According to the co-author of the new book “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” former President Obama did not want former Vice-President Kamala Harris to be the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee and worked against the possibility.
Journalist Jonathan Allen, who currently works for NBC News, has co-authored “HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton,” “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign,” and “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won The Presidency.” He appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday.
“President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama,” Allen stated, as Mediaite reported. “And he also didn’t want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden. He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats. And he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary or an open convention or mini-primary leading to an open convention, did not have faith in her ability to win the election. So and as it turned out, she didn’t win, but he was really working against her.”
“In one moment, he had set up a phone call with Congressman [Jim] Clyburn from South Carolina on the day that Joe Biden handed off the baton to Kamala Harris,” he continued. “And Obama had set up a call with Clyburn for like 5:30 that afternoon. And Clyburn thought to himself, ‘This guy is going to try to rope me into the open convention thing. I better get my endorsement of Harris out there fast so that this is a short conversation.’ And when Harris talked to Obama on the day that Biden handed off to her, Obama was unwilling to give his endorsement then.”
In the book, Allen writes, “In private conversations, Obama flat-out told allies she would lose to Trump … ‘He did not think she should be the candidate,’ said one confidant. He liked the idea of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer at the top of the ticket and Maryland Governor Wes Moore at the bottom. … he didn’t want a coronation of Harris.”
Allen told Fox News that Obama said to Harris when Biden dropped out, “I don’t want to put my thumb on the scale.”
“She was disappointed but not necessarily shocked because he’d been behind the scenes trying to undermine her for the last several weeks before Biden even got out,” Allen added.
