During the race to be the Democrats’ nominee in 2020, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden engaged in several acrimonious exchanges before Harris’ campaign went down in flames.
But she is a black woman of Asian descent, and Biden — being the craven politician he is — picked her as his running mate.
Still, he has regularly expressed his displeasure with the spotlight-seeking Harris, and a new book says he dismissively calls her a “work in progress.”
In “The Fight of His Life,” a new book by author Chris Whipple that comes out January 17, Whipple says Biden was miffed when he heard that Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, complained about some of the tasks assigned to the vice president, Politico reports.
“Biden was annoyed,” the book says. “He hadn’t asked Harris to do anything he hadn’t done as vice president — and she’d begged him for the voting rights assignment.”
Early in his presidency, Biden named Harris the “Border Czar” and charged her with taking care of the mess at the U.S.-Mexico border. She was also tasked with pushing election reform and voting rights through Congress, but she failed miserably.
Others in the White House were also annoyed. One senior Biden adviser allegedly vented that “[Harris’] inner circle didn’t serve her well in the presidential campaign — and they are ill-serving her now.”
The White House gave only the most perfunctory pushback on the book.
“There will be no shortage of books written about the administration containing a wide variety of claims,” White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson told Politico. “We don’t plan to engage in confirmations or denials when it comes to the specifics of those claims. The author did not give us a chance to verify the materials that are attributed here.”
The book is coming out just as a buzz is sweeping the capital city. For the last few weeks, Democrats have been openly musing about Harris’ future, with some liberal news sites and party leaders saying she shouldn’t run in 2024.
If President Joe Biden runs again, he should dump Harris, some stories say. If he doesn’t run, the party should bail on her and pick someone else, others say.
The stories aren’t wrong, per se. They do contain facts, like this from a recent survey from Morning Consult: Just 28% of Democratic voters would vote for Harris in a Democratic presidential primary without Biden on the ballot, down from 33% in a poll last year.
Slate was the latest liberal site to come out against Harris.
“As Joe Biden weighs a run for re-election even as he becomes the first octogenarian U.S. president in history, he should think back on what it was like to watch the Harris campaign flame out,” Christina Cauterucci wrote.
“Harris, a proven dud of a presidential candidate who has done little to distinguish herself since is not a good choice for the Democrats’ top billing. For his second term, should he seek one (he shouldn’t!), Biden should tap someone else.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.