‘Obama never felt Harris could beat Trump,’ new bombshell book reveals; here’s what else it said

Former US President Barack Obama was hesitant to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris after Joe Biden exited the race because he felt she couldn’t beat Trump, as per the authors of a new book on the 2024 presidential election.

Obama never believed Harris was the best choice for Democrats

“He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats, and he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary, or an open convention, or a mini-primary leading to an open convention, did not have faith in her ability to win the election,” the authors revealed to MSNBC this week

“As it turned out, she didn’t win, but he was really working against her.”

The book FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House - a new book on the 2024 presidential election - was co-authored by Hill correspondent Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen.

Harris believed the hype of her campaign, stunned by loss

The book also revealed that Kamala Harris was stunned by her loss to Trump as she believed the hype that her campaign was strong leading up to Election Day.

“Kamala Harris was looking at her crowd size, and they felt like the vibe was strong and people were saying, ‘Oh, we have more boots on the ground. We’re doing better in fundraising,’” Parnes said. “And she bought all of that. She bought the hype, and so did a lot of people in the campaign.”

“She was completely shocked, and Tim Walz was shocked,” Parnes told the podcast “Somebody’s Gotta Win with Tara Palmeri” earlier this week.

Walz was so “stunned” by Harris’ crushing defeat that he was unable to speak, according to Parnes.

Harris believed she could have won if she had more time

After her loss, Harris reportedly told friends she believed she could have beaten Trump if she had more time and if former President Joe Biden had first announced he was running before dropping out on July 21.

“She could have won, she told friends, if only the election was later in the calendar — or she got in earlier. In other words, Joe Biden was to blame,” Parnes and co-author Jonathan Allen write in their book, according to Fox News.

Harris felt Biden’s unpopularity and her late start hurt her campaign, though some of her friends didn’t think more time would have made a difference, the book says.