107 Days

The following day, retired NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes hosted Harris on their podcast All the Smoke. Harris was eager to go on the show because she thought it would give her access to a new audience that didn’t often get to hear from politicians.

The three had an “intimate and heartfelt” conversation that touched on everything from their relationships with their stepchildren to childhood trauma (185). Although there was light banter, they ended on a serious note, discussing the murder of George Floyd, who had been a close friend of Stephen Jackson.

Addressing the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Harris discussed her plans for tax credits in key industries, increasing apprenticeships and skill-based hiring, as well as protecting the right to organize and encouraging local hiring. These were plans Harris “knew [she] could actually do as president and […] knew would work” (188). She warned against the dangers of Trump’s proposed tariffs, but her plans for the economy “didn’t seem to be penetrating fast enough” (188).

On September 26, Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while Hurricane Helene was rapidly intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico. Harris at first met with Zelensky in 2022, when she had been forced to convince him that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was imminent.

Harris muses that “[f]ew of us know who we will be in a time of crisis until we are tested” (191). Zelensky was a comedian, but he turned out to be “an exceptional wartime leader” (191). From her meeting with Zelensky, Harris went to the East Room of the White House, where Biden signed an executive order meant to combat “ghost guns” and devices that convert certain guns into deadlier weapons. After signing the order, Biden passed the pen to Harris and said, “Keep it going, boss” (192).

That day, Harris tackled a war an ocean away, helped people at home prepare for a natural disaster, and made steps to combat gun violence. It was days like this that “reminded [her] why [she] was a public servant” (191).

Harris left DC as the outer bands of Hurricane Helene battered the city with rain. Soon, she would need to focus her attention on relief efforts for the storm, but for now, she headed to Arizona, where she would tour the border with Mark Kelly.

The Biden administration hadn’t been able to pass bipartisan legislation for border control, but a series of executive orders had cut unlawful border crossings in half. Trump, however, was still “slaying” Harris in the polls on the issue of immigration. He used “incendiary language about an ‘invasion’ by criminals and violent gangs” (194), yet while he was in office, he had taken no steps to actually improve the situation at the border. Instead, he “fan[ned] flames of hate and division” (195) creating an atmosphere of anger and anxiety that the Harris campaign could not undo in just 107 days.

As hurricane relief began to roll out, misinformation and conspiracy theories began to spread. Someone on “an unmoderated social media swamp” (196) suggested that the government had “modified” the weather so that the hurricane would target counties with high populations of Trump supporters. Harris initially dismissed the claims as ridiculous, but they quickly garnered millions of views on X and TikTok.

September 29 saw Harris with a fundraiser in LA and a rally in Las Vegas.

Harris cleared her schedule to return to Washington and oversee FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene. Trump, meanwhile, was on social media complaining that the Biden administration was purposely withholding aid from hard-hit Republican communities. These lies were impeding efforts to get aid into flooded communities as some FEMA workers were being threatened by the very people they were trying to help. Trump also claimed that Biden had spent FEMA’s money on coercing “illegal immigrants” to vote in the upcoming election, a lie that Elon Musk reiterated, claiming that Biden planned to “import voters.” In reality, the federal government had launched “a massive relief effort” (200), but the rumors and misinformation had already done their damage.

Walz was nervous for his debate with J.D. Vance, but Harris wasn’t worried. She figured Walz’s compassion and good humor would counter Vance’s “malice and pessimism” (202). Vance, however, saw this coming and dropped his usual “mean” persona. In their hotel room, Harris and Doug watched in dismay as Walz “fell for it and started nodding and smiling at J.D.’s fake bipartisanship” (202). Afterward, Walz “felt bad” about his shoddy performance in the debate, but Harris assured him it didn’t make much difference in their poll numbers. Even though Walz was a seasoned politician, he was unprepared for the “unfairness” of the attacks he faced during his time as vice presidential candidate.

Harris toured Augusta, Georgia, where she witnessed the destruction from Hurricane Helene firsthand and spoke with survivors. She told them that the federal government would reimburse local governments for 100% of the cost of recovery efforts for the first three months, and that residents would have immediate access to emergency grants of $750. Later, misinformation spread that $750 was the total amount of aid victims would receive.

Republican Liz Cheney joined Harris on the campaign trail in Ripon, Wisconsin, where the Republican Party was founded in 1854. Cheney had been ousted from her seat in Congress after her outspoken opposition to Trump’s role in the January 6 riots. Now, she and Harris were united by the common goals of preserving “free and fair elections, […] and the First Amendment” (205). Harris hoped that Cheney could help her connect with Republican voters who were turned off by Trump’s extreme views.

Central North Carolina had been hardest hit by Hurricane Helene. Heavy rain had caused mountain rivers and streams to overflow, flooding communities and leaving widespread destruction. Harris visited some of these hardest-hit communities, shaking hands with volunteers and telling them they were “doing God’s work on the ground” (208).

When Harris recorded her scheduled interview for 60 Minutes, it was taped and edited down, as is standard. However, the Trump campaign claimed that CBS had edited the interview to portray Harris in a more positive light and sued the network for $20 billion. Because CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was in the middle of a huge merger that needed the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, the network settled the case for $16 million, causing the executive producer of 60 Minutes and the chief of CBS News to resign in protest. Harris warns that a free press “is a key pillar of democracy” (210). Without it, the country as a whole is in danger.

Harris was having an excellent time on The View. She knew many of the hosts well and felt she was on “friendly ground.” The interview was going well until Sunny Hostin asked Harris what she would have done differently than President Biden during his time in office. She told the panelists that she wouldn’t have changed anything and proudly described the achievements of Biden’s administration. Harris’s staff slipped her a note during the commercial break, urging her to return to the question more critically, “but the damage was done” (213). The sound bite became the Trump campaign’s strategy “to shackle [Harris] to an unpopular president” (213).

Harris was still Biden’s vice president, and she still felt loyal to him, despite the White House’s lukewarm support of her campaign. However, she realized that people wanted to know what separated her from Biden and that her answer had been a big mistake.

Harris visited Las Vegas to record a town hall with undecided Latino voters. One woman told Harris about her mother, who had been ineligible for Medicare due to her immigration status and had passed away, unable to afford the medical care that might have saved her life. The Biden administration had tried and failed to pass a bill that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for people like the woman’s mother, and Harris knew that “both parties had failed” the woman before her (216). It was a question that required “an enormous amount of emotional dexterity” to respond to, as Harris tried “to stay focused and on message” while still “respond[ing] as a human” (216).

The final question of the night asked Harris to name three of Donald Trump’s “virtues.” Stumped, Harris admitted that she didn’t know the man well, saying only that he loved his family. She had recently discovered that Trump had secretly taken COVID tests away from Americans during the height of the pandemic to send to Vladimir Putin, so “[i]t was a tougher day than usual to be trying to enumerate Trump’s virtues” (216).

Doug spent his birthday campaigning in Pennsylvania while Harris spoke in a church in North Carolina, then hosted a rally and spoke with Black farmers. She arrived back at the vice president’s residence late, so she had her staff decorate and help her arrange Doug’s favorite meal for dinner. She FaceTimed with her husband’s favorite menswear store in San Francisco to buy him a gift.

When the Los Angeles Times published its electoral endorsements, there was no sign of the presidential race. The paper’s owner had instructed the editorials editor to “deep six” the paper’s endorsement of Harris. The editor quit in protest. A week and a half later, The Washington Post followed suit, canceling Harris’s endorsement in a “pre-capitulation” from the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos.

In the back of Air Force Two, Harris was having her daily off-the-record chats with the press pool when a reporter asked her, frowning, “What do you think is going on?” (223). Harris didn’t know. She had drawn ahead of Trump in the polls after her successful debate, but now the numbers had stalled, the campaign couldn’t gain any traction, even as Harris’s rallies grew “more diverse and enthusiastic” (223).

Doug was the one who began seeing “the trans ads,” which the Trump campaign was spending millions to run during commercial breaks for all kinds of sporting events. The ads featured the tagline “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you” (224) and warned of transgender athletes competing with unfair advantages.

Harris points out that transgender people are “a tiny minority” of the population (224). They are also disproportionately likely to be murdered, to be victims of a violent crime, and to have attempted death by suicide. Harris “grew up at the epicenter of the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights” (225) and describes herself as “an ally” in both her personal and professional life. She is a “protector” and insists it would “go against [her] very nature to turn on transgender people right when they were being so intensely and intentionally vilified” (225-26).

On the other hand, Harris addresses the “politics” of the issue. During her tenure as Attorney General in California, she represented the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation when a prisoner sued the state to receive gender-affirming care. The prisoner won the case, but since Harris had been the state’s lawyer, she was accused of being anti-trans.

During an interview, Harris reiterated that she “supported whatever [health care] was medically necessary” for incarcerated adults (226), a statement that the Trump campaign edited to make more attack ads. They also claimed that Harris supported “biological men competing against our girls in their sports” (226). Harris argues that the reality is more nuanced. She believes that certain biological factors should be taken into account, but is sure this can be done “without vilifying and demonizing children” (226). In formulating rebuttal ads, Harris tried to pivot the conversation back to the economy, following her “protective instincts” to direct the narrative away from vulnerable populations. She doesn’t regret this, but she does regret being unable to underscore the message that “[t]he pronoun that matters is ‘we’” (227).

Harris spent much of her interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, dodging the political correspondent’s numerous interruptions as he worked his way through “the MAGA playlist” of issues, including immigration, Biden’s age, and “the transgender subject” (229). Harris knew that the interview wouldn’t be friendly, but she wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to connect with Fox News viewers. After all, she was also running to be their president. Trump was only appearing in conservative media, but Harris was eager reach Americans that might be undecided.

Harris’s event on October 17 was interrupted by anti-abortion protesters. Later, Fox & Friends interviewed the student protesters, who claimed that Harris teased them after hearing them call out Jesus’s name. Harris had done no such thing and insists she would never mock anyone’s beliefs. Nevertheless, Fox & Friends showed an edited clip of the rally that appeared to show Harris ejecting two young people from the rally.

That same week, Fox had been attacking Harris for not attending the annual Al Smith Dinner in support of Catholic charities, a narrative that dovetailed with their story about the young protesters. In reality, Harris was focused on her campaign and couldn’t spare the time. Instead of attending in person, Harris recorded a video that included a “comic bit” and a brief speech about her respect for Catholic charities. She cautions about how easily democracy can be compromised by bias, lies, and an enabling media.

Harris is critical of billionaires influencing elections. Elon Musk reportedly spent at least $288 million to support Trump’s campaign. With Trump winning by less than two percentage points in many key swing states, Musk’s involvement was critical. It included hiring people to knock on doors, many of whom didn’t know who they would be canvassing for before being hired, and holding $1 million sweepstakes for voter registration. Later, these “winners” were revealed to have been planted “spokespeople” for Trump’s campaign.

Harris’s birthday fell on “Pink Sunday” of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This was a significant day for Harris because her mother, a distinguished scientist, had worked to further research into curing breast cancer. Harris spoke first at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta and then traveled across town to an event where Stevie Wonder sang Harris “Happy Birthday.” At both stops, speakers called on Black men to stand behind Harris. It was an emotional day, but Harris refused to allow herself to experience the “[e]xtreme highs and extreme lows” (239) of the campaign. She needed to stay focused.

Harris recorded an interview with Reverend Al Sharpton for MSNBC before leaving Atlanta. Aboard her plane, her staff surprised her with German chocolate cake and balloons. Harris was looking forward to spending her birthday evening with Doug, but upon meeting up in Philadelphia, she found her husband “tired and preoccupied” (241). The stress of the campaign was taking its toll, and it had fallen to Harris’s staff to pick their hotel and dinner for the night. Doug did have a gift for Harris, a beautiful necklace from a designer she liked in California. The piece was engraved with a date, but when Harris looked closer, she saw it wasn’t her birthday but their anniversary. Doug had bought jewelry from the same designer for Harris’s anniversary gift; apparently, he had bought both pieces at the same time and thought he could “repurpose” the gift and “kill two birds with one stone” (242).

The couple got into a fight, but “Doug stopped the argument cold” (242), telling Harris that they had to stick together when they were already being attacked from all sides. The next day, Storm came to the rescue with a plan for Doug to “fix” his wife’s botched birthday. She gave him a set of cards to write notes on and left them out for Harris every night she and Doug were apart for the rest of the campaign.

Harris’s team tried to organize an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast for weeks. Rogan refused to travel for interviews and asked Harris to come to Texas, but with the election just over two weeks away, Harris was reluctant to take time away from campaigning in the all-important swing states. However, she had a rally in Texas on October 25. Rogan replied that October 25 was a “personal day.” His team suggested a few other options, but nothing worked with Harris’s tight schedule. Then, Rogan announced that he would be interviewing Donald Trump on his podcast on October 25.