First Lady Jill Biden was against choosing Kamala Harris as her husband Joe Biden’s running mate after she attacked him during a primary debate, according to a new book.
“Speaking in confidence with a close adviser to her husband’s campaign, the future first lady posed a pointed question. There are millions of people in the United States, she began. Why, she asked, do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?” according to the book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns titled “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future."
It’s due out in May.
The excerpt was first reported by Politico.
During a debate in June 2019, Harris called out Biden on his record on race, specifically his previous relationship with segregationist senators and his opposition to school busing.
But Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff who was in charge of vetting VP candidates, pushed Harris as the most qualified for the job, according to the book.
"Yes, Harris had attacked Biden more harshly than any other major candidate in the Democratic primaries. Yes, the Biden family had seen it as a smear and a betrayal,” the book noted, according to Fox News, which expanded on the discontent.
“In Klain's assessment, that would work to Biden's advantage. "Choosing Harris will show people that you are magnanimous and forgiving, Klain told Joe Biden. It will show the country just what a unifying leader you can be."
The book also highlights Biden's own reservations about Harris as his White House VP, noting her "past romantic relationship with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor who had appointed Harris to a pair of minor political positions,” the book said, noting Biden described the behavior "as the kind of thing that should be off limits."
“You know, white women are incredibly racist, as are white men,” a close adviser to Joe Biden said in the new book, Fox News reported. “None of it was safe. It was a risky thing to do. But it was the safest of choices that we had.”
According to a book published last year —“Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump,” by Edward-Isaac Dovere — Jill Biden told supporters on a conference call that Harris should “go f–k” herself for attacking her husband during the Democratic primaries, the New York Post has reported.
The first lady dismissed the remark, saying last year “That was two years ago. We’ve moved on from that.”
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.