Kamala Harris didn't wait for the ink to dry

Jill Biden's memoir reveals Harris pushed for endorsement within minutes of Joe's withdrawal

Within moments of Joe Biden telling her he would not seek re-election on July 21, 2024, the vice president pressed him for an immediate endorsement, and when Biden suggested waiting until the next morning, Harris pushed harder, asking him to do it "in 20 minutes," the New York Post reported, citing excerpts from Jill Biden's forthcoming memoir.

The former first lady's account of that conversation, published in her book "View from the East Wing," set for release June 2, paints a picture of a vice president who treated Biden's historic decision not as a moment for reflection but as a starting gun.

And Jill Biden, 74, could not stand to watch. She walked out of the room, "apparently unable to bear any more," the memoir states. The timeline, as Jill Biden tells it, moved fast. Joe Biden informed Harris he would become the first sitting president not to seek re-election since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Harris's first response, per the memoir: "Oh my God, Joe. Are you sure?"

What followed was not a long discussion about the future of the party or the country. It was a negotiation over timing. Biden proposed waiting until the next morning to issue an endorsement. Harris objected.

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