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‘Too big of a risk’: Kamala Harris's gay V-P remark sparks row; Trump aide says she failed on merit too
One of the excerpts of Kamala Harris's book “107 Days” reportedly states that she thought of Buttigieg as her running mate as “too big of a risk”.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is under fire over her reasoning for not going with ex-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate in the presidential polls. One of the excerpts of her book titled “107 Days” reportedly states that she thought of Buttigieg's candidature as "too big of a risk" despite him being her first choice for running mate.
“But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, 'Screw it, let's just do it'. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk," news agency AP quotes an excerpt of her book. Pete Buttigieg is openly gay and held the key post of transportation secretary during Joe Biden's tenure as President.
Later in an interview about her book, Kamala Harris was asked about excerpt by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. "To say that he couldn’t be on the ticket effectively because he was gay, it’s hard to hear," the host asked Harris, asking the ex-VP to elaborate.
Replying to the question, Harris first clarified that she never said that, but explained that in a highly competitive election against Donald Trump, "to be a Black woman running for president and as a vice presidential running mate, a gay man. With the stakes being so high, it made me very sad. But I also realized it would be a real risk."
Her comments faced strong backlash, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticising them as indicative of Harris's emphasis on identity politics and her apparent lack of respect for the American people.
He also lashed out at Pete Buttigieg's tenure as transportation secretary, calling him the worst person to hold the post in history.
"The FAA is a disaster, the Amtrak, you know, anything to do with transportation was woefully neglected over the past four years. So, she (Kamala) judges him (Pete) on his identity, sexuality, let's look on merit. And I can tell you, on merit, he's a failure, and on merit, she's a failure," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business.
In the book excerpt, while Kamala Harris gave reasons for not going for Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, she also reflected on her fondness for working with him.
After Biden withdrew from the presidential race in July 2024, Harris became the Democratic ticket's frontrunner. She chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
