‘What is happening?’: Kamala Harris blasts her former VP pick Tim Walz and blames him for ‘fumbled’ debate against Vance

In her new campaign memoir, 107 Days, former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris admits she was “mortified” while watching her running mate, Tim Walz, struggle during last year’s vice-presidential debate against JD Vance. Harris wrote that she watched as Walz “fumbled” a crucial answer and fell right into Vance’s trap during the debate on October 1.

She also revealed that Walz was not her first choice for the position of vice-president, according to The Guardian. Her preference would have been for her close friend and then transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. The vice-presidential debate was held in New York, and it would be a signal of Harris losing the campaign.

It was the final debate of the campaign, and Harris hoped that Walz would be “the closer” to solidify their position. However, Vance, who was known for his vicious attacks on Harris, decided to use a different strategy. Instead of his usual anger and insults, Vance came across as mild-mannered and eager to find common ground with Walz. Harris writes that when Walz “fell for it and started nodding and smiling at JD’s fake bipartisanship, I moaned to Doug, ‘What is happening?'” She even said that she told the TV screen, “You’re not there to make friends with the guy who is attacking your running mate.”

Harris didn’t believe in her running mate

According to Harris, while Vance was twice fact-checked by the moderators, Walz spent the debate defending his record as the governor of Minnesota. The former presidential nominee said that Walz “fumbled his answer when the moderator, predictably, questioned why he had claimed to be in Hong Kong during the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.”

Harris added that instead of simply admitting he got the dates wrong and highlighting human rights in China, Walz “talked about biking in Nebraska.” She then adds wryly that an episode of Saturday Night Live did a sketch of her and her husband watching the debate, and while she didn’t spit out wine, the sketch was “uncanny in its portrait of our evening.”

The book also states that Walz “felt bad” about his performance, but Harris reassured him that the debate would not decide the outcome of the election. She writes that the debate had a “negligible effect” on polling. 107 Days also goes into the process of auditioning Walz, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for the job of running mate.

Harris said her senior staff, her sister, and even her 17-year-old godson all favored Walz. However, Harris reveals that her “first choice” for the job was Buttigieg. She writes that he “would have been an ideal partner,” but that it would have been “too big of a risk” to have a ticket with two men, one of whom is gay. She adds that she felt like they were “already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.” She concludes by saying that she believes Buttigieg also knew this, “to our mutual sadness.”