Former Vice President Kamala Harris is gearing up to release her book "107 Days" in September 2025, and an excerpt published in The Atlantic on Sept. 10 offers a glimpse into her take on President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance and his decision to exit the 2024 presidential race.
The Daily Caller reported that in this revealing excerpt, Harris tackles the swirling speculation around Biden’s age, his poor showing in a June 2024 debate against now-President Donald Trump, and the internal White House deliberations that led to his withdrawal from the race.
Let’s rewind to the lead-up to that fateful debate in June 2024. Biden spent a full week training at Camp David, presumably to sharpen his edge after Trump threw down the gauntlet with a challenge to debate "anywhere, any time, anyplace." Biden’s team countered with specific dates and conditions, setting the stage for a showdown that would soon unravel.
Minutes into the June 2024 debate, Biden stumbled—literally and figuratively. He appeared pale, committed several gaffes, and left viewers stunned at what they were witnessing. White House officials scrambled with excuses, claiming a "cold" and jet lag from overseas travel completed at least a week prior were to blame.
Those excuses didn’t hold water for long. Democrats were thrown into chaos, with calls for Biden to step aside growing louder in the weeks that followed. The party was desperate for a new face, and the debate debacle became the tipping point.
Harris, in her book excerpt, paints a picture of a White House grappling with a deeply personal decision. She notes that the choice for Biden to drop out was ultimately left to the president himself and First Lady Jill Biden. It’s a detail that raises eyebrows—should such a monumental call have been so narrowly confined?
Here’s Harris trying to thread the needle: "Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president."
Nice words, but they clash with the image of a man who, by her own admission, showed physical and verbal stumbles at 81. If age were just a number, why did it dominate the narrative after that debate?
She doubles down, claiming, "On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best."
That’s a bold statement when the public saw a performance so shaky it sparked a party-wide panic. Compassion doesn’t win debates—or elections—if you can’t string a sentence together.
Harris also admits to the fatigue factor, pointing to Biden’s back-to-back Europe trips and a West Coast fundraiser as reasons for his poor showing. She insists it wasn’t incapacity, adding, "If I believed that, I would have said so." But isn’t silence just as telling when the stakes are this high?
Reflecting on her role, Harris muses, "During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running?"
It’s a fair question, but her hesitation—fearing it would seem self-serving or disloyal—speaks volumes about the delicate power dynamics at play. Ambition or loyalty, pick your poison, but neither seemed to prioritize the country’s needs over personal ties.
She even acknowledges Biden’s knack for defying expectations, noting, "He was, by some measures, the most consistently underestimated man in Washington."
Yet, underestimation doesn’t erase the reality of a debate performance that left Democrats scrambling. If he was so underestimated, why didn’t the White House better prepare for the inevitable scrutiny of his age?
Harris’s frustration peaks when she recalls the mantra, "It’s Joe and Jill’s decision." She now calls this approach reckless, lamenting that such a critical choice shouldn’t have hinged on personal ego or ambition. It’s a rare moment of clarity, but one wonders why this hindsight wasn’t foresight when it mattered most.
A poignant image emerges from Harris’s account: a photo of her hugging Biden, with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff nearby, after Biden’s farewell address from the Oval Office on Jan. 15, 2025. It’s a snapshot of closure, but also of a chapter that many feel ended too late.
Separate from Harris’s narrative, a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, based on 200 interviews with Democratic insiders, paints a grimmer picture of Biden’s decline and alleged efforts by staffers to conceal it.
This contrasting account only fuels doubts about Harris’s version of events—was it really just fatigue, or was there more to hide? In the end, Harris’s "107 Days" might aim to dispel conspiracy theories, but it also dodges the harder questions about accountability and timing.
While her loyalty to Biden is evident, her reflections leave a nagging sense that the progressive agenda often prioritizes optics over tough, necessary decisions. This excerpt is less a revelation and more a reminder of how Washington’s inner circles can insulate themselves from the public’s pressing concerns.