ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Josh Shapiro angrily reacts to how he’s portrayed in Kamala Harris’ new book.
Shapiro knew that I would take one more run at his thoughts about Harris. What he didn’t know was that early copies of her book were then making the rounds among reporters. Having obtained the relevant sections of 107 Days that morning, I asked Shapiro if Harris had given him any heads-up about her book. She had not, he said. Then I told him that Harris had taken some shots at him.
Shapiro furrowed his brow and crossed his arms. “K,” he said.
The man I observed over the next several minutes was unrecognizable. Gone was his equilibrium. He moved between outrage and exasperation as I relayed the excerpts. Harris had accused him, in essence, of measuring the drapes, even inquiring about featuring Pennsylvania artists in the vice-presidential residence; of insisting “that he would want to be in the room for every decision” Harris might make; and, more generally, of hijacking the conversation when she interviewed him for the job, to the point where she reminded him that he would not be co-president.
“She wrote that in her book?” he said in response to the claim concerning the residence’s art. “That’s complete and utter bullshit.”
“I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies,” he added.
After reading Harris’s book and talking with people from both camps, I found descriptions of the meeting to be mostly consistent. Shapiro arrived in an edgy mood, chafing at efforts among fellow Democrats to sabotage his tryout. (Shapiro, who is Jewish, was especially irked by anti-Semitic innuendo from the left.) The two skipped past any semblance of small talk and Shapiro proceeded to interview Harris, rather than the other way around. “I did ask a bunch of questions,” Shapiro told me, sounding exasperated. “Wouldn’t you ask questions if someone was talking to you about forming a partnership and working together?”
What seemed to bother Shapiro, more than any one detail, was Harris portraying him in ways consistent with the whispers that had dogged him throughout the vetting process and throughout his career: that he was selfish, petty, and monomaniacally ambitious. Given that they’d known each other a long time—“20 years,” Shapiro said with a groan—I asked whether he felt betrayed.
“I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her ass,” Shapiro snapped. The governor stared past me now, shaking his head. As I began to ask a different question, he held up a hand. He looked disgusted. With me? With Harris? No, I began to realize: He was disgusted with himself.
“I shouldn’t say ‘cover her ass.’ I think that’s not appropriate,” Shapiro said. His tone was suddenly collected. “She’s trying to sell books. Period.”
With Minnesota’s huge Somali welfare scandal going viral this week, this headline from People magazine in September of 2024 certainly has aged well: Kamala Harris Says Picking Tim Walz as Running Mate over Other Strong Candidates Came Down to a ‘Gut Decision.’