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Former US vice-president Kamala Harris is contemplating a second run for the presidency and says she was "reckless" not to have acted in a bid to stop Joe Biden running for a second term. Ms Harris made the comments in an Australian exclusive interview with 7.30 in London, where she was promoting her campaign memoir, 107 Days. Ms Harris spoke candidly about Mr Biden, US President Donald Trump and her own experiences. She believes people are listening and may be interested in her making a second run for the White House. "I've been on this book tour for a month. Tens of thousands of people are showing up for it. So I think there is an appetite for this conversation that I'm having with the American people," Ms Harris told 7.30. Pressed on why she thought voters would think differently about her a second time around, Ms Harris said: "My focus is on the book tour and being out with the people and lifting their voices." And asked if American voters have an "appetite" for a Kamala Harris presidency, she responded: "We will see, if I choose to run." Ms Harris says she reproaches herself for her failure to prevent a diminished President Biden from running for a second term against Donald Trump in 2024. "I offer a lot of candour around what I did … I reflect on not talking him out of running and why I didn't," she said. Asked why she and other senior Democrats left the decision entirely to Joe Biden and his wife Jill, Ms Harris concluded it was a terrible mistake. 'I had concerns' In the first half of 2024, growing concerns amongst voters about president Biden's perceived cognitive decline dragged down support for the Democratic ticket. Ms Harris says she chose not to intervene because she feared such a move from her, as Mr Biden's deputy, would backfire. The questions over Mr Biden's fitness reached a full-blown public crisis with his stumbling debate performance against Mr Trump in Atlanta in June 2024. Ms Harris concedes she was wrong to have remained silent to that point. "In retrospect it was a conversation I should have raised even if it were ill received," she said. But the former vice-president insisted her concerns about the president were solely about the gruelling nature of the presidential campaign, not his capacity to perform as president for a further four years. Pressed about Mr Biden's poor communication and visible difficulties marshalling his thoughts, and whether that meant she had a responsibility to the country to act, she said, "I did not question Joe Biden's capacity to be president at all". "I saw him in the Oval Office, in the situation room, meeting with world leaders on a daily basis and I did not have any question about that." Ms Harris insists her doubts were about how Mr Biden would manage the campaign against Mr Trump. 'Couldn't breathe' after losing to Trump In November 2024 Ms Harris went into election day hoping what had been viewed as a close race would go her way. But on that evening she received a phone call from her campaign manager telling her she was not going to win. Ms Harris recalled being in a state of shock. "And so much so that the only words I could speak over and over again were, 'My God, my God, my God,'" she said. Ms Harris said she "felt a level of grief" similar to that of when she lost her mother. "This was about my country and the people I knew. "He [Trump] meant what he said about weaponising the Department of Justice against his political enemies. Ms Harris wants readers of the memoir — and by extension US voters — to see Mr Trump's victory as about more than just the president's personal agenda. "We're experiencing a high velocity event that is about the swift implementation of a plan that has been decades in the making," she said. "And if we're to take lessons from the election and this moment to guide us as we go forward, we have to understand this is much bigger than that one person in the White House." Despite Mr Trump being a lightning rod for criticism Ms Harris wants America's traditional allies to keep faith with the USA. "I would suggest to you and to our allies around the world that the American people still retain and deeply have a sense of our importance to the rest of the world, a commitment to our constitution, the Constitution of the United States, and to the values and principles … that we hold dear," she said. 'Needed more time' The title of Ms Harris' book is also its message: that the 107 days remaining to Ms Harris after Mr Biden stepped down in the presidential race were not enough. She had lifted the Democrats' chances from the nadir that Mr Biden had reached in July 2024. He trailed Mr Trump personally 38-41 and the voters' gloomy outlook was revealed in the bleak headline figure that 72 per cent of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track. Ms Harris did make it a neck-and-neck race with Mr Trump, before ultimately late-deciding voters swung to the Republican. Given more time she believes the outcome could have changed. "We needed more time and had we more time, perhaps the outcome would've been different. That is now the next question she is trying to answer. Will the Democrats decide it was enough of an achievement to warrant that rare political gift, a second chance? Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
