Top 5 revelations in 2024 campaign books, from Obama working against Harris to Biden's 'out of it' demeanor
Revelations about the inner workings of former Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Joe Biden's respectively failed and aborted presidential campaigns continue to emerge in two new books released this month.
"FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," by NBC reporter Jonathan Allen and The Hill correspondent Amie Parnes, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the chaotic 2024 race from interviews with dozens of people within the inner circles of Harris, Biden, and President Donald Trump.
"Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History," by Chris Whipple, also gives an inside look at the drama that unfolded inside the Harris and Trump campaigns.
Here are five of the top revelations uncovered this week.
In "Uncharted," former Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain recalled Biden being "exhausted" and "out of it" while prepping for his debate against Trump in June.
"The president was fatigued, befuddled, and disengaged," Whipple wrote, according to an excerpt released ahead of the book's April 8 release. "Klain feared the debate with Trump would be a nationally televised disaster."
Klain told Politico on Wednesday that he felt the framing of his remarks in the book was wrong.
"My point wasn't that the president lacked mental acuity … He was out of it because he had been [sidelined], not because he lacked capacity," he told Politico. "He had been isolated from domestic politics by a WH team unplugged from hill Dems."
Democratic lawmakers and aides to Biden were also concerned about his aging, according to Allen and Parnes' "Fight."
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., reportedly became worried about the president's decline in June 2023 after Biden did not recognize him at a White House event and Swalwell had to remind the president about who he was.
Allen and Parnes also reported that the president met with a makeup artist every morning, prior to travel and before calls with his aides, to cover up visible signs of aging.
Biden reportedly urged Harris against breaking from him on policies she supported as his vice president during her presidential run, according to "Fight."
"He would say publicly that Harris should do what she must to win. But privately, including in conversations with her, he repeated an admonition: let there be no daylight between us," the authors wrote.
The president "expected Harris to protect his legacy," they added.
"But the day of the debate Biden called to give Harris an unusual kind of pep talk — and another reminder about the loyalty he demanded. No longer able to defend his own record, he expected Harris to protect his legacy," they wrote.
"Whether she won or lost the election, he thought, she would only harm him by publicly distancing herself from him — especially during a debate that would be watched by millions of Americans. To the extent that she wanted to forge her own path, Biden had no interest in giving her room to do so," the book reported.
"Fight" co-author Jonathan Allen said Tuesday on MSNBC that former President Obama hesitated for days to endorse Harris' presidential campaign because he didn't believe she could win.
"President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama," Allen told MSNBC. "And he also didn't want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden. He didn't think that she was the best choice for Democrats, and he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary, or an open convention, or a mini-primary leading to an open convention, did not have faith in her ability to win the election."
"As it turned out, she didn't win, but he was really working against her," Allen continued.
Obama's decision to wait five days to endorse Harris after Biden dropped out of the race reportedly left Harris "very annoyed," the book said.
According to the "Fight" authors, Harris was stunned on election night by the results.
Parnes reported that Harris was blindsided by the results and asked staffers if they were certain.
"And she's like, are you sure? Have we done a recount? Should we do a recount?" Parnes said on the "Somebody's Gotta Win with Tara Palmeri" podcast released Thursday.
Harris reportedly later came to believe that she could've won the election if she had more time and if Biden hadn't run for re-election.
"She could have won, she told friends, if only the election was later in the calendar — or she got in earlier. In other words, Joe Biden was to blame," the authors wrote.
Friends of Harris said that she believed Biden's unpopularity and her late entry into the race tanked her campaign. However, not all of her friends agreed with this take, the authors wrote.
"That is f---ing bonkers," one Harris friend said in the book. "If Election Day was October first, we might have actually somehow pulled it off. Shorter was actually better, not longer."
Harris pleaded with Biden to endorse her the same day he announced he was stepping down from the 2024 race, the "Fight" authors revealed.
Biden reportedly did not want his historic announcement last July to be drowned out in the "media frenzy" surrounding a Harris endorsement.
"He deserved his due, he believed, and he told Harris that he would not include an endorsement in the statement announcing his exit," the authors wrote.
Harris reportedly pleaded with Biden that he needed to back her right away. "This is important for your legacy — to show that you have absolute faith in your VP," the book says.
Biden went on to put out a statement endorsing Harris' run a half-hour later.
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