Former Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro said on ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that former vice president Kamala Harris “going to have to answer” for the fact that she never informed the public about health problems surrounding former president Joe Biden in the years leading up to the 2024 election.
During Thursday’s episode of his “Straight Shooter” podcast, Smith questioned Shapiro about Harris’s decision to keep quiet about her worries about Biden’s health until she published her new book, “107 Days.”
“I haven’t read the former vice president’s book, and she’s going to have to answer to how she was in the room and yet never said anything publicly,” Smith replied to Shapiro.
According to Shapiro, he was “extremely vocal” regarding Biden’s ability to run again, and he said that Biden’s team neglected to thoroughly inform him about his diminishing prospects of winning.
“I can assure you that I made an effort to have an open and productive conversation with them on it. “I think it’s better to speak to people one-on-one rather than rushing around to different media outlets,” Shapiro stated. “I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but I think in that moment, you’ve got to be direct, and I was.”
After that, Smith wanted to know if Shapiro was thinking about running for president in 2028 and, if so, what he thought the nation should do to turn things around.
Shapiro did not want to discuss his potential presidential candidacy until he had spoken about how grateful and privileged he feels to serve as Pennsylvania’s governor.
“I also love this country, and I really believe, for the many of the reasons as you and I were talking about at the beginning of this conversation, we are at an inflection point, and I am troubled by what I’m seeing in this country, and I’m concerned about what I’m seeing in my party and I know that I have a voice that needs to be heard in that process,” said he. What I do in the end, how that voice is heard, and how it appears are all things that will be revealed. In my opinion, that’s not a decision that can be made in this very moment.
While expressing his profound affection for his nation and party, Shapiro went on to say that he hopes to contribute to moving them in a more “common sense direction.”
The book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” written by Wall Street Journal journalist Josh Dawsey, New York Times reporter Tyler Pager, and Washington Post writer Isaac Arnsdor, detailed the selection process that ultimately resulted in Walz, Shapiro, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly being named finalists.
Even while most political analysts saw Shapiro—the governor of a crucial swing state—as the best bet, the book claims that an interview between Harris and Shapiro “found the two were not a perfect match.”
He was too eager to prove himself, and he made Harris clarify his function. According to the book, he also said that being someone’s number two would not be his natural position, which left Harris with a negative image.