Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed on a podcast Thursday that Joe Biden had not wanted to debate Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. She noted that "something was a little off" before Biden went on to a debate that is credited with forcing him to drop out of the race.
"[Biden] called me from debate camp. The president did, Biden did. And I could tell something was a little off," Harris recalled. "And I was concerned about… I don't think he wanted to debate, is my point. He didn't want that debate."
"Diary of a CEO" podcast host Steven Bartlett agreed, saying that "it was so apparently clear" that something was "not OK" with Biden during the 2024 debate. He pressed the former vice president, asking why "the Democratic side of politics was pretending everything was okay."
"You must have known," Bartlett insisted.
Harris didn't comment on the mental capacity, or lack thereof, of former President Biden, but said, "You know, it's like any competition you go in, whether it's you're bidding for something, if it's sports, you got to want it. 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."
Bartlett then asked if Harris was aware that Biden did not want to debate, and whether any signs had foreshadowed his abysmal performance.
"Well, we had conversations about it. I think he got talked into it," Harris conceded. "You know, in every debate, I don't care who you are, there will be statistics wrong or, you know, you name this country, but it was that country. That always happens. There is no such thing as a perfect debate. So there will be something to clean up. And I expected that. And then, you know, we saw what we all saw."
Kamala Harris is currently on tour promoting her new book, "107 Days," which chronicles her short-lived and unsuccessful presidential run. In the book, she points fingers at Democrats and even her former boss for her loss to Donald Trump. Yet in interviews, she has been far less candid, repeatedly sidestepping questions about Biden’s mental acuity and even facing pushback from interviewers for avoiding the topic.