WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris and Jill Biden came face to face Thursday for the first time since the former vice president declared that it was “reckless” to defer to then-President Joe Biden and his wife on seeking a second term.
Harris, 61, and the most powerful first lady in generations exchanged words in the pews of Washington National Cathedral ahead of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral.
The content of their discussion was not immediately clear and Harris appeared to spend more time speaking to her other pewmate, Republican former Vice President Mike Pence.
(From left) Former President George W. Bush, his wife, Laura, former President Joe Biden with his wife, Jill, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence with his wife, Karen. Former Vice President Al Gore is seen in the second row.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is seen speaking with Jill Biden. Getty ImagesHarris wrote in “107 Days,” out Sept. 23, that her own failed three-month campaign for president was hampered by Joe Biden’s refusal to step aside as the Democratic nominee against then-former President Donald Trump.
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” Harris wrote in the book.
(From left) Former President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, former President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence. REUTERS“The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition.”
It’s unclear if Joe Biden, who turned 83 on Thursday, exchanged words with his former vice president at the funeral.
Harris and Jill Biden have had an at-times frosty relationship.
Biden picked Harris as his running mate in 2020 despite her blistering Democratic primary attack on his historical opposition to federally mandated school desegregation.
“That little girl was me!” Harris, then a senator from California, told Biden during a 2019 debate.
A furious Jill Biden reportedly told supporters that Harris should “go f–k” herself.
