In his forthcoming memoir, “Where We Keep the Light,” Governor Shapiro revealed key details about his vetting by former Vice President Kamala Harris for her failed presidential campaign against President Trump.
Shapiro claims that during the vetting process, he was asked by a member of the team whether he was ever an agent of the Israeli government.
In the memoir, Shapiro reveals the conversation with Dana Remus, a former White House counsel and member of the vetting team for Harris. Shapiro says he told Remus that he found the question offensive.
Her response was, “Well, we have to ask.”
According to Shapiro, Remus also asked if he had ever spoken with an undercover Israeli agent. He responded that if the agent had been undercover, “how the hell would I know?”
“I wondered whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way,” said Shapiro in an excerpt from the upcoming memoir.
With the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, Shapiro faced scrutiny from the Harris campaign and the public for his views on Israel as a Jewish governor.
“These sessions were completely professional and businesslike, but I just had a knot in my stomach through all of it,” wrote Shapiro in an excerpt from the memoir.
Shapiro was an outspoken critic of antisemitism on college campuses during the Israel-Hamas war. In the memoir, he writes that he was questioned about that criticism during the vetting process.
When Harris asked if Shapiro “would be willing to apologize for the statements I had made, particularly over what I saw happening at the University of Pennsylvania,” he replied that he would not, he wrote.
“I believe in free speech, and I’ll defend it with all I’ve got. Most of the speech on campus, even that which I disagreed with, was peaceful and constitutionally protected. But some wasn’t peaceful,” an excerpt from the memoir reads.
Shapiro also gave his own account of the difference between his and Harris’ outlook for the role of vice president. He was personally interviewed by the presidential candidate as one of the finalists for vice president.
“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. She was crystal clear that that was not what she was looking for,” wrote Shapiro.
“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.”
Following the meeting with Harris, Shapiro met with Remus. She discussed the financial strains that the Shapiros might have faced in the vice presidency.
“She said that she knew we didn’t have a lot of money, and that Lori was going to have to get all new clothes and pay for people to do her hair and makeup,” Shapiro wrote, saying the comments left him “a little slack-jawed.”
After those discussions, Shapiro wrote that his teenage son said, “It doesn’t seem like you want to do it.” Shapiro then tried to communicate that view to Harris’ team.
Shapiro’s memoir is set to focus on faith, fatherhood, marriage, and his political career. It will also share Shapiro’s firsthand account of the arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s residence last Passover.
Shapiro is often referenced as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. He is currently running for reelection as governor of Pennsylvania.
