Former Vice President Kamala Harris recounted a conversation with President Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign in which the Republican promised to tone down his rhetoric.
“I’m going to tone it down,” Trump said, per the Harris book. “I will. You’re going to see.”
Harris offered the story as part of her upcoming memoir “107 Days,” writing that she called Trump after a man was arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate him while he was golfing in Florida in September. Trump earlier that summer was nearly killed when a man shot at him with a rifle at a rally in Butler, Pa.
In an interview after the Florida arrest, Trump blamed Harris and former President Biden’s “rhetoric” for inciting violence against him.
“Their rhetoric is causing me
to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” Trump said.
Harris wrote that she asked her staff to put her on a call with Trump — a conservation that allegedly ended with Trump as the one promising to “tone it down.”
“You’ve done a great job, you really have,” Trump said, according to Harris. “My only problem is it makes it very hard to be angry at you. It’s like, what am I going to do? How do I say bad things about you now?”
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When Harris replied that he shouldn’t say bad things about her, she said Trump acquiesced and made the comment about toning down his own rhetoric.
Harris wrote that she hadn’t fallen for Trump’s flattery during the call.
“He’s a con man,” she wrote. “He’s really good at it. I’d readied myself for a phone conversation with Mr. Hyde, but Dr. Jekyll had picked up the call.”
Both Harris and Biden released public statements after the September assassination attempt condemning political violence.
“As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence,” Harris said in a statement after the incident. “We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”
Harris also recounted the phone call in which she conceded the election to Trump in her memoir. In the call, she asked Trump to work to bring the country together.
“I am going to be so nice and respectful,” Trump said, according to Harris. “You are a tough, smart customer, and I say that with great respect.” Harris wrote she knew then it was a lost cause.
“107 Days,” which describes Harris’s presidential campaign, will be published next week. Harris announced that she would tour 15 cities, including in the United Kingdom and Canada, for the book’s release.
