Kamala Harris has finally shared details on when she first noticed that former president Joe Biden was “off.” Biden’s cognitive ability and age were a primary issue during the 2024 presidential election, and the administration at the time defended the Democratic president from attacks about his health. But on a podcast with Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast released on Thursday, October 30, the former vice president says she noticed something was wrong with Biden before his June 2024 debate with Donald Trump where the 81-year-old appeared absentminded and scattered.
Harris was “concerned” about Biden before his infamous debate with Trump
Before Biden’s debate, Harris became concerned after she received a phone call from the president.
“He called me from debate camp, the President did,” she explained. “I could tell that something was a little off. And I was concerned about — I just, I don’t think he wanted to debate is my point.”
Harris said that the president wasn’t confident about his debate against Trump. “He didn’t want that debate. And you know, it’s like any competition you go in, whether it’s you’re bidding for something, if it’s sports, you gotta want it, right? If you don’t wanna be in the competition, it will absolutely have an impact on your performance. I’m pretty sure he did not want to debate.”
She believed that Biden was “talked into” doing the debate, despite concerns about his performance on stage.
Harris said she was staying at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles while watching the debate, so that she could run defense for anything the president might have said that was incorrect during the four interviews she had lined up during the post-debate. While she expected that she would “have to clean something up,” Harris did not anticipate what happened.
“And then, you know, we saw what we all saw,” she confessed.
Bartlett didn’t mince words with his response. “It was a car crash,” he said. “It was a historic car crash actually.”
