From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

Harris says Democrats leaving reelection decision to Biden was rCyrecklessness,rCO
---------- "NO SHIT!" You fumbled away the Presidency!

And then the totally useless VP highlights her own failures
by trying again and still, to play both sides of the issue.
And, oh yeah - the President's inner circle picked on me!
What a waste! Yeah idiots, just try to run her again!
Waste your money again down that dead end!

from https://apnews.com/article/harris-book-excerpt-biden-473ca75fb9fb5fa157a788bcf3ecc941

Harris says leaving reelection decision to Biden was rCyrecklessness,rCO but she defends his abilities

By MICHELLE L. PRICE
Updated 1:19 PM PDT, September 10, 2025
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WASHINGTON (AP) rCo Former Vice President Kamala Harris says it was rCLrecklessnessrCY for Democrats to leave it to President Joe Biden to
decide whether to continue seeking another term last year, but she
defends his ability to do the job, according to an excerpt of her new book.

Harris, in an excerpt of rCL107 DaysrCY published Wednesday in The Atlantic, writes that as questions swirled about whether the then-81-year-old
Biden should seek reelection, she and others left the decision to him
and first lady Jill Biden.

rCLWas it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,rCY Harris said.

The remarks are the first time Harris has been publicly critical of
BidenrCOs decision to run again rCo an ill-fated decision that saw him drop out in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance, leaving her to
head up the Democratic ticket and ultimately lose to Republican Donald
Trump.

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AP AUDIO: Harris says leaving reelection decision to Biden was rCyrecklessness,rCO but she defends his abilities
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on Kamala Harris
criticizing Joe BidenrCOs decision to run for reelection last year.

rCLThe stakes were simply too high,rCY Harris writes in the book. rCLThis wasnrCOt a choice that should have been left to an individualrCOs ego, an individualrCOs ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.rCY

BidenrCOs office did not immediately have a comment Wednesday.

Throughout the campaign and in its wake, Harris had avoided much
criticism of the president she served beside and defended him amid
questions about his mental acuity.

In the book excerpt, Harris continues to defend BidenrCOs ability to do
the job but describes him in 2024 and especially at the time of his
rCLdebate debaclerCY as rCLtired.rCY

rCLOn his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his
best. But at 81, Joe got tired. ThatrCOs when his age showed in physical
and verbal stumbles,rCY Harris writes. rCLI donrCOt think itrCOs 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
donrCOt believe it was incapacity.rCY

She adds that if she believed Biden were incapacitated, she would have
said so out of loyalty to the country.

Harris also blames those close to Biden for unflattering media coverage throughout the time she served as vice president and throwing her under
the bus to boost BidenrCOs public standing.

She writes about receiving a high level of scrutiny as the first female
vice president but says rCLwhen the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the presidentrCOs inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if
they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.rCY

Harris writes that she often learned that BidenrCOs staff was rCLadding fuel to negative narrativesrCY that surrounded her, such as stories about her
vice presidential office being in disarray and having high turnover.

The former vice president also accuses BidenrCOs staff of being afraid of
her upstaging him, describing a speech she gave in Selma, Alabama, in
March of last year in which she called for an immediate ceasefire in
Gaza and more humanitarian aid to be delivered to people there.

rCLIt went viral, and the West Wing was displeased,rCY Harris says, rCLI was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.rCY

She suggests that diminishing her also diminished Biden, especially
rCLgiven the concerns about his age.rCY

HarrisrCO success, she writes, would be a marker of BidenrCOs good judgment and a reassurance to the public that if something happened to the
president she could step in.

rCLMy success was important for him,rCY she writes. rCLHis team didnrCOt get it.rCY

HarrisrCO book, whose title is a nod to the length of her abbreviated presidential campaign, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster on
Sept. 23.

___

Follow the APrCOs coverage of former Vice President Kamala Harris at https://apnews.com/hub/kamala-harris.

MICHELLE L. PRICE
MICHELLE L. PRICE
Price covers the White House. She previously covered the 2024
presidential campaign and politics, government and other news in New
York, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. She is based in Washington.
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