Next up a not too flattering book on the Biden 2020 Campaign.
Excerpts from Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, This will Not Pass, Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America s Future, ( Reporters for the New York Times)
First lady Jill Biden expressed frustration that Kamala Harris was the top choice for Vice President.
There are millions of people in the United States,she began. Why do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe, the authors wrote of a conversation Jill Biden had after she learned Harris became a leading candidate to serve as the Biden Running mate.
Several from the Biden inner circle, however, supported Harris on the ticket. Ron Klain, now the White House chief of staff, had been tasked with vetting vice presidential candidates and, according to the book, told Biden early on that Harris was most qualified for the job as she had sought the presidency herself.
Yes, Harris had attacked Biden more harshly than any other major candidate in the Democratic primaries. Yes, the Biden family had seen it as a smear and a betrayal. In the Klain assessment, that would work to a Biden advantage,the book states. Choosing Harris will show people that you are magnanimous and forgiving, Klain told Biden. It will show the country just what a unifying leader you can be.
The book also highlights Biden reservations to select Harris as a running mate. Noting her past romantic relationship with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor who had appointed Harris to a pair of minor political positions, the book said Biden described the behavior as the kind of thing that should be off limits.
Another candidate who pushed hard for the role was Stacey Abrams, who, according to the book, did not pass the test and was seen by Biden advisers as a lost cause after she failed to win the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018.
Abrams fought hard to win real consideration but never overcame the experience issue that Biden advisers warned him about, the book claims.
Another candidate was New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, whom the book billed as a no-nonsense former state health secretary buried in managing the pandemic on the ground, She told the authors of the book that the vetting process from Biden team was insane. Biden asked me to sell him on vice president: Why should you be Vice President.?
I did not ask to be vice president,she told Biden. You asked for me to be vetted, you tell me why you think I would make a good vice president. This was not my idea.
DUH!
The book is slated to be released on May 3.