Kamala Harris reflects on the 2024 election

When Joe Biden phoned Kamala Harris to tell her that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, he said he was just minutes away from announcing his decision to the world.

- JENNIFER SZALAI

It was a Sunday afternoon in late July — not yet a full month since a wan, feeble Biden had delivered a listless debate performance against a red-faced, fulminating Donald Trump. For more than three weeks, Biden had been bucking demands to drop out, and Harris assumed he was going to persevere.

Harris was initially bewildered by Biden’s sudden switch, including his determination to rush out an announcement. “Give me a bit more time,” she thought to herself. She was wearing sweats and had just served her grandnieces pancakes. But in another sense she felt ready: “I knew I was the candidate in the strongest position to win.”

Was she? It’s a question that looms over 107 Days, Harris's memoir about her second presidential campaign. The early pages have her making the rounds right after Biden went public, asking Democratic insiders whether she could count on their support. As someone who prides herself on doing “the work,” she reprints the notes she made from those calls, including the few demurrals. Nancy Pelosi thought there should be “some kind of primary, not an anointment.”