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Former Vice President Harris was pressed in a BBC interview about why she didn’t raise concerns about former President Biden’s health before he decided to pull out of the race.
In an interview with the BBC, Harris was asked about a segment in her new book, “107 Days,” in which she notes that she did not raise the issue of the Biden’s frailty with the former president, nor did he raise the issue with her.
Harris made clear that while she now wonders whether she should have raised concerns about the president’s capacity to run for office, she said she was not concerned about his ability to do the job.
“Let’s be more precise,” Harris said, when asked about her remarks in the book. “There is a very serious difference between capacity to be president of the United States and the capacity to run for president of the United States.”
“It is on that latter piece that I talk about in the book, about my concern about his ability, with the level of endurance, energy that it requires, especially running against now the current president,” she said.
“But let’s be clear, my question was never about his capacity to be president,” she added.
Harris stepped in as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential race after Biden ended his campaign following a disastrous debate that prompted concerns about his mental and physical capacity.
“I do reflect on whether I should have had a conversation with him urging him not to run for reelection, because of what that would require and given the stakes, most importantly,” Harris said in the BBC interview.
“So my concern, and especially on reflection, is should I have actually raised it,” she added. “But as I have also written, part of the issue there was that, would it have actually been an effective and productive conversation, given what would otherwise appear to be my self interest.”
