Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said former vice president Kamala Harris told “blatant lies” about him in her new book, in an unexpected moment of candor during an interview with the Atlantic that published Wednesday.
Shapiro, whom Harris considered as a potential running mate on the 2024 Democratic ticket before ultimately choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is known for his composure and tendency to stay on message. In a conversation with the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta, however, Shapiro appeared to lose his cool when confronted — seemingly for the first time — with excerpts from Harris’s then-unpublished memoir that concerned him.
In “107 Days,” Harris wrote that, while interviewing Shapiro during the running mate selection process, he had “mused that he would want to be in the room for every decision,” prompting Harris to tell him bluntly that “a vice president is not a co-president.” Harris wrote that she worried Shapiro “would be unable to settle for a role as number two and that it would wear on our partnership.” She told him that on every day she was president, she’d have “ninety-nine problems and my VP can’t be one.”
Alberta wrote that Shapiro sounded exasperated when responding to suggestions that he had hijacked his vice-presidential interview, saying: “I did ask a bunch of questions. Wouldn’t you ask questions if someone was talking to you about forming a partnership and working together?”
Harris also wrote in her memoir that, before Shapiro’s interview, the Pennsylvania governor asked her residence manager how many bedrooms were in the vice-presidential residence and wondered aloud about whether the Smithsonian might work with him to loan Pennsylvania art for the house. This particular detail seemed to provoke the most incredulous and defensive response from Shapiro, according to Alberta.
“That’s complete and utter bull—-,” Shapiro told the Atlantic. “I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies.”
When asked if he felt betrayed by Harris, whom he had known for 20 years, Shapiro “snapped,” according to Alberta.
“I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her a–,” Shapiro told the Atlantic, before apparently collecting himself and backtracking. “I shouldn’t say ‘cover her a–.’ I think that’s not appropriate … She’s trying to sell books. Period.”
Shapiro’s remarks in the interview are much sharper and more candid than his official response to Harris’s book when it was first published in September. At the time, Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder released a statement saying it was “simply ridiculous to suggest that Governor Shapiro was focused on anything other than defeating Donald Trump and protecting Pennsylvania from the chaos we are living through now.”
“The Governor campaigned tirelessly for the Harris-Walz ticket — and as he has made clear, the conclusion of this process was a deeply personal decision for both him and the Vice President,” Bonder added then.
Shapiro, a lawyer and former Pennsylvania attorney general, has served as governor of the Keystone State since 2023. He is up for reelection for a second term as governor next year and is widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
Maeve Reston and Sophia Nguyen contributed to this report.
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