Former Vice President Kamala Harris' aide implored the co-hosts of "The View" to try asking Harris a second time about what she would have done differently from Joe Biden during the October 2024 interview on the ABC show, according to a new book.
"As you showed the famous clip there on ‘The View,' she gives that answer, and our book reports her aides backstage, head in their hands. They try to get the hosts to actually do the question again, to hopefully revise her answer, which she never does," Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, explaining that Harris was unwilling to differentiate herself from Biden.
Dawsey, Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and New York Times reporter Tyler Pager's new book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," was released on Tuesday.
Harris sat down with the co-hosts of "The View" in October 2024, as liberal host Sunny Hostin asked the former vice president if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the course of their administration to date.
Harris responded, "there is not a thing that comes to mind." Her response quickly went viral and was widely viewed as a misstep, given Biden's unpopularity and Harris passing up a chance to create some respectful distance.
Hostin initially asked Harris about the biggest specific difference between a potential Harris presidency and Biden's presidency. The then-vice president said the two were obviously two different people and said she planned to focus on home healthcare.
The new book explains that Harris aide Stephanie Cutter asked two of the co-hosts to try asking Harris the question again.
"Backstage on The View's set in Manhattan, Rob Flaherty, a deputy campaign manager, put his head into his hands and swore. During the next commercial break, Stephanie Cutter went to cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Ana Navarro to ask them to try the question again, but Harris didn't get a second chance. After the interview, Harris knew she'd messed up and asked how big the problem was," the authors wrote.
An adviser said her answer on the liberal ABC talkshow was "the defining error of the campaign," the authors reported.
Harris didn't give the answer she prepared with her aides, which according to the authors, praised Biden and emphasized that she didn't want to look back and critique their administration.
The prepared answer also acknowledged that she was her own person.
Her aides also encouraged her to mention that she planned to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, which the former vice president did mention towards the end of the interview.
Dawsey said during the MSNBC appearance on Tuesday that Harris didn't want to create public distance from Biden.
July 08, 2025, 04:37 PM
TigerDore
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum: Perfect. The Harris campaign wanted a Mulligan.
This blithering idiot was given a prepared answer to the question in advance and she didn't use it!!. What an idiot!!
I think she may have a really short attention span and loses focus. They may want to try using a shock collar on her and see if that helps.
.
July 08, 2025, 04:42 PM
sigfreund
I am not happy about everything these days, but we didn’t dodge a bullet by not having Cackles elected, we dodged the Tsar Bomba.
► 6.0/94.0
To operate serious weapons in a serious manner.
July 08, 2025, 05:09 PM
parabellum
Calling it "the defining error"- OK, fine, but let's be real. Harris would have lost the election no matter what she said in that moment. The idea that one single question/answer sank her, and that given a different answer, she would have won the election, is pure horse shit. If that's what the Dems need to tell themselves to get to sleep at night, fine, but it's a ridiculous idea.
July 08, 2025, 06:32 PM
JoseyWales2
It wasn't any one thing said or done that lost the election for her, it was the sum of 100 things.
---------------------------------- "These things you say we will have, we already have." "That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra."
July 08, 2025, 06:54 PM
darthfuster
I think Mike Pence gave an equally campaign ending answer to Tucker Carlson in the Republican primary.
You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
July 09, 2025, 02:08 PM
PASig
LMAO...We SO dodged a bullet with this nitwit!
quote:
Kamala Harris’ interview on TikTok’s ‘Subway Takes’ was so bizarre, she and host agreed to delete it, he says
By Anthony Blair New York Post Published July 9, 2025, 9:52 a.m. ET
Kamala Harris gave an interview before the presidential election that was so “confusing and weird” that she and the host mutually agreed not to air it, a social media personality recently revealed.
The former Democratic presidential candidate’s appearance on “Subway Takes,” a popular online series hosted by Kareem Rahma where guests admit their favorite hot take, was filmed in Summer 2024 but never saw the light of day, the presenter said.
“Her take was really confusing and weird, not good, and so [we] mutually agreed we shouldn’t publish it,” Rahma told Forbes reporter Steven Bertoni in an interview posted on TikTok on Monday.
The interview was so painful that Rahma feared that if it had aired, he would be blamed for Harris losing the 2024 presidential election, he told Bertoni.
“Her take was that bad?” Bertoni asked.
“It was really, really bad,” Rahma replied. “It didn’t make any sense.”
Rahma offered the former vice president’s take, with an almost concerned look on his face: “Bacon as a spice.”
Harris’s team had told producers that the California Senator’s hot take would be taking a stand against removing one’s shoes on airplanes, Rahma said.
But when the interview started, Harris instead surprised Rahma with a different hot take.
“Bacon is a spice,” Harris said, according to The New York Times after obtaining the unpublished video.
Rahma, who is Muslim and doesn’t eat pork, responded, “I don’t know,” after appearing to be taken aback, but Harris doubled down.
“Think about it, it’s pure flavor,” Harris told him, explaining how bits of cooked bacon could be used to enhance a meal like a seasoning.
Rahma asked if he could use beef or turkey instead, before pausing the interview and telling her he doesn’t eat bacon.
He then asked if they could do the pre-planned segment on taking shoes off on airplanes instead.
But Harris instead decided to declare her love for anchovies on pizza, after speaking to an adviser.
Rahma then quickly wrapped up the interview awkwardly.
“Well, I’m 100 percent unsure on both of those,” he said with a forced laugh.
Harris’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yes, we dodged a bullet, and now that it's been pointed out in those words eleventy billion times, let's put that phrase to rest for good, as in forever and ever.
July 09, 2025, 02:22 PM
Sig2340
This was the "defining error" for the Democrats.
Nice is overrated
"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government." Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
July 09, 2025, 02:43 PM
TMats
Kamala had more than one (or two, or three) “defining moments.”
_______________________________________________________ despite them
July 09, 2025, 04:14 PM
bigwagon
Don't forget about the coconut tree. I think one fell on her head when she was an infant.
July 09, 2025, 04:28 PM
TigerDore
quote:
Originally posted by TMats: Kamala had more than one (or two, or three) “defining moments.”
I think she explains concepts like she is speaking to first graders because that is the level at which she understands them. We used to think she was talking down to her audience, but I think it would be more accurate if we picture a six-year old, trapped inside a 60-year old, telling us about something exciting she has just discovered.
Sort of like the Haribo Goldenbears commercials.
Kamala is live, 24/7, walking, talking Haribo Goldenbears commercial.
