Harris says leaving reelection decision to Biden was 'recklessness,' but she defends his abilities

[dalton99a]

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

Harris says leaving reelection decision to Biden was ‘recklessness,’ but she defends his abilities
By MICHELLE L. PRICE
Updated 7:34 AM CDT, September 10, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris says it was “recklessness” 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 an excerpt of her new book.

Harris, in an excerpt of “107 Days” 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.

“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” Harris said.

The remarks are the first time Harris has been publicly critical of Biden’s decision to run again — 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.

“The stakes were simply too high,” Harris writes in the book. “This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”

Biden’s office did not immediately have a comment Wednesday.

...

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Biden also got very bad advice from his advisors who severely underestimated Trump's thirst for power and naively assumed Republicans were decent law-abiding citizens.

[IcyPeas]

1. This is being discussed on Don Lemons show right now

https://www.youtube.com/live/wRpQUWbbL3c

[newdeal2]

2. I'm sorry but there's no committee vote on this kind of thing

Friends and family can give their advice. But ultimately it’s the President’s decision to seek reelection or not.

And there’s always a primary for challengers.

[unblock]

3. Kinda weird take on events

I'm quite sure Biden felt railroaded by a heavily biased media that deemed normal senior aging in an otherwise fit and capable leader as a major crisis of mental decline, while ignoring a nearly same-aged textbook case of numerous mental deficiencies. Combine that with a series of prominent democrats doubting his ability to win and I really doubt he felt he had much choice.

That said, at the end of the day, you can't force anyone into any job. It's always a candidate's decision to run or not. No committee can force them to run if they've decided not to, for whatever reason.

[Melon]

4. They could have pulled his ability to run earlier

You are saying they can't force him to run. They could have removed him from the ballet not to run.
When the decline in his abilities became very noticeable, the party should have taken a decision quickly not to have him run. The delays in pulling out cost the party. Even after the debate it took too long based on his own decision.

[FBaggins]

5. Except she's talking about the post-debate-debacle decisions

Her comment smacks of anti-democratic values. She had no option re: whether to leave the decision to him or not at that point.

She could have primaried him much earlier…
But she would have lost

[unblock]

6. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point

Is she saying they should have taken him off the ticket sooner, or that they should have insisted he stay on the ticket? I guess I'm no longer clear on this point.

Anyway I think the real problem is the media, and perhaps thry should have presented a united front backing Biden and ripped into the media as being in the tank for Donnie, giving him far to much airtime, and a ludicrous amount of legitimacy given that he's the most thoroughly documented liar in history, never mind all the incompetence and evil.

Biden at 50% is still 100 times as better than Donnie. Dumb as rocks on a good day and evil on all of them.

[bigtree]

7. I reject this top-down reasoning that assumes they know better than voters

...or that elections are just a matter of elitist politicians arranging the deck chairs for Dem voters to sit down and applaud the wisdom of a handful of political operatives.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that it's the very same top down process she's wistful about which edged her and others out of the nomination in favor of the aging veteran pol.

[Ritabert]

8. I hate Monday morning quarterbacking

[ImNotGod]

10. Kamala is right. President Biden was a great president but running for a second term was a bridge too far

When he announced his second run my heart sunk, i thought he planned to pass the torch. I backed him, kept my doubts to myself. We also need to learn from our mistakes as a party which is another reason I'm not going to dis her book. We can't focus on this, move on, maybe write a book about how to fight fascism like we mean it.

[Johonny]

11. They didnt leave it up to him

She could have or Newsome or anyone that might have wanted too, run against him in the primaries. The voters of her party chose him. One could argue, they didn't give primary voters anyone else to consider. That's how these fucking things work.

The lesson from LBJ is, don't have your incumbant candidate drop out of the fucking race. This would appear to be a good lesson to learn this time again. Shit, Biden might have loss, but that late in the stage, no one else was going to win. Despite just looked like weak fools punking him due to media pressure. They still look like weak fools over this.

[madibella]

12. Ah, back to being ungrateful I see.

She tried some shit at a debate once too. Blindsided Biden and he still picked her for VP. Oh and she failed to secure the nomination in 2020 even with her stunt.

I’m seeing stark character differences.

Democrats never learn. What a turnoff.

[hamsterjill]

13. It does not make me happy that she said this.

n/t