Kamala Harris' 107-Day Hustle: A Campaign Tug-of-War with a Biden-Sized Shadow
Kamala Harris didn’t exactly get a soft landing when she stepped into the role of leading the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 race. With just 107 days to make her case to the American people, she found herself running a campaign that felt more like damage control than a fresh start.
The transition wasn’t smooth—and it wasn't entirely her fault.
A Rocky Road from Day One
The friction between Harris' inner circle and Biden’s team had been simmering for years. It’s not just political gossip—it’s detailed in the new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios political journalist Alex Thompson. The book digs deep into how Harris inherited a campaign already limping from Biden’s missteps, and how the two camps never truly clicked—even when they shared the White House.
And it started long before Harris even launched her campaign. According to Tapper and Thompson, Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate back in 2020 was a move marred by internal conflict. She edged out Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for the VP spot, but it wasn’t a unanimous decision. Many on Biden’s team quietly believed Whitmer would’ve been a better long-term pick—less friction, more charisma, and closer to the image of the “next-gen” Democrat they hoped to groom.
Jill Biden’s Quiet Grudge
Even First Lady Jill Biden wasn’t thrilled about Harris. Why? Flashback to the 2019 Democratic primary. Harris didn’t pull her punches when she called out Biden for opposing school busing to desegregate public schools. “That little girl was me,” Harris said powerfully on the debate stage. It made headlines—but it also made enemies. Jill Biden reportedly never got over that moment.
The ripple effects of that night were long-lasting. Once in office, Harris was given assignments that were politically hazardous from the jump. Take the border crisis: Harris became the go-to punching bag for everything immigration-related—tagged by opponents as the “border czar”—with few tools or support to fix the situation.
In fact, Harris’ team felt like they were being set up to fail. Tapper and Thompson describe how the Biden administration would give her thankless jobs, offer little backup, and then leak snarky criticisms to the press. “It was like they wanted her to sink,” a Harris aide said, according to the book.
Loyalty or Liability?
Harris tried to stay loyal—even as Biden became more of a liability than an asset. At one point during the campaign, she went on The View and said she wouldn’t have done anything differently than Biden if she were president. It was meant to show unity, but it backfired big time.
Trump’s campaign pounced immediately, repackaging her statement into attack ads spotlighting the administration’s record on immigration, the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, and inflation spikes. Saying “there’s not a thing I’d do differently” became a political hand grenade that exploded in Harris’ lap.
Meanwhile, Biden wasn’t exactly making things easier.
In a head-scratching moment just weeks before the election, Biden was photographed wearing a red “Trump 2024” hat at a 9/11 memorial at the Shanksville Fire Station. Harris’ team was stunned.
“What is he doing?” Harris asked her staff.
“This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary.”
According to the book, that was the final straw. Harris’ campaign decided she wouldn’t appear publicly with Biden again before the election.
Biden Just Couldn’t Let Go
Even after stepping down from the race, Biden wanted to stay involved. He saw Obama and Clinton out on the trail and figured he should be, too. But insiders say he didn’t realize what a political burden he had become. His frequent gaffes and unpredictable behavior turned him into a recurring cleanup job for Harris.
Take, for example, a Zoom call with Voto Latino, where Biden responded to a Trump supporter’s racist comment about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said.
That kind of rhetoric handed Trump exactly what he needed to dominate the headlines. Trump, always the showman, showed up in battleground Michigan wearing a reflective safety vest and holding a press gaggle—from the driver’s seat of a garbage truck plastered with MAGA stickers. He knew exactly how to twist Biden’s words into political theater.
Harris' Balancing Act
While trying to boost her own campaign, Harris still had to manage the fallout from Biden’s moves. Her team walked a tightrope—backing the president while desperately trying to carve out her own identity.
They believed Biden’s presidency was supposed to be a “bridge” to a younger generation of Democratic leaders. But that bridge often felt like a dead end.
“In Harris’ eyes, the White House never prioritized her rise. They didn’t trust her. They didn’t promote her. And they didn’t protect her.”
Inside the administration, Harris was frequently viewed as a “work in progress.” Biden himself privately expressed doubts that she could beat Trump. That skepticism wasn’t just whispered behind closed doors—it trickled into the way she was handled politically.
The Voter Math Wasn’t Friendly
According to Fox News Voter Analysis in 2024, Trump was considered far more capable on the issue of immigration. 52% of voters said he’d handle it better, compared to just 36% for Harris. Worse yet, immigration was among the top issues, with 20% of voters calling it their number one concern.
That’s a tough position to start from—especially when your campaign is still wiping the mud off from someone else’s missteps.
Damned If You Do...
Even when Harris tried to push back, she couldn’t win. She faced criticism for being too loyal to Biden and not loyal enough. When she finally started taking more control of her messaging, the damage had already been done. The ghost of Biden's presidency haunted every step of her campaign trail.
By the time the election was around the corner, Harris had managed to stabilize the Democratic Party’s chances somewhat. But her own momentum was shaky. As Tapper and Thompson put it:
“She helped the party—but her candidacy was barely treading water. And the albatross that was Joe Biden kept getting heavier.”
The Aftermath
As of publication, neither the Biden nor Harris camps have commented on the allegations and behind-the-scenes drama outlined in Original Sin. But the portrait painted in the book is hard to ignore.
It’s a story of missed opportunities, mismanaged loyalties, and a handoff that came too late, burdened by too much baggage. Whether Kamala Harris can shed the weight of Biden’s legacy—and define her own—remains to be seen.
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