Harris expresses concern that she did not ask Biden not to run

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris has expressed concern that she did not ask Joe Biden to drop out of the race for the White House.

In a BBC Sunday interview with Laura Kuensberg, she said: “I’m wondering if I should have had a conversation with him urging him not to stand for re-election.”

After months of speculation about his health and mental acuity, President Biden has ended his bid for re-election in July 2024 after a disastrous performance in a debate against Donald Trump a few weeks earlier.

Harris, who ran as the Democratic candidate but lost to Trump, revealed in her book about her three-month campaign that she did not discuss with President Biden her concerns about his abilities. Nor did the then 81-year-old raise the issue with her.

In the book 107 Days, the former vice president wrote that Biden’s decision to run again was a choice that should not have been “left to the ego of the individual, to individual ambition.” She wrote that she “maybe” should have brought it up with him.

In that interview, she told the BBC that she still considers whether she should have done things differently and talked to him about it.

“I wonder if I should have spoken to him, urging him not to run.” She said “my concern, especially in hindsight, is whether I should have really brought it up.” She asked whether it was “grace or folly” that stopped her from speaking.

Her concern, she added, is not Biden’s ability to do the job of commander-in-chief, but whether he will meet the demands of a grueling campaign to stay in the White House.

Asked why there was a distinction, she said there was a big difference between running for office and performing the duties of president. And running against Trump is even more demanding, she said.

She said she has “concerns about his (Biden’s) ability, with the level of stamina, the energy that it takes, especially to run against the current president.”

The former vice president said she found it difficult to speak out because she risked being accused of promoting her own political interests if she confronted Biden about his health.

“Part of the question was would it — would it actually be an effective and productive conversation given what would otherwise appear to be my self-interest?”

The question of whether more people in Biden’s circle could challenge him on the wisdom of running again has become a major topic of conversation.

One book, Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, claims that people close to him hid his physical deterioration from the public.

Biden’s aides rejected the allegation, saying there were physical changes as he got older, but no evidence of mental incapacity and nothing that affected his ability to do the job.

In his first interview since leaving the White House in May this year, Biden told the BBC it would not have mattered if he had left the race earlier.

His former vice president is in the UK promoting his new book. In a wide-ranging conversation on Sunday’s program with Laura Kuensberg, Harris also said it was “possible” she could run for the White House again.

She has already ruled out a run for governor in her home state of California and the former prosecutor told the BBC she was “not done” with public service.