Kamala Harris Says Biden Lost His Temper With Her Ahead of Debate Against Trump

In her upcom­ing mem­oir 107 Days, Kamala Har­ris reveals a tense and emo­tion­al exchange with Joe Biden short­ly before her crit­i­cal Sep­tem­ber 2024 debate against Don­ald Trump. Har­ris writes that Biden, then Pres­i­dent, called her direct­ly and accused her of speak­ing neg­a­tive­ly about him to donors. The con­ver­sa­tion, she says, left her “angry and dis­ap­point­ed” at a moment when she need­ed clar­i­ty and focus.

Har­ris recalls that the call dis­rupt­ed her prepa­ra­tion for what was seen as a defin­ing debate in the cam­paign. She admits the con­fronta­tion shook her con­fi­dence tem­porar­i­ly but also forced her to regain com­po­sure and chan­nel her frus­tra­tion into deter­mi­na­tion on the debate stage.

The mem­oir not only recounts this dif­fi­cult moment but also offers a behind-the-scenes look at her tran­si­tion from vice pres­i­dent to Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee fol­low­ing Biden’s with­draw­al from the race. Har­ris reflects on the intense pres­sure, per­son­al sac­ri­fices, and polit­i­cal bat­tles dur­ing the final stretch of the 2024 cam­paign.

107 Days will be pub­lished by Simon & Schus­ter on Sep­tem­ber 23, offer­ing read­ers an unfil­tered account of Harris’s jour­ney, her com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship with Biden, and her fight to secure the pres­i­den­cy.

Har­ris Recalls Tense Exchange With Biden Ahead of 2024 Debate Against Trump

Accord­ing to the mem­oir obtained by The Guardian ahead of its pub­li­ca­tion next week, Kamala Har­ris described how, while prepar­ing for the high-stakes debate from her hotel room in Philadel­phia, Joe Biden called to wish her luck, but quick­ly shift­ed the con­ver­sa­tion. 

In her mem­oir 107 Days, Kamala Har­ris recounts a strik­ing phone call with Joe Biden just days before her Sep­tem­ber 2024 debate with Don­ald Trump. Accord­ing to Har­ris, the con­ver­sa­tion began with Biden ask­ing casu­al­ly whether she planned to return to Philadel­phia before the elec­tion. He then men­tioned that his broth­er had been in con­tact with sev­er­al influ­en­tial polit­i­cal fig­ures in the city. Biden list­ed names of key pow­er bro­kers and asked if Har­ris was famil­iar with them. She admit­ted she was not.

“Then he got to his point,” Har­ris writes. Biden explained that his broth­er had told him these fig­ures were reluc­tant to sup­port her can­di­da­cy because she had alleged­ly been speak­ing poor­ly of him. Biden said he wasn’t inclined to believe the rumors but felt Har­ris should be aware of them, in case her cam­paign team was delib­er­ate­ly try­ing to dis­tance her from him.

Har­ris recalls feel­ing blind­sided and frus­trat­ed, describ­ing the exchange as deeply unset­tling ahead of one of the most high-stakes moments of her polit­i­cal career. She writes that the call not only rat­tled her but also under­scored the strained dynam­ics with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty fol­low­ing Biden’s deci­sion to step aside.

The mem­oir, set for release on Sep­tem­ber 23 by Simon & Schus­ter, promis­es to pro­vide a can­did look at these behind-the-scenes ten­sions, offer­ing insight into how Har­ris man­aged the inter­nal pres­sures of her par­ty while prepar­ing to take on Don­ald Trump on the nation­al stage.

Har­ris respond­ed by ask­ing Biden to have the group con­tact her direct­ly. But the con­ver­sa­tion didn’t end there.

Har­ris Opens Up About Strained Rela­tion­ship With Biden in 2024 Pres­i­den­tial Race

Dur­ing the 2024 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign and its after­math, Kamala Har­ris large­ly refrained from crit­i­ciz­ing Biden, defend­ing him even amid ques­tions about his men­tal sharp­ness.

But in 107 Days, she reveals under­ly­ing ten­sions between them. One exam­ple came in 2022, when the Supreme Court over­turned Roe v Wade. Har­ris writes that “Joe strug­gled to talk about repro­duc­tive rights in a way that met the grav­i­ty of the moment.”

She acknowl­edges a clear dif­fer­ence between Biden’s capac­i­ty to gov­ern and his abil­i­ty to cam­paign, and express­es con­cern about the lat­ter. “His voice was no longer strong, his ver­bal stum­bles more fre­quent,” she notes.