Kamala Harris’ new memoir “107 Days” is sending shockwaves. Behind the headlines about Biden’s last year in office, Harris’ team quietly prepared for a scenario most of us suspected but few wanted to say out loud: a roadmap for how the vice president would step in if the president suddenly couldn’t finish the job.
Suggested Reading
That careful, behind-the-scenes prep leads to one of the book’s biggest reveals: The “Red File,” which is a detailed contingency plan for “should something happen” to the 46th president. Here’s the tea.
The “Red File”
Dubbed “unhelpful and divisive” by Democratic strategist Michael Hardaway, Harris’ memoir shows that her brother-in-law, Tony West, had been meticulously building the Red File a full year before Biden officially stepped down. It covered every angle of a potential presidential handoff — from calls to world leaders to messaging to the very first statements Harris would issue as president.
“A year earlier, he had started what he called the ‘Red File,’” Harris revealed in her book, per Fox News. “With a president in his eighties, he suggested, it would be malpractice on my part to be unprepared if, God forbid, something should happen.”
West stressed the importance of being ready for a “traumatic moment,” saying it would be “prudent to have a plan for the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours, so people don’t have to make a lot of decisions in the pressure of a crisis.”
The Contigency
“He [West] had thought through the first twenty-five calls I would need to make to world leaders, the first twenty-five to political colleagues, when to make my first statement, and what the rules of transition are,” Harris wrote.
Harris “left it in his [West’s] hands,” according to the memoir, avoiding involvement in the planning herself, altogether. But during one family weekend, West met with four members of her core team, and they went to work. “Let’s assume he’s dropping out tomorrow,” he reportedly said.
And after Biden’s “disastrous” debate against Donald Trump in Atlanta on June 27, 2024, West “pulled out the Red File and started adding to it.”
Joe Biden Steps Down
Harris admitted she felt uneasy watching Biden’s performance in that debate.
“Biden, striving for accuracy, often stopped midsentence to correct himself, which left him sounding hesitant and garbled. I knew the important policy points he was struggling to convey, and I knew he knew them,” she wrote. “He is a master of this material, but that was not coming across at all.”
Biden’s team largely brushed off public concerns about his age and cognitive abilities, pointing to his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who reported that the former POTUS was “fit for duty” and “fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” per CNN.
Amid political pressure, and poor debate showings, Biden announced: “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus entirely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.” He officially stepped down on July 21, 2024 per the New York Times.
“Twenty-seven minutes after that, he endorsed me as the Democratic candidate president of the United States,” Harris’ memoir notes.
As we previously reported, Harris revealed more details regarding her journey to the White House, including former President Barack Obama urging her to let Biden “have his moment,” the grief she felt on election night, and her regrets on not speaking up regarding Biden’s run for reelection.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.