‘Had a sure duty’ to argue in opposition to Biden operating

“I’ve and had a sure duty that I ought to have adopted by on,” Harris advised Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in her first reside tv interview because the election.

FILE – Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech on the Emerge twentieth Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, April 30, 2025. (AP Picture/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File) AP

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Related Press

September 22, 2025

3 minutes to learn

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris stated Monday night that she regrets not expressing her issues about then-President Joe Biden operating for a second time period when a majority of People felt he was too previous for the job.

“I’ve and had a sure duty that I ought to have adopted by on,” Harris advised Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in her first reside tv interview because the election.

Such a dialog, even when it occurred privately and behind the scenes, would have been a rare breach in a relationship between a president and vice chairman.

Harris’ feedback increase on a passage in her ebook, “107 Days,” that appears again on her expertise changing Biden because the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he dropped out of the race. Harris in the end misplaced to Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Within the ebook, Harris wrote that everybody within the White Home would say “it’s Joe and Jill’s determination” about operating for reelection, referring to the president and first woman.

“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? Looking back, I feel it was recklessness,” she wrote. “The stakes have been just too excessive. This wasn’t a selection that ought to have been left to a person’s ego, a person’s ambition. It ought to have been greater than a private determination.”

In her interview with Maddow, Harris stated, “once I discuss concerning the recklessness, as a lot as something, I’m speaking about myself.”

Harris stated within the interview she was involved that “it will come off as utterly self-serving” if she had recommended Biden to not search reelection. She had competed in opposition to him for his or her get together’s 2020 nomination, and he or she was nicely positioned to run once more.

A consultant for Biden declined remark.

Though Harris wrote that she wasn’t fearful about Biden’s means to proceed doing the job, she had issues about him campaigning.

“His voice was not sturdy, his verbal stumbles extra frequent,” she wrote. Earlier than Biden dropped out, there have been plans for him to run a White Home-centric marketing campaign whereas Harris did extra touring. Per week after Biden’s disastrous debate in opposition to Trump, she wrote that “he felt so frail.”

Harris turns 61 subsequent month, and he or she hasn’t detailed her future plans. Requested about operating for president once more in 2028, Harris stated “that’s not my focus proper now.” She’s already handed on a chance to run for governor of her dwelling state of California.

She backed a plan by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw congressional districts to counteract an identical plan by Republicans in Texas that was meant to assist Trump preserve management of the Home in subsequent yr’s midterms.

“We are inclined to play by the principles,” Harris stated. “However I feel it is a second the place you bought to battle fireplace with fireplace.”

She spoke harshly about Trump within the interview, criticizing him as appearing like “a tyrant” and “Communist dictators,” saying “that’s what we’re dealing proper now in Donald Trump.”

Harris additionally pointed the finger at enterprise leaders who she accused of capitulating to the president.

“These titans of trade will not be talking up,” she stated.

Maddow referenced a passage in Harris’ ebook the place she wrote that Pete Buttigieg was her first selection for vice chairman however she was fearful that People weren’t able to vote for a ticket that includes a Black girl and a homosexual man.

“It’s exhausting to listen to … he couldn’t be on the ticket, successfully, as a result of he was homosexual,” Maddow stated.

Harris stated “it wasn’t about any prejudice on my half” however “we had such a brief time frame, and the stakes have been so excessive.”

“It made me very unhappy, however I additionally realized it will be an actual danger,” she stated. Harris conceded “possibly I used to be being too cautious.”

Buttigieg advised Politico he was “stunned” by the passage within the ebook about him. He additionally stated he believes in “giving People extra credit score.”