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Former Vice President Kamala Harris' aides implored the co-hosts of "The View" to try asking Harris a second time about what she would have done differently from Joe Biden during the October 2024 interview on the ABC show, according to a new book.
"As you showed the famous clip there on ‘The View,' she gives that answer, and our book reports her aides backstage, head in their hands. They try to get the hosts to actually do the question again, to hopefully revise her answer, which she never does," Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, explaining that Harris was unwilling to differentiate herself from Biden.
Dawsey, Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and New York Times reporter Tyler Pager's new book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," was released on Tuesday.
Harris sat down with the co-hosts of "The View" in October 2024, as liberal host Sunny Hostin asked the former vice president if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the course of their administration to date.
Harris responded, "there is not a thing that comes to mind." Her response quickly went viral and was widely viewed as a misstep, given Biden's unpopularity and Harris passing up a chance to create some respectful distance.
Hostin initially asked Harris about the biggest specific difference between a potential Harris presidency and Biden's presidency. The then-vice president said the two were obviously two different people and said she planned to focus on home healthcare.
The new book explains that Harris aide Stephanie Cutter asked two of the co-hosts to try asking Harris the question again.
"Backstage on The View's set in Manhattan, Rob Flaherty, a deputy campaign manager, put his head into his hands and swore. During the next commercial break, Stephanie Cutter went to cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Ana Navarro to ask them to try the question again, but Harris didn't get a second chance. After the interview, Harris knew she'd messed up and asked how big the problem was," the authors wrote.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris (C) is pictured in studio at ABC during a break in the recording of the show "The View" with hosts (L-R) Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Whoopi Goldberg, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin in New York on October 8, 2024. ((Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images))
An adviser said her answer on the liberal ABC talkshow was "the defining error of the campaign," the authors reported.
Harris didn't give the answer she prepared with her aides, which according to the authors, praised Biden and emphasized that she didn't want to look back and critique their administration.
The prepared answer also acknowledged that she was her own person.
Her aides also encouraged her to mention that she planned to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, which the former vice president did mention towards the end of the interview.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters after delivering remarks at a church service at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Dawsey said during the MSNBC appearance on Tuesday that Harris didn't want to create public distance from Biden.
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"She thinks it won’t be authentic, she believes that it wouldn’t work," he said.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
