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Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ book and promotional tour have faced criticism and disdain from fellow Democrats and various media members.
“At a time when people are seeking vision and leadership, and want to see leaders address the level of threat facing the country, it’s quite surprising she chose to write a gossip book focused on the pettiness of her politics,” an advisor to a potential 2028 candidate told Politico. “It’s embarrassing for her, and for all Democrats, considering she was a leading figure in the party less than a year ago.”
Harris joined MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday, followed by appearances on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View” on Tuesday to talk about her new book, “107 Days,” which covers her brief and unsuccessful presidential campaign. She was questioned about why she believed she didn’t succeed and about a significant interview she did in 2024 where she struggled to distinguish herself from former President Joe Biden.
“Harris’ recent media tour to tout her memoir — ‘107 Days’ — has reminded me of something I think I have long known: She is simply not a very good politician. And she hasn’t gotten much better over her decades in the business,” former CNN journalist Chris Cillizza wrote in his Substack.
In a post to X, Cillizza said Harris’ return to the political world reminded him that she’s not good on her feet, adding, “She speaks in word salads.”
CNN’s Kasie Hunt and former Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel discussed Harris’ admission on “The View” that she didn’t fully appreciate voters wanted to see a difference between her and Biden.
“Didn‘t fully appreciate how much of an issue it was? Just the entire ballgame,” Hunt said Tuesday, asking Emanuel to react.
Emanuel said all great presidents have a deep appreciation for politics.
“To not appreciate that question, given that the people thought at that time that the country was headed — 70% thought it was headed in the wrong direction, they wanted to see a change — is to totally misread where the American people were. And that, I‘m a little shocked at, to be honest,” he said.
Harris told the co-hosts of “The View” she lost to President Donald Trump because she didn’t have enough time.
Emanuel also called out Harris for her reasoning in not picking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate.
The former vice president wrote that Buttigieg was too big of a “risk” as a gay man.
“We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, ‘Screw it, let’s just do it.’ But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,” she wrote. “And I think Pete also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”
Maddow told Harris her rationale for not picking Buttigieg was “hard to hear,” forcing Harris to scramble to explain herself to the MSNBC audience.
One Democratic strategist told The Hill that Harris’ book couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Gary South, a California Democratic strategist, told the outlet that excerpts of the book “show pretty clearly that she came out with arms flailing and guns blazing, blaming everyone but herself for her loss.”
“It is a curiously negative and ungracious tome for someone who reportedly thinks she can run again in 2028,” he added.
“In an era where Democrats need all hands on deck in the fight to protect the country and the Constitution from the lawlessness of the Trump administration, she had a real opportunity to be a critical voice in the resistance,” Michael Hardaway, a former senior advisor to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Politico. “This book seems to be unhelpful and divisive in a way that makes it hard for her to be the face of the party as we look to the future.”
Former Obama advisor David Axelrod criticized the book last week in a statement to Politico.
“If there’s a political strategy here, it’s a bad one. There’s an awful lot of grievances and finger-pointing that really doesn’t serve a political agenda,” he said.
Harris’ office did not immediately return a request for comment.