‘I begged him’… Harris exposes Biden’s stance on the Gaza war
Between the lines of her new memoir, Kamala Harris reveals her hidden disagreement with Joe Biden, when she pleaded with him to show compassion for Gaza’s victims.
The former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, says she partly blames herself for the “recklessness” that led Joe Biden to run for re-election.
Referring to a passage in her memoirs in which she described Democrats as reckless for pressing ahead with Biden’s candidacy, Harris told MSNBC yesterday that she did not exempt herself from that criticism.
“When I write this,” she explained, “it is because I realize that I had a certain responsibility to fulfill. So, when I speak of recklessness, I am talking about myself more than anyone else.”
Will Harris run in 2028?
Harris declined to say whether she would consider running in 2028, stressing that this was “not her focus right now.”
In this first major interview to promote her new book, 107 Days, Harris struck a more forceful tone, harshly criticizing former president Donald Trump, whom she called a “tyrant.”
She also lambasted corporate leaders, describing them as “arrogant,” for failing to act as safeguards for capitalism and democracy.
Gaza: Could Biden have stopped the war?
In another part of her book, Harris vents her frustration with Biden over Gaza.
She says that the former president failed to show greater compassion toward Palestinian civilians killed by Israel in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, according to excerpts reviewed by Axios.
“I begged Joe,” she wrote, “when he spoke publicly about the issue, to show the same empathy for the suffering of innocent Gazans that he had shown for Ukrainians.”
But he could not do so. While he could passionately declare: “I am a Zionist,” his remarks about innocent Palestinians sounded inadequate and insincere, Harris said.
She argues that this stance damaged her popularity in the 2024 elections, suggesting that the “blank check” Biden appeared to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contributed to the Democrats’ decline.
“Netanyahu didn’t care about Biden’s loyalty to Israel… What he wanted was Trump, not Joe, not me,” she added.
According to Axios, Harris’s comments represent a clear attempt to distance herself from Biden, something she had avoided during the previous campaign.
Biden and Gaza: growing tensions
For his part, Biden had expressed both private and public anger at Netanyahu’s handling of the war. In March 2024, he said: “You cannot accept another 30,000 Palestinian deaths as the price of pursuing Hamas. There are other ways to deal with the movement,” calling such a toll a “red line.”
In April 2024, he added that Israel “had not done enough to protect civilians.”
Gaza’s impact on Harris’s political prospects
Harris admitted that the Gaza protests were a major factor in her decision when she selected her running mate last year.
She reaffirmed her support for Israel’s security, but sharply criticized Netanyahu. She wrote:
“I believe Israel has the right to respond to the atrocities of October 7. But Netanyahu’s excessive violence, the number of innocent Palestinian women and children killed, and his failure to prioritize the lives of hostages have all weakened Israel’s moral standing and deepened internal divisions.”
She also voiced her dismay that no Palestinian speaker was given a platform at the Democratic National Convention, but emphasized that her speech on Gaza carried enormous stakes.
Finally, she admitted feeling frustrated with left-wing protesters who disrupted her campaign rallies over the war.
