Harris says she wouldn’t ‘pile on’ Biden during her 2024 campaign

Former Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly said Thursday she didn’t want to be part of a “piling on” against President Joe Biden when pressed about the dynamic of running to replace her boss in the 2024 campaign.

During her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the host noted that he and others wondered how Harris would be different from Biden, who was forced to drop off the Democratic ticket due to his unpopularity and inability to recover from his catastrophic debate with Donald Trump.

“That must have been difficult, because you have to differentiate yourself as a candidate, and yet you respect this man who you’re still working for at the same time,” Colbert said. “What was that like to navigate?” 

“I talk about that extensively in the book,” Harris said, referencing her newly announced election memoir “107 Days,” which refers to the length of her abbreviated campaign. “You’re raising something that you and I both know requires a lot more time than we probably have right now to talk about.” 

KAMALA HARRIS REFUSES TO SAY WHO’S LEADING DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHEN PRESSED BY COLBERT

Colbert teased her that he and his audience weren’t in a hurry, before Harris grew serious.

“It’s an instinct of mine to be someone who does not participate in piling on,” she said. “And I was not going to pile on, and I just wasn’t going to do that. And there was a lot of piling on at that time, and I wasn’t going to participate in that.”

Harris appeared to be referring to the Democratic ambush of Biden after his health issues could no longer be concealed. Colbert notably didn’t ask Harris any questions about Biden’s mental decline behind the scenes that has been reported in several books this year.

Biden’s family is still smarting over the humiliation of him being effectively thrown off the Democratic ticket last year.

His aging and cognitive concerns were laid bare during his halting performance at last June’s debate with Trump, and eventually the pressure from leaders like Nancy Pelosi and other party luminaries to drop out became too much. 

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Biden quit the race on July 21, 2024, endorsed Harris, and the vice president quickly sewed up the nomination and reset the race with Trump. But Harris and running mate Tim Walz were unable to overcome the headwinds of Biden’s unpopularity and her own shortcomings as a candidate, as Trump romped to a comfortable victory on election night.

Harris’ inability to get out of Biden’s shadow haunted her during the campaign.

Perhaps Harris’ most memorable media blunder came at one of the only venues that could rival Colbert’s for friendliness: “The View.” Co-host Sunny Hostin asked Harris what she would have done differently than Biden over the past four years, to which Harris responded there was “not a thing that comes to mind.”

“I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” she added. 

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The Trump campaign used the moment to its advantage, putting the clip in advertisements to counter the image of Harris as a change candidate. The viral interview was at the center of numerous media postmortems about how she lost the race.

That same day as her appearance on “The View,” Harris went on Colbert’s show and dodged his question as well about how her hypothetical administration would differ from Biden’s.