The author of a new book says former Vice President Kamala Harris was so taken aback by President Donald Trump’s shocking win in November that she could barely speak.
As the reality of her defeat set in, Harris repeatedly asked her aides “if they’d actually lost” and whether “they were prepared to do a recount.”
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “had the same exact reaction” as he watched from his room at D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel, Amie Parnes, a senior correspondent for The Hill, told TMZ on Friday.
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“They really thought they were going to win,” Parnes said.
Parnes—whose book on the matchup, Fight, was released this week—said Harris was left “without words” at her home in Washington, D.C., when the results came in November 5.
Co-authored with NBC journalist Jonathan Allen, Parnes’s book reveals Harris was disappointed by a perceived lack of support from former President Barack Obama and ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“She was really looking for [Obama’s] approval this time around, and was really kinda underwhelmed by his support in the very end,” Parnes said. “She was really upset by the fact he took several days to get behind her.”
“There were some very hurt feelings on her part,” Parnes added, noting that both she and her co-author “greatly believe” the Harris-Walz campaign could have sailed to victory had there not been “so many missteps along the way.”
