Lead: In an excerpt from her memoir 107 Days published Sept. 10, 2025, former Vice President Kamala Harris calls the decision to leave President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection choice to him alone “recklessness.” Harris writes the judgment in a chapter dated July 24, 2024, describing internal White House dynamics, missed opportunities to bolster her visibility, and the fallout after Biden’s withdrawal and her brief run for president, which ended in a narrow loss.
Key Takeaways
- Harris labels leaving President Joe and Jill Biden to decide on a 2024 run by themselves as “recklessness,” writing this in an excerpt published Sept. 10, 2025.
- The book chapter is dated July 24, 2024 — days after Harris became the Democratic nominee following Biden’s exit and his Oval Office announcement.
- She argues members of Biden’s team failed to highlight her successes and even allowed negative narratives to grow, which she says hurt both her and the administration.
- Harris says polls at times showed her rising popularity and that her visibility would have reassured voters worried about Biden’s age; Biden was 81 during the 2024 campaign season.
- She defends Biden’s competence overall but notes physical and verbal stumbles after heavy travel; she distinguishes tiredness from incapacity.
- Harris recalls a campaign-period gaffe on The View — “There is not a thing that comes to mind” — that she says haunted the final weeks and contributed to a narrow loss.
- The memoir is titled 107 Days and, per the CNN report, was set for release about two weeks after Sept. 10, 2025.
Background
Harris’s memoir arrives against the backdrop of a long and sometimes fraught relationship with Joe Biden that stretches back to his son Beau and accelerated during the 2019 Democratic primary when Harris criticized Biden’s 1970s stance on busing. Their partnership in the White House involved visible cooperation on a range of issues, but also recurring tensions about priority, credit and public messaging. The vice president’s role — at once ceremonial, policy-driven and potential succession reassurance — acquired heightened significance amid public questions about the president’s age and stamina.
Across 2023–2024 the Biden White House faced sustained political pressure on immigration, economy and fitness for office. Harris was assigned to lead migration efforts related to Central America — a role opponents labeled “border czar” — and she says communications support from the West Wing was insufficient to counter that framing. The combination of high-stakes policy work, asymmetric media narratives and intra-campaign dynamics set the stage for the confrontations and reflections she records in 107 Days.
Main Event
In the excerpt Harris directly addresses the moment when the administration and campaign repeatedly deferred to the Bidens’ personal decision on whether he should seek reelection. She quotes a refrain — “It’s Joe and Jill’s decision” — that she says was repeated like a mantra, and concludes in hindsight that allowing the choice to rest on the president’s personal judgment alone was “recklessness.” The language is notable for breaking from the public deference she maintained while in office.
Harris recounts that when polls showed her gaining relative favor, some members of Biden’s circle disliked the contrast, failing to see that her visible success could bolster his standing and reassure voters about continuity. She argues her performance as vice president would have served as proof of Biden’s judgment in selecting her and would have mitigated concerns about a transition if something unexpected occurred.
The chapter also covers the days after Biden’s decision to exit the race and his Oval Office address. Harris notes that approximately nine minutes into the roughly 11-minute broadcast Biden did not mention her until late in the speech, an omission she recalls with evident frustration. She describes the July 24, 2024 chapter as coming in the immediate aftermath of nearly a month of Democratic turmoil, when she assumed the nomination and faced a compressed window to pivot the campaign.
Harris candidly addresses a consequential interview on The View in October 2024 in which she failed to critique Biden’s record when asked what she would have done differently. The answer she gave — “There is not a thing that comes to mind” — is described in the book as a moment that hurt her credibility and haunted subsequent campaign coverage and advertising, contributing to the tight finish in the general election.
Analysis & Implications
Harris’s framing of the decision as “reckless” reframes debates inside the Democratic coalition about stewardship, succession planning and the political calculus of incumbent vulnerability. By stressing that her visible competence would have reassured voters, she advances a case that the campaign missed a strategic opportunity to normalize leadership continuity. That interpretation may intensify intra-party discussion about how campaigns manage vice-presidential visibility and contingency planning for elder statespersons.
Her account also raises questions about White House communications strategy. If a senior official alleges that internal teams failed to correct mischaracterizations and did not amplify policy wins, Democrats will face pressure to audit messaging practices and incentives that may prioritize the president’s short-term standing over a broader ticket strategy. For future administrations, the episode could shape protocols for how vice presidents’ portfolios are presented publicly and how their successes are used to reassure voters.
Politically, Harris’s decision not to join the California governor’s race, announced over the summer of 2025, and the memoir’s candid tone complicate her immediate electoral calculus. While some close to her told CNN they expect she may be done running for office, Harris has not closed the door on future presidential bids — a possibility the memoir leaves open while also acknowledging the toll of 2024’s compressed campaign timeline.
Comparison & Data
| Date / Event | Detail |
|---|---|
| July 24, 2024 | Chapter date in Harris’s memoir, days after she became nominee |
| Oct. 2024 | The View interview where Harris said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind” |
| Sept. 10, 2025 | Excerpt from 107 Days published; book set for release about two weeks later |
The table places the memoir chapter and high-profile moments on a timeline to clarify sequencing. That chronology highlights how rapid developments — from Biden’s travel and debate schedule to Harris’s sudden nomination and compressed general election period — affected messaging and voters’ perception. While comprehensive polling figures are not cited in the excerpt, Harris’s argument rests on relative shifts in visibility and public confidence during those windows.
Reactions & Quotes
Harris’s prose in the excerpt includes succinct admissions and critiques that quickly drew attention when the excerpt ran. The passages below are brief selections presented with context.
“In retrospect… I think it was recklessness.”
Kamala Harris, 107 Days (excerpt)
Harris uses that phrase to summarize her view that leaving the reelection decision chiefly to the Bidens overlooked institutional risks and the broader national interest. She couches the critique as a reflection born of hindsight after months of campaign strain and an abbreviated nomination window.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
Kamala Harris, interview on The View (Oct. 2024)
Harris cites this line as a pivotal misstep in media framing that opponents amplified in the closing stretch of the 2024 campaign, contributing to unfavorable messaging and ad targeting that she says hurt her competitiveness.
Unconfirmed
- Harris’s claim that Biden aides intentionally undercut her visibility is based on her account; documentation of deliberate sabotage or directives has not been independently verified in the excerpt.
- Whether increased visible support for Harris would have materially changed the general election outcome is contested and cannot be established from the memoir passage alone.
- Future plans for Harris’s political career remain uncertain; statements that she is finished running are assessments by close observers, not binding actions she has declared.
Bottom Line
107 Days represents a candid reassessment from a vice president who until now largely refrained from public criticism of a president she served. Harris frames the decision to defer the 2024 reelection call as a miscalculation with tangible political consequences, and she uses specific episodes — The View, travel-linked debate fatigue, and Oval Office timing — to illustrate how those consequences played out.
For Democrats, the memoir will intensify debates about succession planning, the balance between loyalty and institutional responsibility, and how to manage high-profile second-tier figures in a presidential administration. For voters and political professionals, the account offers a window into the strategic trade-offs and human judgments that shaped a consequential election cycle.
Sources
- CNN — news report summarizing the excerpt and context (news media).
- The Atlantic — published the book excerpt (magazine; excerpt published Sept. 10, 2025).