An avalanche of money was spent without practical effect, and then people asked questions, wondering what the real purpose of it all was. No, we’re not talking about Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. The now twice-failed White House candidate is publishing a book – and she’s set to rake in millions. It was widely reported in December that major publishing houses are eager to give Harris up to $20 million “for an inside look at President Joe Biden’s White House and presidential campaign tell-all,” as UK newspaper The Daily Mail puts it.
It’s the final bad joke to four-plus years of Biden and Harris dodging public exposure in every conceivable manner. Do publishers really believe Americans are salivating to read all the riveting details about a president who reportedly spent nearly 40% of his term on vacation? What invaluable insights can be offered from a vice president who was such a blank slate that it became a routine talking point, even among Democrats?
‘You Don’t Do That Much’
“She’s the vice president of the United States. And people say to me, ‘Well why isn’t she doing this or that?’ I say, ‘Because she’s the vice president.’ That’s the job description. You don’t do that much!” That’s what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told the press in September 2023.
Nancy Pelosi (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Less than a year later, Pelosi helped orchestrate Biden’s removal from the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket in favor of Harris. Why her? As Biden’s running mate, she was the only person who could seamlessly inherit his sizable campaign war chest.
Harris then raised over $1 billion as the nominee yet somehow still ended up with $20 million in campaign debts. Guess where most of it went? “Harris’s campaign directed nearly $600 million to just four media consulting firms with deep ties to the Democratic establishment, Federal Election Commission records show,” The Washington Free Beacon reported on Nov. 25.
Kamala on Your Coffee Table
In the burgeoning Harris literary industry, there is a pronounced element of insider baseball that should equally disturb Americans. Kevin Merida served as executive editor of The Los Angeles Times – the largest daily newspaper in California – for nearly three years of the Biden-Harris era. He stepped down from that position in January 2024. On December 17, Merida launched his latest bold journalism venture. We’ll quote dominant media outlet Axios since its straight writing easily outdoes any attempts at satire.
“Merida is navigating a new chapter in his storied career,” the news site related in a December 26 interview article. “Amid this period of exploration and reinvention, Merida partnered with acclaimed photo historian Deborah Willis to co-create Kamala: Her Historic, Joyful and Auspicious Sprint to the White House. The photographic biography… reflects Kamala Harris’ historic role as the first black and South Asian woman to hold the vice presidency, her position as the most powerful woman in America, and her ambitious 107-day sprint to capture the presidency – an extraordinary chapter in political history.”
This is the state of American journalism today: the former newsroom boss of a prominent paper slapping together a coffee table book lionizing a thoroughly rejected Democratic politician after controlling his staff’s coverage of her for most of her time as vice president.
“Kamala’s campaign spanned just 107 days, but it was transformative. We wanted to capture not just the campaign but her life and legacy,” Merida gushed to Axios. Essence, a lifestyle magazine, doled out the same soft-lens treatment in their December 23 article praising the book. “With over 150 photos, iconic quotes and highlights from the Vice President’s trailblazing life and career, Willis and Merida deliver a photographic biography that solidifies Harris’s story as a testament to progress and the power of possibility,” said Essence.
A Not-So-Complicated Game
So, who’s going to buy her book? The uncomfortable answer – when considering the reported $20 million windfall Harris is set to collect for her tome – is simple: It doesn’t matter.
In 2017, publishing giant Penguin Random House raised eyebrows by offering freshly departed President Barack Obama a staggering $65 million to write his memoirs. The price was wildly out of line with industry norms. So why did they do it?
Penguin Random House regularly contributes money to the powerful globalist think tank The Atlantic Council. The think tank, in turn, is an ardent champion of the progressive establishment policies that drove the Obama and Biden administrations. Its loftily credentialed “nonpartisan” experts have spent years demonizing Republican President-elect Donald Trump as an existential threat to the “Atlanticist” “international rules-based order.”
Allison Dobson is the current President of Penguin Publishing Group. “Prior to her time in publishing, Allison spent several years on Capitol Hill and on political campaigns. She served as Communications Director for [Democrat] US Senators Paul Wellstone and Tom Harkin and as a press secretary for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004,” her Penguin bio states.
Think of it all as a giant conglomeration – one Swamp hand washing the other. That’s how it works in uniparty presidential campaigns, and that’s how it works in the book publishing world.
They don’t care that you aren’t going to read Kamala’s “insider” account or proudly place that glossy photobiography on your living room table. As with her billion-dollar boondoggle of a presidential campaign, keeping the money moving around in a tightly connected circle is the true object of the exercise.
