Did Joe Biden say he chose Kamala because she was a black female

1. Why the claim spread — a short, sharp look at the allegation

The assertion that President Biden explicitly said he selected Kamala Harris because she was a Black woman circulates in partisan messaging and shorthand commentary rather than in primary-source documentation. Contemporary reporting shows Biden committed during the 2020 campaign to selecting a woman for vice president and later explained a general desire for the government to “look like” the country; that is a public statement about representativeness, not an explicit admission that race plus gender were the sole criteria ^[1]. Opponents seized this nuance and labeled Harris a “DEI hire,” a politically loaded framing used to delegitimize her qualifications ^[2].

2. What Biden publicly said in 2020 — the documented words

Video and reporting from the 2020 campaign record Biden saying he would pick a woman as his running mate; those remarks are on the public record and were widely reported. Biden also later stated he did not feel pressure to pick a Black woman specifically, while simultaneously arguing the federal government should reflect the nation’s diversity — a statement about representation, not an explicit confession that identity alone dictated his choice ^[1]. Those comments are the closest contemporaneous material; they do not equate to the direct quote the allegation attributes to him.

3. How critics and allies interpreted the selection — different narratives at work

Conservative commentators and some GOP officials labeled Harris a “DEI hire” to argue her selection prioritized identity over experience, presenting this as evidence that Democrats practice tokenism. This interpretation is political messaging with a clear agenda to undermine Harris’s legitimacy ^[2]. On the other side, Democrats and many neutral analysts framed Harris’s selection as both a recognition of qualifications — U.S. senator, state attorney general, and city prosecutor — and an acknowledgement of the historic significance of naming the first woman of Black and South Asian heritage on a major-party ticket, which is a separate but related argument about representation ^{[2] [3]}.

4. What Kamala Harris’s own accounts reveal — what’s in her book

Kamala Harris’s memoirs and subsequent reporting show she privately identified Pete Buttigieg as a preferred running mate in a hypothetical scenario, noting personal and political considerations about race and marriage that shaped her thinking; that passage has been interpreted as suggestive but does not record any Biden statement claiming he chose her solely for identity reasons ^[3]. Harris’s book adds context to the selection process and internal dynamics without producing evidence of a Biden admission that race and gender were the decisive factors in his choice ^{[3] [4]}.

5. The evidentiary bottom line — what the primary evidence supports

No primary-source quote has emerged in mainstream reporting or in Harris’s own writings in which Joe Biden says, “I chose Kamala because she is a Black female.” The available documentary record shows Biden pledged to pick a woman and spoke about representation; critics’ shorthand calling Harris a “DEI hire” is an interpretive frame rather than new factual evidence ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Therefore, the precise claim that Biden said he chose her for that reason is unsupported by the cited sources.

6. Why nuance matters — political and factual stakes of the phrasing

Saying Biden “chose Harris because she was a Black female” implies a singular, transactional decision based solely on identity; the public record shows a combination of stated representational goals and assessments of experience that produced the pick. The difference between representation as a stated criterion and “sole reason” is consequential: the former is documented and defensible as political judgment, while the latter is an unproven allegation amplified for political effect ^{[1] [2]}.

7. What to watch for next — how this claim may evolve in coverage

Future reporting or newly released documents could change the archive; as of the most recent coverage cited here, the dominant narratives remain: Biden publicly committed to picking a woman and discussed representation, critics labeled Harris a DEI pick for partisan reasons, and Harris’s memoir offers context but not a Biden quote confessing to choosing her solely for identity ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Readers should treat repetitive shorthand claims as assertions needing primary-source corroboration and check for any newly surfaced direct quotes or internal campaign memos before accepting the stronger phrasing as fact ^{[3] [5]}.