Moments before Kamala Harris stepped onto the debate stage to face Donald Trump, her phone rang with a call from President Joe Biden. It was not the morale-boosting ‘go get ’em’ she expected.
Instead, according to former Vice President Harris, you get a complaint about yourself. This was the scene Harris painted during a candid interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast released Thursday, CNN reported. Harris revealed the shocking phone call that she says exemplifies her ‘complicated’ relationship with former President Joe Biden.
‘His Motivation Was All About Himself’: The Call That Left Harris ‘Angry’
Harris recounted the high-stakes moments before her confrontation with Trump. She received an unexpected call from Biden, but it was not the morale boost she anticipated.
‘I was so sure it was to buck me up and (say) ‘go get ’em”, Harris told the host. Instead, Biden allegedly told her that ‘a group of people’ in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania were speaking poorly of her. The reason? ‘Because they heard I was saying bad things about him’.
The accusation, coming moments before her debate, left Harris stunned. ‘My takeaway is his motivation was all about himself’, she stated. ‘It wasn’t about my performance at the debate’. ‘When I hung up the phone I was just – it was unbelievable, and I was – yes I was angry, and deeply disappointed. It was so unnecessary’.
‘Great Affection’ and ‘Great Disappointment’: A Complicated Friendship
The podcast appearance is part of a wider media tour for Harris’s new book, 107 Days. The book and her accompanying interviews have seen her frankly rehash her brief and unsuccessful bid for the presidency, as well as the fallout from her loss.
Despite the pointed criticism, Harris maintained she is still friends with Biden. She noted he had called just two days earlier for her birthday.
‘I have a great deal of affection for him’, she said. ‘And there were times, that I’ve been quite candid about, where he greatly disappointed me and, frankly, angered me’.
Why Biden ‘Did Not Want To Debate’ Trump In Disastrous Showdown
Harris also offered a striking insight into Biden’s mental state leading up to his disastrous June 2024 debate against now-President Trump. In her assessment, Biden never actually wanted to participate in the early general election debate but was talked into it by his team.
‘It’s like any competition you go in, whether it’s you’re bidding for something, if it’s sports – you gotta want it, right?’, Harris said. ‘If you don’t want to be in the competition it will absolutely have an impact on your performance, and I don’t think he – I’m pretty sure he did not want to debate’. This revelation sheds new light on the performance that many critics viewed as a turning point in the election.
‘We’ll Have To See’: Harris Hints At Another Presidential Run
When asked about her own political future, the former vice president suggested she remains open to another run for the presidency. ‘I think the case for running again is if I can make a difference’, she explained.
Harris believes she can offer a message that would be ‘uplifting to the American people’ and would be about ‘getting us on a correct trajectory’. When pressed if she is the one to offer that message, Harris remarked, ‘I mean, that’s why I ran the last time’.
She concluded, ‘We’ll have to see what happens over the course of these next few months, several months’.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
