Kamala Harris throws Tim Walz under campaign bus, wished she picked Pete Buttigieg as running mate

Former Vice President Kamala Harris says she wanted to pick Pete Buttigieg as her running mate in the 2024 presidential race, but decided that tapping a gay sidekick was fraught with too much political peril.

In her upcoming memoir “107 Days,” Ms. Harris says Mr. Buttigieg, called Mayor Pete from his Indiana mayoral days, “would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight white man.

“But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” she says, according to excerpts in The Atlantic. “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.

“And I think Pete also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”

Ms. Harris ultimately tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Mr. Walz received mixed reviews for his performance. He stumbled in his debate against then-Sen. J.D. Vance.

The governor also became a favorite target of Donald Trump, who dubbed him “Tampon Tim” over his decision to sign a bill that put menstruation products in boys’ bathrooms used by students in grades 4 to 12.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Buttigieg, who served as secretary of transportation in the Biden administration, are considered possible 2028 presidential contenders.

Ms. Harris has mostly stayed on the sidelines since Mr. Trump soundly defeated her in the November election, capturing key swing states that had helped propel President Biden to victory four years earlier.

Ten months later, Ms. Harris’s political future looks murky.

She passed on running for governor of California, and is thought to be considering another run for president in 2028.

That could put her on a crash course with Mr. Buttigieg, who served as secretary of transportation in the Biden administration, and who overperformed expectations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Meanwhile, Mr. Walz announced this week that he was seeking a third term as governor next year, likely closing the door on 2028 presidential ambitions.

Some question whether Ms. Harris will regret airing out dirty laundry in her new book.

She aimed at Mr. Biden’s decision-making in the book, saying the aging Democrat’s ego and ambition hurt Democrats in the election.

Ms. Harris writes that the people around President Joseph R. Biden were “hypnotized” into supporting his reelection push despite concerns over his mental fitness.

Mr. Biden’s second-term attempt flamed out on the debate stage in spectacular fashion, triggering a series of events that led Democrats to replace him with Ms. Harris.

“It’s Joe and Jill’s decision,” Ms. Harris says. “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.