Posted on 07/08/2025 1:48:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A tell-all describes how the war in Gaza loomed over the 2024 campaign and strained Biden’s reelection bid
Josh Shapiro’s Judaism was not a factor in Kamala Harris passing him over as a running mate, according to a 2024 election tell-all, contradicting a narrative Republicans eagerly peddled.
If anything, Harris rejected Shapiro because they had too much in common — both were former attorneys general who hoped to be president. That and poor chemistry knocked Shapiro out of the running, according to How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by political reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf.
The Forward obtained excerpts of the book, set to be published Tuesday.
The campaign flagged some of Shapiro’s comments on pro-Palestinian protests as “incendiary,” but that was not a factor in Harris’ decision to go with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza loomed large in the campaign before President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Anxious Democrats pressured Biden to “take a tougher stance on Israel” as one way to recover from his catastrophic debate performance in June 2024.
Some Democrats pushed for an arms embargo to shift the campaign’s direction and appeal to disaffected progressives and Michigan voters who had cast “uncommitted” ballots in the primary. Michigan is believed to have the highest concentration of Muslim and Arab American voters.
“The president took umbrage at the criticism,” the authors write. Biden said he still hoped to secure a deal that would end the hostilities and release the hostages. He blamed Benjamin Netanyahu for being an “impediment” to a ceasefire deal, believing the Israeli prime minister hoped that Trump would be elected. “Biden lamented that he was taking heat from many directions while he was doing the most of anyone,” the authors write.
Earlier in the year, some Biden aides voiced concern that the president’s focus on international affairs was distracting him from engaging voters on key campaign issues. “I think you are running for president of Europe, not president of the United States,” Biden’s first chief of staff, Ron Klain, who is Jewish, reportedly told him. “I am doing what I have to do,” Biden responded.
Harris, who was more forceful in her call for an immediate ceasefire to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, lost Michigan and Pennsylvania by almost 2 points.
‘Overly ambitious’: the private meeting that went south
Shapiro was one of six finalists who conducted virtual interviews with the Harris campaign, a group that included Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish.
“On paper, many Democrats thought Shapiro was the obvious choice,” the authors write. They cite Shapiro’s popularity as a governor from a key battleground state, his strong oratory skills, his reputation as a moderate, and the fact that the Trump campaign feared him most.
Some aides expressed concern that Harris and Shapiro had overly similar backgrounds. Both were lawyers who previously served as state attorneys general.
Some Republicans said Harris caved to antisemites when she decided to go with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Pro-Palestinian activists and Israel-critical progressives led an aggressive social media campagin to keep Shapiro off the ticket. The Harris campaign denied Shapiro’s faith or Israel positions were factors.
Related Josh Shapiro, Jewish governor not tapped for VP, addresses DNC Harris team calls out ‘absurd’ GOP claim that sidelining Shapiro was antisemitic It is true that Shapiro’s stance on Israel and the campus protests raised concerns within the campaign, according to the book. The attorneys vetting him flagged some comments “they viewed as more incendiary.”
In an April 2024 interview with CNN, Shapiro spoke about what he said were expressions of antisemitism at the pro-Palestinian protests. “We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this, if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia, making comments about people who are African American in our communities.” Progressives argued that the remark compared protesters to the KKK.
Shapiro’s private meeting with Harris — after the shortlist was narrowed to him, Walz, and Sen. Mark Kelly — did not go well, the authors write. “He came across as overly ambitious, pushing Harris to define what his role would be,” they write. “He also conceded it would not be natural for him to serve as someone’s number two, leaving Harris with a bad impression.”
Shapiro later called aides to the vice president to say he wasn’t sure he was ready to leave his job as Pennsylvania governor. “Harris was perplexed when she was briefed on the call,” they write. “Shapiro seemed to want Harris to be invested in his success as much as he was in hers, and he didn’t say he wasn’t interested in potentially running for president in the future.”
Internal polls also didn’t clearly show that Shapiro would deliver Pennsylvania, key to winning the White House.
Shapiro is a stupid airhead diversity hire who slept his way to the top?
He is also to have been up to his eyeballs in a coverup for a high ranking staffer but let’s be honest it’s because they where terrified of losing Michigan and they definitely would have if she took him.
The notion that a single voter would be troubled by the fact that they had both been a state AG is just stupid. Maybe he was overbearing, but also maybe that’s just code for he was more driven and dynamic than Kamala. I don’t know, but both are possible and that they would lie about the AG thing makes the source unreliable. Likewise the notion that his being Jewish had absolutely nothing to do with it. Given the lunatics the left has to play to, it would have been political malpractice not to take it into account
“The campaign said Shapiro’s faith was not a factor.” Of course. What else could they say? “No, we don’t want a Jew on the ticket?” Fat chance of that ever being said (out loud).
Naw, it was the poor chemistry between the two all the time. Shapiro is Jewish, and Kamala is an inveterate anti-Semite, just like the Republicans read the situation.
Besides, Shapiro is WAY more intelligent than Kamala, and that is always a bad situation for any potential occupant of the Oval Office to find themselves in. Kamala was chosen in the first place because in many ways she made Joe Biden look sort of smart. And that was a pretty low bar to begin with.
And Walz made Harris look smart. Hard to imagine who Walz would pick to make him look smart.
‘Would a certain faction of the party have gone crazy?’
I believe so, yes.
AOL? Crockett? Mazie Hirono?
She's married to a Jew and she can reject Shapiro for being a Jew.
Doug Emhoff does not see himself as Jewish and he did not raise his children in the faith.
I firmly believe Shapiro torpedoed himself. He didn’t want to be her running mate. He knew she was going to lose, and take him down with her. Hence the ‘poor chemistry’, or whatever it is they said. He would have helped Harris here in PA, but I doubt it would have made the difference. Trump is very popular around here.
Only one unsuccessful VP candidate has ever gone on to be elected President—FDR.
Was Emhoff’s first wife Jewish?
Good one.
That's the truth. Thank God. The race might have been closer if Shapiro has been running.
He is certainly more articulate; and if possible for a democrat, a little less hateful.
I fail to see why it has to be Shapiro making Kamala look stupid, or him being Jewish. Both could very easily be factors.
I think a large percentage of the Jewish community will in the medium term future need to decide where they are Leftists or Jews. Thus they will need to either repudiate their Judaism to remain Leftist in god standing or (re)study the Talmud and learn that leftism is not Judaism.
If they are willing to drop the leftism the Republican party will happily accept them. The pre-1980 Republican party was still majority WASP and they happily accepted the heavily Jewish and Catholic Neo-conservatives who decided there was no place in the Dem party for anti-Soviet Liberals.
How can that be? She is married to a Jew and her stepchildren call her a Yiddish nickname.
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