VP holds little back, risking renewed infighting among a Democratic party struggling to find its way.

Unfortunately, based on the excerpt, Harris’ book will do nothing to help the larger party, nor herself. Despite ostensibly her best efforts, it is remarkably self-serving.

In just a few words, Harris criticized Biden’s decision to run for a second term, claimed that his administration undercut her from the start, and revealed significant frustrations towards the former President and those around him. 

Indeed, Harris slammed certain decisions Biden made, but none more than his most fateful: seeking a second term when so many Americans felt he was too old, a recognition that the issue will still be critical in 2028.

Acknowledging that “At 81, Joe got tired,” Harris describes a reluctant acceptance of “Joe and Jill’s decision” to run again. 

And, despite recognizing that “this wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition,” Harris says that she and others were “hypnotized” into acquiescence, which she describes as “recklessness.”

Harris’ harshest criticism, however, was reserved for Biden’s advisors. 

As she describes it, Biden’s team either stuck her with unsolvable policy issues – the border – or totally sidelined her. 

She went further, accusing the Biden White House of  “showing little interest in defending her against attacks from Republicans.”

On the contrary, Harris believes that “the president’s staff was adding fuel to the negative narratives around me” and left her to “shoulder the blame for a porous border.”

For issues where Harris polled better than Biden, such as abortion, Harris writes that Biden’s advisors refused to give her credit out of what she said was their belief that “if she’s shining, he’s dimmed.” 

Harris’ anger at the Biden White House is clear. What is less evident is any sense of responsibility or agency on her part.

Nor, for a vice president who consistently touted her loyalty to Biden on the campaign trail, is there any evidence of that same loyalty now. 

Harris ran a campaign centered on, by her own admission, an inability to find anything on which she disagreed with Biden, yet now, has a book full of places where she found daylight between the two.

In fact, in this excerpt, there’s little on the myriad of Biden decisions which actually helped her. Specifically, tapping her for VP, giving her a platform bigger than most VPs get, or, most importantly, almost immediately backing her for president when he withdrew from the race.

Taken together, while Harris’ frustration with – and attempt to distance herself from – the Biden White House is obvious, the timing is wrong, the degree of disloyalty is great, and her lack of political judgement is more than apparent.

Of course, this is only one excerpt of a larger book. But still, the Harris camp chose this excerpt for a reason, indicating their belief that the information it contained is critical.

To that end, the excerpt has already begun ripping open old wounds, prompting rebuttals and personal attacks on Harris from Biden staffers. 

According to Politico, one former Biden White House official pushed back on Harris’ characterization of the administration, saying, “No one wants to hear your pity party.”

A national Democratic strategist was even harsher, saying that Harris’ “criticisms weren’t on the substance…but it was on them not doing enough to promote her and have her back in the press…it speaks to why she lost.”

When the full book is published, it’s possible that these wounds will deepen, infecting the entire Democratic Party at an incredibly vulnerable time.

Since the 2024 election, Democrats have been embroiled in intra-party finger pointing, trying to figure out who is responsible for all of the things that went wrong. 

By dint of her position in the administration, Harris’ book is certain to reignite that debate. Even more so as it comes at a time when Democrats have been virtually unable to mount any form of effective opposition to the Trump administration.

In that same vein, the popularity of Harris’ book will draw renewed attention to the Biden administration’s issues when Democrats should be looking towards the 2026 midterms and then to the 2028 primary.

And yet, for Harris, the book will likely be the starting point for her own presidential campaign. 

In taking pains to highlight her own successes in office while blaming any and all stumbles on Team Biden, Harris is clearly hoping that voters will not associate her with a Biden administration that was deeply unpopular.

Or, in Harris’ own words, “When polls indicated that I was getting more popular, the people around him (Biden) didn’t like the contrast that was emerging.”

Moreover, by stressing that there was never a cover up of Biden’s infirmities, and attributing Biden’s candidacy to “Joe and Jill” – as well as “an individual’s ego” – Harris appears to be trying to acknowledge the problem without taking full responsibility.

The issue over who in the administration knew what about Biden’s age will almost certainly be an issue in the 2028 primary, and attempting to get her side of the story out there is critical. 

As such, laying the fault at Biden’s advisors – who she describes as freezing her out from the beginning – appears to be her “out.”

Nevertheless, Harris’ book threatens to drive a wedge among the Democratic base between those who backed Biden throughout 2024, and younger, progressives who did not.

Put another way, Democrats may experience another fight like 2016, when the establishment and grassroots activists split over Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, respectively.