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Former Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping back into the national spotlight with a memoir that spares few of her allies, even as it dissects her own shortcomings in the bruising 2024 election that ended in defeat to Donald Trump.
Published Tuesday by Simon & Schuster, 107 Days focuses on the narrow window between President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal from the race in July and Trump’s victory in November. Harris portrays those three and a half months as both an exhilarating opportunity and a relentless grind in which errors, hesitation and missteps compounded into a loss she still struggles to accept.
The book, just shy of 400 pages, is striking for its candor about fellow Democrats who remain influential — and for the possibility that it doubles as a launchpad for Harris to mount a third White House run in 2028. Allies note she has already declined a run for California governor, keeping her national options open.
Biden’s handoff and Harris’ frustrations
One of the most newsworthy revelations is Harris’ account of the moment Biden first raised the possibility of dropping out. According to Harris, they were in the Situation Room days after the failed assassination attempt on Trump when Biden leaned over and asked whether she would take his place if he bowed out.
“I’m fully behind you Joe. But if you decide not to run, I’m ready,” Harris recalls telling him. She writes that Biden had “clearly rehearsed the speech.”
But the warm handoff she hoped for never fully materialized. Harris describes Biden delaying his endorsement, hoping to keep the spotlight on himself, and then delivering a nationally televised withdrawal speech that mentioned her only near the very end. “It was almost nine minutes into the eleven-minute address before he mentioned me,” she writes.
Later, at the Democratic National Convention, Biden’s keynote focused heavily on his own record. “It was a legacy speech for him, not an argument for me,” Harris says.
Still, she insists her loyalty to Biden endured through the administration’s final months. Even after what she calls the “MAGA hat debacle” — when Biden jokingly donned a red cap at a campaign stop, sparking viral headlines — Harris writes, “I felt I owed him my loyalty.”
Silence and regret
Harris also uses the book to acknowledge what she views as her own costly mistakes. Chief among them was failing to push Biden to step aside earlier.
“Of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out,” she writes. “In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego.”
She also laments her response on ABC’s The View, when asked what she would have done differently from Biden. Her flat answer — “There is not a thing that comes to mind” — quickly became a talking point for Trump’s campaign. Harris says she had notes prepared with sharper contrasts but froze in the moment. “It haunted me until Election Day,” she admits.
Other regrets included agreeing to debut in a joint CNN interview with her running mate Tim Walz, rather than alone. “Having Tim there beside me, in hindsight, was an error,” she writes, arguing it unintentionally fed narratives that she lacked independence.
Democrats on the fence
The memoir devotes long passages to the frantic days after Biden’s exit, when Harris scrambled to secure endorsements. Some Democrats offered immediate support — Bill and Hillary Clinton, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro among them.
Others hedged. Former President Barack Obama told her she had to “earn it.” Pelosi argued the party needed “some kind of primary, not an anointment.” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker cited his role as convention host before eventually endorsing. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to Harris, never returned her call, though he endorsed her hours later.
Her blunt descriptions of these conversations are unusual in a political memoir from someone who may seek office again. Harris acknowledges the risk but defends the honesty. “My contemporaneous notes were clear, and history deserves to know,” she writes.
The veepstakes
Harris also sheds light on her running mate deliberations, revealing her first choice was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. But she decided a ticket led by a Black woman married to a Jewish man paired with a gay vice president was “too big of a risk” for voters.
Instead, she chose Walz, the Minnesota governor, whom she describes as grounded and reliable. Shapiro impressed her as “poised, polished and personable” but raised concerns by insisting he should be present for “every decision.” Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, was also on the short list, but Harris doubted his ability to weather Trump’s relentless attacks.
Clashes with Trump and the media
The book revisits Trump’s taunts, including questioning her racial identity. Harris recalls angrily rejecting an adviser’s suggestion that she give a major speech on race in response. “Are you f—ing kidding me?” she recalls saying. “What’s next? He’ll say I’m not a woman and I’ll need to show my vagina?”
She also dwells on her decision not to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, where Trump later sat for hours in a conversation that drew more than 60 million views. Harris insists she wanted to go on, but Rogan ultimately chose Trump. “The plain truth: I wanted to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast on October 25. He chose Trump instead,” she writes.
Looking ahead
Despite the sharp tone, Harris signals she has not abandoned the national stage. While she stops short of declaring a 2028 run, she writes: “Working within the system, by itself, is not proving to be enough. I will be with the people, in towns and communities where I can listen to their ideas on how we rebuild trust, empathy, and a government worthy of the ideals of this country.”
Political analysts see 107 Days as a calculated move. By publishing while Democrats remain divided about the future of the party, Harris can shape the narrative of her loss and test the waters for a comeback.
“It’s unusual for a potential future candidate to be this blunt about her allies,” said one veteran Democratic strategist. “But it also shows she’s determined not to fade away quietly. This is Kamala Harris telling Democrats she’s still in the game.”
