Harris expressed concern that she did not tell 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 interview with Laura Kuensberg, she said: “I wonder if I should have had a conversation with him, urging him not to run again.”

President Biden has ended his re-election bid in July 2024, following months of speculation about his health and mental acuity following a disappointing performance in a debate against Donald Trump a few weeks ago.

Harris, who ran as the Democratic nominee but lost to Trump, revealed in her book about her three-month campaign that she did not discuss concerns about his ability with President Biden. Also, the then 81-year-old did not raise the issue with her.

In the book 107 Days, the former vice-president wrote that Biden’s decision to run for re-election was a choice that “shouldn’t be left to individual ego, individual ambition”. She wrote that “maybe” she should have raised it with him.

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

“I wonder if I should have had a conversation with him, urging him not to run.” She said, “My anxiety, especially the thought, would I have really raised it”. She questioned whether it was “grace or impudence” that stopped her from speaking.

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

When asked why there is a distinction, she said there is a big difference between running for office and performing the duties of the presidency. And running against Trump is more demanding, she said.

She said she was “concerned about his (Biden’s) ability, which requires endurance, energy, especially running 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 problem was – would that really have been an effective and productive conversation, otherwise what would seem to be my self-interest?”

Whether more people in Biden’s circle might challenge him on the wisdom of running again has become a hot topic.

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

Biden’s aides have pushed back on the allegation, saying his aging has caused physical changes but no evidence of mental incapacity and no impact on his ability to hold a job.

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

His former vice president is promoting her new book in the UK. In a wide-ranging conversation for the Laura Kuensberg program on Sunday, 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, California, and the former prosecutor told the BBC she was “not done” with public service.