Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has added a new twist to the vice-presidential selection process drama, as detailed in his upcoming book. He claims that Vice President Kamala Harris’ team took issue with his critique of the COVID-19 response.

Shapiro was in the running to become Harris’ vice presidential pick after she unexpectedly became the Democratic nominee during the 2024 election cycle. This happened after President Joe Biden decided not to seek re-election, citing concerns about his age.

In his book, “Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” which will be released on Tuesday, Shapiro mentions twice how his critical stance on COVID-19 measures upset Harris’ team during his interview process.

During his 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Shapiro expressed that prolonged closures of schools and businesses were unnecessary. These measures had been implemented during Donald Trump’s presidency, with significant support from Democrats.

He also argued that mandates for masks and vaccinations were excessive, a position that contrasted with the Biden administration’s policies, which were upheld while Harris served as vice president.

“I believed in those views then, and I still stand by them today. It became evident that the individuals assessing me saw these opinions as potentially damaging to Kamala, interpreting them as a criticism of her,” Shapiro reflected in his book.

‘I wasn’t being critical of her, I told them. But I didn’t think that the Biden-Harris administration got everything right. Nor did I think that the Trump administration did,’ he added. 

Shapiro wrote that he was simply ‘willing to say the quiet part out loud,’ even asking Harris’ aides if they thought the Biden White House had done everything right, ‘to which they generally agreed that we had not.’

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, seen campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia in August 2024, writes about the veepstakes process in his new book, Where We Keep the Light 

Vice President Kamala Harris (left) campaigns alongside Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (right) the day before the 2024 election, after she picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate – a pick Shapiro approved of after going through the interview process

The 52-year-old Democrat, who is widely expected to run for the White House in 2028, writes negatively about the veepstakes process, which was done in a rushed fashion due to Biden dropping out of the race in late July.  

In excerpts from the book, it was previously reported that Shapiro, who is Jewish, was asked if he had ever been an agent of Israel by former White House counsel Dana Remus, a member of the vice presidential selection committee.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Where We Keep the Light came out Tuesday

‘Had I been a double agent for Israel? Was she kidding? I told her how offensive the question was,’ Shapiro wrote.

But he was also miffed at how some policy differences – including on COVID-19 and that he was against defunding the police – were somehow considered to be detrimental to the Democratic ticket. 

‘The questions kept coming: Did I think it would get awkward if my positions were at odds with the Vice President’s? Are you going to have a hard time supporting her views? Will you have a hard time doing what she says? Don’t you think your views would cause her to be embarrassed?’ Shapiro recounted.

‘All I kept saying was this is what I believe, and these positions have been widely accepted here in Pennsylvania,’ he said. 

Shapiro won the governor’s mansion in 2022 by nearly 15 points in the state that could decide the 2024 presidential election. 

‘I felt like my views could be an asset. I didn’t see anything wrong with not aligning perfectly,’ he argued. ‘And they weren’t going to expand her universe by doing the exact same thing that she had been doing all these years.’

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (left) campaigns alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (right) in the Reading Terminal Market Philadelphia in mid-July 2024, days before President Joe Biden would announce his departure from the 2024 presidential race

When he finally sat down for an interview with Harris in the vice president’s residence, he recalled how miserable she made the job seem. 

‘She explained that her time as Vice President had been tough,’ Shapiro wrote. ‘That she answered to President Biden’s senior staff, and her schedule and priorities weren’t her own. That a meeting she’d prepare for weeks for would get scrapped in an instant. But that was how it went.’

Harris characterized the job not as a partnership, but to only serve the president. 

‘I was surprised by how much she seemed to dislike the role,’ Shapiro recalled. ‘She noted that her chief of staff would be giving me my directions, lamented that the Vice President didn’t have a private bathroom in their office, and how difficult it was for her at times not to have a voice in decision making.’

Shapiro repeated a line that Harris had written in her own book, 107 Days, in which she was critical of the Pennsylvania governor, saying she had a ‘nagging concern that he would be unable to settle for a role as number two.’ 

‘You need to remember that song “99 problems,”‘ Shapiro said Harris told him. ‘That’s what it’s like.’ 

‘Your job, she explained to me is to make sure that you are not a problem for the President,’ Shapiro wrote. 

Shapiro said that he hoped the job could be more like the setup he had with his Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, but Harris couldn’t agree to that.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro waves from onstage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Shapiro interviewed to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick – but wrote that he didn’t care for the process 

‘I told her that I knew I wasn’t going to be the decision maker here,’ Shapiro recalled. ‘If we had door A and door B as options, and she was for door A and I was for door B, I just wanted to make sure that I could make the case for door B. And if I didn’t convince her, then I’d run right through a brick wall to support her decision and make sure it succeeded.’ 

‘She was crystal clear that that was not what she was looking for,’ the Pennsylvania governor recalled. ‘I would primarily work with her staff. She couldn’t say to me that I would have that kind of access to her.’

In the book, Shapiro credited Harris for her candor, explaining that it ‘allowed me to walk out of the room knowing full well everything I needed to know in order to understand the role.’

The governor got more irritated about what happened after the interview.

He was told to stick around Washington, D.C., and so he was taken to the apartment of former Attorney General Eric Holder in case Harris needed to question him again.

Holder was in charge of the veepstakes process – but wasn’t there when Shapiro arrived.

‘At one point, a tall young man came into the apartment. It turned out to be Eric’s son, who lived there and, appropriately, seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see him,’ Shapiro recalled. 

He had told Harris’ team he needed to get back to Pennsylvania, but they left him at Holder’s apartment for several hours.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro campaigns for Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris and VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in August 2024, shortly after Harris announced that Walz would be her running mate 

‘I was growing less and less patient and more and more sure that this was not what I wanted to sign up for,’ Shapiro wrote.

Finally, Remus came to the apartment and bluntly told Shapiro that she thought he didn’t want the job – she added that she was concerned, after years in public service, he couldn’t afford it. 

‘From the financial vetting, she said that she knew we didn’t have a lot of money, and that Lori was going to have to get new clothes and pay for people to do her hair and makeup,’ Shapiro said, referring to his wife. ‘[T]hat we would have to pay for all of the food and entertainment at the Vice President’s residence, and that could be really challenging for us.’ 

Shapiro recalled being a ‘little slack-jawed’ by the conversation, asking Remus if she was trying to convince him not to sign up for this. 

The former White House counsel said she was just trying to be realistic, Shapiro wrote.

‘The comments were unkind to me. They were nasty to Lori. I hold no grudge against Remus, who I know was doing the job she had to do, but I needed to leave,’ he recalled.

Shapiro wrote that he pulled out of the veepstakes before Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, but Remus ‘told me that the VP would not handle bad news well’ and so he didn’t tell Harris personally – nor was it ever made public.

In fact, Shapiro wasn’t sure if Harris ever knew he bowed out.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro gives a fist bump to an attendee before speaking at a rally at the University of Pittsburgh in October 2024, alongside former President Barack Obama, on behalf of the Harris-Walz ticket

‘I still had no idea whether Dana Remus and the rest of her team had shared that I’d called to inform them I didn’t want to move forward the night after our meeting,’ he recalled. 

Harris did call the governor to tell him that Walz was her pick. 

‘I told her how excited I was by her choice,’ Shapiro said. ‘I meant it.’ 

A Harris spokesperson and Remus did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s requests for comment. 

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who is also Jewish and has floated a 2028 run, told reporters this week that he wasn’t offended by the Harris campaign’s line of questioning.

‘The questions are tough,’ Pritzker said. ‘I think you’ve got to be tough during the process.’