Jill Biden initially opposed her husband picking Kamala Harris as his running mate, according to an excerpt from the new book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, written by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.
Per the New York Post, the book quotes Dr. Biden as saying, “There are millions of people in the United States, do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe?”
The Biden family reportedly believed, per the book, that the VP attacked Biden harsher than any other candidate during the Democratic Primary, and that they saw it “as a smear and a betrayal.” The First Lady’s uncertainty over the pick followed a moment when Harris “attacked” her husband during a Democratic presidential debate, per the book.
In June of 2019, during the first Democratic debate, Harris notably called out the now-president for working with segregationists in the Senate. Still, people in Biden’s inner circle, including White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, advocated for the VP. Stacey Abrams, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were all reportedly under consideration by Biden’s team for the VP role, but they saw Harris as the “safest of choices,” per the book.
“Choosing Harris will show people that you are magnanimous and forgiving,” Klain is said to have told Biden. “It will show the country just what a unifying leader you can be.”
