Former Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with ABC News Australia’s Sarah Ferguson for a wide-ranging interview, during which Ferguson pressed her on questions about President Joe Biden’s age and fitness for office.

SARAH FERGUSON, ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA: You say in the book that it was reckless for you not to intervene on that decision to run again given the stakes. How could you leave the decision to Joe Biden and Jill Biden? FORMER VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: I, as I write, and this book really is about a lot of, it’s candid. I offer a lot of candor around my, what I did and what I believe I could have done and should have done differently and what was at play overall. And so as I write, I reflect on not talking him out of running and why I didn’t. And I ask myself, was it grace or was it recklessness on my part? And I think it was reckless. You were one of the people in the room. And there were many obviously who were. FERGUSON: Of course, of course, we understand that. HARRIS: And I say, but I go on to say that part of the reason I didn’t is I don’t believe in having a conversation for the sake of getting something off my chest. Sure. It’s about having, making it productive. And I believed that were I to raise it with the president, it would have been so completely, it would have appeared to be so completely self-serving that it would have been counterproductive. FERGUSON: And yet you now call it reckless. HARRIS: I think that in retrospect, it was a conversation I should have raised, even if it were ill-received. FERGUSON: Didn’t you also have a responsibility? You were one of the people in the room. You saw, notwithstanding that he was, you said that he was able to execute his job, but you knew that he was asking for four more years. Didn’t you have a responsibility as an American to step up and say something at that point? HARRIS: I did not question Joe Biden’s capacity to be president at all. For four more years? I did not question his capacity. I saw him in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, meeting with world leaders on a daily basis. And I did not have any question about that. My concern… Even up to 2028. Correct. My concern, well, I mean, I can speak for up until 2024. FERGUSON: But I guess what I’m asking is, you saw how he was. You saw some of the deficits, notwithstanding. HARRIS: My concern was whether he had… Running for president of the United States in a nation of 330 million people is an extraordinary feat of… about energy and endurance. And especially talking about running against the person who’s now in the White House. And doing it with the heavy responsibility of being the sitting president. And that was my concern about whether… You know, I talk about running for president. Some people say, oh, it’s a marathon. No, I would call it a marathon running at a sprinter’s pace with tomatoes. I’m in England, tomatoes being thrown at you every step you take. FERGUSON: But wasn’t Joe Biden then, to put it on him, wasn’t his refusal to recognize his own frailties the reason that you faced a nearly impossible task? HARRIS: I ran against Donald Trump for president. And Donald Trump ran on a platform that was, in large part, I believe, misrepresenting his intentions to the American people. I do believe that there are a fair number of people that voted for Donald Trump who believed him when he told them that his first priority on day one is going to be to bring down prices. And he didn’t. And you combine that misrepresentation of intention with also what was at play in terms of massive amounts of misinformation. FERGUSON: Now, forgive me. HARRIS: And a truncated calendar in terms of the clock. FERGUSON: I want to interrupt you because that is a world-class pivot. But it is not the question that I asked you, which is about Joe Biden’s failure to recognize his own frailties and what that did to you. The question is about Joe Biden. Are you still reluctant to criticize the former president? In what regard, please? Well, just in terms of that question. FERGUSON: So you went on. HARRIS: What exactly would you like to ask? Be more specific, if you don’t mind. FERGUSON: Was it Joe Biden’s decision, his failure to recognize his own frailties in that position that put you in a position that made it almost impossible to win that race? He was not frail as president of the United States. HARRIS: But he had frailties. We all saw the debate. I do believe that Joe Biden had the capacity to be president of the United States. And I’ve never doubted that he had the capacity to be president of the United States. If you want to talk about whether he had the ability to endure what a race for president of the United States would require in that political environment in 2024, as I’ve said in the book, I had concerns. FERGUSON: I’m just wondering, is there a reason why you won’t go to that prolonged frailty question? We saw the debate. We saw the difficulty he had marshaling his thoughts. HARRIS: I have answered that question. FERGUSON: I do not believe that there was- I think it’s just hard watching the debate to see how there could not be a problem long term with someone who can’t marshal their thoughts. I’m not saying his acuity wasn’t present. HARRIS: I talk about that in the book. And I also mentioned the context in which that debate occurred. And you’ll probably remember how I talked about that, in terms of what his travel schedule had been, that what he had been enduring in terms of the timing of that debate. I talk about it extensively in the book. I’m not shying away from that. That’s why I wrote it in the book, because I do know it’s a question people had.

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