Former Vice President Kamala Harris released explosive excerpts from her upcoming book Wednesday, delivering scathing criticism of the Biden White House’s treatment during her time in office.
The revelations paint a picture of deliberate undermining and internal sabotage within the Democratic administration.
Harris’ forthcoming memoir, titled “107 Days,” chronicles her abbreviated presidential campaign and is scheduled for publication later in September.
The Atlantic published the first excerpt, which contains damaging allegations against President Biden’s communications team and inner circle.
The former vice president directly accused the Biden administration’s press operation of failing to defend her work and accomplishments.
She specifically targeted the White House communications team, despite their extensive resources and daily briefings conducted by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“They had a huge comms team; they had Karine Jean-Pierre briefing in the pressroom every day. But getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible,” Harris wrote in the excerpt.
Harris provided specific examples of what she characterized as media manipulation and White House negligence.
She detailed a 2021 diplomatic visit to France, where she met with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace to repair relations damaged by the Australia-U.K.-U.S. security pact.
During that trip, Harris also visited the Pasteur Institute, a location with personal significance due to her mother’s previous mRNA research related to breast cancer.
While speaking with scientists at the institute, she made informal comments about politicians following scientific methodology.
“[T]esting a hypothesis and adjusting according to results, rather than coming in with the Plan, as if they had all the answers up front,” she wrote, describing her comments to the scientists.
“I said ‘the Plan’ with exaggerated emphasis and air quotes. Fox News, the New York Post, and Newsmax went wild, claiming I’d faked a French accent.”
She continued, “This was total nonsense, but the White House seemed glad to let reporting about my ‘gaffe’ overwhelm the significant thaw in foreign relations I’d achieved.”
The most damaging allegation centers on Harris’ claim that Biden’s staff actively promoted negative stories about her performance.
She accused the president’s team of deliberately fueling harmful narratives rather than providing support or clarification.
“Worse, I often learned that the president’s staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me. One narrative that took a stubborn hold was that I had a ‘chaotic’ office and unusually high staff turnover during my first year,” Harris revealed.
Media reports during Harris’ tenure documented significant personnel changes within her office.
Politico previously reported that multiple staffers departed amid allegations of workplace incompetence and toxicity during her first two years as vice president.
Data from OpenTheBooks showed Harris experienced a 91.5 percent staff turnover rate during her initial three years in office, according to their July 2024 analysis.
Harris disputes the characterization of these departures in her book excerpt.
The former vice president attributed increased scrutiny to her historic position as the first vice president followed by a dedicated press pool.
She argued this unprecedented media attention created unfair coverage standards.
“Because of this constant attention, things that had never been especially newsworthy about the vice president were suddenly reported and scrutinized,” Harris explained.
“And when the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the president’s inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.”
Harris devoted considerable attention to defending her border-related assignments during the Biden administration.
President Biden tasked her with addressing migration issues from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries in March 2021, leading some reporters to label her the “border czar.”
The former vice president conducted multiple diplomatic meetings with regional leaders and participated in various roundtables addressing root causes of migration. However, she visited the physical border only once before launching her presidential campaign, while border crossings continued at elevated levels.
“When Republicans mischaracterized my role as ‘border czar,’ no one in the White House comms team helped me to effectively push back and explain what I had really been tasked to do, nor to highlight any of the progress I had achieved,” Harris complained.
“I won commitments of $5.2 billion in new investments by private companies for the region. I had already seen almost a billion dollars of that money deployed, thanks to enthusiastic partners such as Mastercard, Microsoft, and Nespresso.”
Harris acknowledged the persistent nature of border challenges while defending her specific role.
“Instead, I shouldered the blame for the porous border, an issue that had proved intractable for Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” she said.
“Even the breathtaking cruelty of Trump’s family-separation policy hadn’t deterred the desperate. It was an issue that absolutely demanded bipartisan cooperation at an impossibly partisan, most uncooperative time.”
The excerpt also addressed Harris’ public statements regarding Israel following Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack.
She described delivering remarks in Selma, Alabama, during a period when Biden’s approval ratings faced significant challenges.
“I reiterated my strong support for Israel’s security and called on Hamas to release the hostages and accept the cease-fire agreement then on the table,” Harris recounted.
“I also called on Israel for greater access to aid. It was a speech that had been vetted and approved by the White House and the National Security Council. It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased. I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.”
Harris concluded her excerpt with a sweeping indictment of the Biden administration’s approach to her role and success.
She characterized their mindset as fundamentally flawed and counterproductive to the administration’s overall goals.
“Their thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well. That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands,” Harris wrote.
“My success was important for him. His team didn’t get it.”
