Harris sought Clinton 'marriage' secrets to avoid running mate drama
In her new book, Kamala Harris describes calling Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for guidance on vetting potential vice presidential candidates before picking Tim Walz.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed in her new memoir that she turned to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for advice on choosing a running mate before landing on Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris' new memoir, "107 Days," provides a detailed first-hand account of the former vice president's truncated presidential campaign in 2024. The book, released Sept. 23, set the stage back when Harris had just 94 days to go before Americans cast their ballots.
She called on former President Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for advice on how to choose a running mate.
"Very few people have ever made this decision. I called Hillary and Bill Clinton, because they knew what it was like and would give me candid and confidential advice," Harris wrote.
She described that the Clintons warned her against choosing someone who would be an apparent "political marriage of convenience."
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"One of your strengths,' they said, ‘is that you bring a joyful energy to the campaign. You have to choose someone who won’t work against that,’" she wrote of their conversation. "They told me to be aware that over the course of the campaign, people will be able to tell if it is a genuinely good relationship or a political marriage of convenience."
Harris continued that the former president said his running mate and vice president, Al Gore, was a good match "because he knew things I didn’t know. We were as different as daylight and dark and it worked."
"'You have to level with them and watch how they answer,'" she wrote of Bill Clinton's advice on how to vet potential running mates.
She added that the couple jointly "emphasized that I’d be offering this person the chance of a lifetime, so they’d better know it. If they were someone dying for immediate public recognition, it might not be the job for them. They might have to swallow a lot of crap."
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Harris ultimately chose Walz to join her on the ticket, a relatively unknown Democratic governor from Minnesota and former U.S. House lawmaker who was celebrated as Harris' "happy warrior" on the campaign trail.
"I needed to know that my running mate was a person who valued the dignity of everyone and would take a moment to show it," she capped off the chapter, which did not note whether Harris floated Walz' name directly to the Clintons as she sought advice.
The selection of Walz over other liked or well-known Democrats, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was viewed as a campaign misstep that contributed to the party's loss to President Donald Trump. Walz was slammed over claims of "stolen valor," and his previous strict rules for his state during the pandemic, as well as a debate performance against then-Sen. JD Vance that pundits argued made him appear nervous.
Harris, who mentions the Clintons at least 12 times in her book, has increasingly played up her cozy relationship with the Democratic power couple as her political wedge with former President Joe Biden's political orbit widens following the release of her book.
"We all hope to be mentored. We all hope to have support from those who come before. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. And certainly that's true of politics. Hillary Clinton is one of those people that believes in lifting people up and supporting people," Harris said from the stage of The Town Hall, a theater venue in Midtown Manhattan, where she kicked off her book tour Sept. 24.
"And she follows through," Harris added.
Harris said during her book event in New York City that the Clintons were among one of the first calls she made when Biden officially dropped out of the presidential race on July 21, 2024 — describing the call as "the cutest thing."
"So I have their home number, for Hillary and Bill, and it was the cutest thing. So I called and Hillary picked up and then Bill was in the other room, and she's like, ‘It’s Kamala on the phone, Bill, pick up the other phone,'" she recounted on her book tour Sept. 24.
Harris said that the former first couple immediately offered to travel to campaign for her presidential ticket, including taking public transportation, including Hillary Clinton reportedly offering to hop on an Amtrak ride to hit the campaign trail.
Her comments on the Clintons follow Biden's allies taking issue with Harris' handful of jabs she took at the former president, including arguing it was reckless for the octogenarian president to run for re-election, critiquing Biden's botched debate against Trump that ultimately served as a death knell for Biden's re-election efforts.
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