In a dramatic preview of her upcoming memoir 107 Days, Former Vice President Kamala Harris has offered the most searing critique yet of Joe Biden’s ill-fated decision to seek re-election in 2024. Harris did not mince words for once. She painted a portrait of a White House crippled by misplaced loyalty, political paralysis, and the unchecked ambition of an aging leader whose refusal to step aside nearly cost Democrats everything.

Published in The Atlantic, the first excerpt from Harris’s memoir describes Biden’s refusal to bow out of the race as not just misguided—but dangerous. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” Harris wrote. “The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition.”

This unambiguous accusation from Biden’s own vice president is nothing short of explosive. For months leading up to Biden’s eventual withdrawal from the 2024 race—just 107 days before Americans went to the polls—concerns about his age, stamina, and mental acuity had been mounting. Yet, according to Harris, the White House remained gripped by a cult-like loyalty to Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, who insiders claim were both instrumental in keeping the campaign alive far longer than prudence allowed.

“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote, reflecting the kind of insulated, top-down leadership style that has plagued Democratic politics in recent years.

Although Harris stopped short of claiming Biden was mentally unfit to lead, she did not shy away from pointing out his visible decline. “At 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles,” she acknowledged, in a passage that reinforces what many Americans witnessed firsthand during Biden’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump.

According to Harris, that fumbled debate wasn’t a fluke. It was the predictable result of a grueling schedule and poor judgment: “I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.”

In a striking admission, Harris also revealed how politically perilous it was for her to confront Biden directly. “Of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out,” she wrote. “I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: Don’t let the other guy win.”

That statement speaks volumes—not only about the dysfunction within the Biden White House but also about the hyper-fragile egos at the top of the Democratic Party.

Harris’s memoir drops later this month.