Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said former Vice President Kamala Harris is "going to have to answer for" her silence when then-President Joe Biden's mental decline became apparent, NBC News reported. Harris's forthcoming book, 107 Days, about her short-lived run as the Democratic presidential nominee, revealed how she stood by as Biden decided to run again despite his apparent issues.
Shapiro appeared on Stephen A. Smith's Straight Shooter on Sirius XM on Thursday and was asked about it by the host. The Pennsylvania Democrat said that Harris should have come clean" about her concerns rather than waiting until her tell-all book.
In the book, Harris asked herself, "Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness," she admitted about her decision to stay quiet. "The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision."
The Pennsylvania governor was angry that Harris kept mum while such a vital fact went unsaid until after the election, when it no longer mattered. "I haven't read the former vice president's book, and she's going to have to answer to how she was in the room and yet never said anything publicly," Shapiro told the host.
"I can tell you that I wasn’t in the room, but when I was confronted with engaging with the former president, in looking at it simply from the perspective of, how is he doing in Pennsylvania? Could he win Pennsylvania?" Shapiro said.
"Because, I think, Stephen, you understand, if you can’t win Pennsylvania, it’s pretty darn hard to win the national election. And I was very vocal with him, privately, and extremely vocal with his staff about my concerns about his fitness to be able to run for another term," Shapiro continued.
"I was direct with them. I told them my concerns," he added. Smith also asked the governor, who was the odds-on favorite to be Harris's running mate, whether he would consider a 2028 presidential run. Shapiro said he was happy to be where he is for Pennsylvanians, but that "we are at an inflection point, and I am troubled by what I'm seeing in this country, and I'm concerned about what I'm seeing in my party and I know that I have a voice that needs to be heard in that process," the governor said.
"How that voice ultimately gets heard, how it manifests itself, what I ultimately do, well we'll see," Shapiro went on. "I don't think that's a decision that one can make sitting here right now," he added. The governor said he loves America, but that he wants to see it move in more of a "common sense direction" than it is now.
Shapiro sounds like an excellent choice for vice president, but Harris ultimately went with the very oddball and unlikeable Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who admitted to being a "knucklehead" during the vice presidential debate. According to Fox News, the choice came down to Harris's decision to go "with her gut," which once again proved that her instincts were all wrong.
The choices were Shapiro, Walz, and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Ultimately, Shapiro was eliminated because he might outshine Harris, as noted in the book "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America" by Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey, The New York Times reporter Tyler Pager, and The Washington Post's Isaac Arnsdorff. Fox News shared an excerpt of the book outlining the decision.
When Harris interviewed Shapiro, she thought "the two were not a perfect match" as running mates. "He came across as overly ambitious, pushing Harris to define what his role would be. He also conceded it would not be natural for him to serve as someone’s number two, leaving Harris with a bad impression," the book claimed.
Meanwhile, Walz had the "deferential" attitude that Harris sought while also "showing no interest in himself" and "flatly denied any interest in running for president." This was a mistake for a myriad of reasons, but especially because Walz was meant to appeal to the male voters.
Harris and the rest who were around Biden knew that something was wrong with him, but let it slide for way too long. Harris is finally owning up to the truth, but Shapiro is correct that her credibility has been tarnished over this, and it has likely doomed her political career.
