Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called passages of Kamala Harris’ book “complete and utter bulls–t” in a shocking new interview.
The 52-year-old Democrat, who was once on the shortlist to serve as Kamala Harris’ running mate in her whirlwind 2024 presidential campaign, was profiled by Tim Alberta of The Atlantic in a piece published Wednesday.
Alberta observed that Shapiro exhibited the measured calm of a politician with 2028 presidential ambitions until the subject of Kamala Harris’s book, 107 Days, came up. (The interview was conducted just before 107 Days came out in September.)
Alberta told Shapiro that the book included some passages about his audition to become Harris’s running mate, then wrote: “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 wrote that Shapiro was overly concerned with the decor of the vice president’s office, demanded an outsized role in a Harris administration and hijacked his running mate interview with his own questions. Harris wrote that she had to remind him that “he would not be co-president.”
Concerning the decor claim, Shapiro told Alberta, “She wrote that in her book?” That’s complete and utter bulls–t.”
“I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies,” he said. “I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her a–.”
After a moment of reflection, Shapiro corrected himself, saying, “I shouldn’t say ‘cover her a–.’ I think that’s not appropriate. She’s trying to sell books. Period.”
Shapiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
To Alberta, the exchange was a rare moment where Shapiro the person overtook Shapiro the politician. Several people close to Shapiro told Alberta they believe the governor was frustrated with Harris for ignoring President Biden’s signs of decline and blowing the 2024 election. Still, he refused to publicly badmouth the former VP, at least until Wednesday’s profile.
Shapiro has developed a strong profile as a potential presidential candidate over his 20 years in politics, building support among otherwise MAGA Pennsylvanians with an approach that could help him win back blue-collar workers nationwide who migrated away from the Democrats in 2016 and 2024.
However, his broad appeal required a level of care that has frustrated his critics and some of his political peers. For example, Shapiro has feuded with fellow Pennsylvania politician John Fetterman over what Fetterman described in his own book as Shapiro prioritizing optics over doing the right thing in delaying the pardon of two brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, who had served 28 years for a robbery and fatal shooting they claimed they didn’t commit.
Other Pennsylvania Democrats have slammed Shapiro for trying to appeal to both sides with overly pragmatic political stances that ultimately please no one. Alberta pointed to Shapiro’s stance on the transgender sports debate.
In his interview, Shapiro punted the question to experts on a governing body that oversees debates related to scholastic sports. When pressed on his own views, Shapiro equivocated, saying, “Look, I think it’s a tough deal being born into the wrong body. And I don’t think these kids deserve to be persecuted and bullied by the President of the United States. I also don’t think they deserve an unfair advantage on the playing field.”
Local animosity toward Shapiro was made clear in the weeks leading up to Harris ultimately selecting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
“A Pennsylvania lawmaker said a member of Harris’s vetting operation called him to say that in their decades working in party politics, they had never witnessed so many Democrats turning on one of their own,” Alberta wrote.
“If Shapiro chooses to run for president in 2028, Democrats in the state told me, the backlash will be far more visible.”
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