Former Vice President Kamala Harris suggested in a recent podcast appearance that former President Joe Biden “didn’t want” to debate Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential race. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Harris said she noticed something unusual in the days leading up to the debate, which ultimately marked a turning point in Biden’s campaign.
“He [Biden] called me from debate camp. The president did, Biden did. And I could tell something was a little off,” Harris said. “I was concerned about… I don’t think he wanted to debate is my point. He didn’t want that debate.”
Podcast host Steven Bartlett observed that it was “so apparently clear” that something was wrong with Biden during the 2024 debate, questioning why the Democratic Party had continued to insist that all was well. “You must have known,” Bartlett pressed.
While Harris didn’t directly say whether she believed Biden was unfit to be on stage, she offered her perspective on what may have affected his performance. “You know, it’s like any competition you go in—whether you’re bidding for something or it’s sports—you have to want it,” she explained. “If you don’t want to be in the competition, it will absolutely have an impact on your performance. And I don’t think he, I’m pretty sure he did not want to debate.”
When asked how she knew Biden didn’t want to debate, Harris replied, “Well, we had conversations about it. I think he got talked into it.”
She added, “In every debate, I don’t care who you are, there will be statistics wrong or you’ll mix something up—that always happens. There’s no such thing as a perfect debate. So there will be something to clean up. And I expected that. And then, you know, we saw what we all saw.”
Biden’s debate against Trump in June 2024 was widely criticized, with the former president stumbling over his words, losing his train of thought, and speaking in a hoarse voice attributed to a cold. The performance drew sharp concern within the Democratic Party and among voters.
In her memoir 107 Days, Harris recounts being shocked by Biden’s handling of questions about the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, which left 13 U.S. service members dead. She wrote that Biden missed an opportunity to confront Trump over his reported comments calling fallen soldiers “suckers and losers” and instead made remarks that appeared to overlook the deadly attack in Kabul.
“He managed to get off that line but had stepped on it earlier by saying no one had died in wars overseas on his watch, seeming to forget the thirteen marines who died in the bomb blast at the airport during the evacuation of Afghanistan,” Harris wrote. “I’d been on Air Force Two when it happened, and we had to change our flight plan to get back to D.C. in the face of that tragedy. How could he overlook that day?”
A representative for former President Biden did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
