In a forthcoming memoir, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said his vetting for the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nomination included a question that left him alarmed and deeply unsettled.
In the book, Shapiro, who is Jewish, recounted being asked by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s team whether he had ever acted as an “agent of the Israeli government.”
Where We Keep the Light will be published on January 27. The New York Times and The Atlantic first reported excerpts over the weekend.
Shapiro said the question — which came from former White House counsel Dana Remus — crossed a clear line. “Was she kidding?” Shapiro wrote. “I told her how offensive the question was.”
He noted he faced repeated queries about his views on Israel, including a focus on his public comments on antisemitism tied to anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre and the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Neither Remus nor Harris responded to media requests for comment about the claims detailed in Shapiro’s book.
Far-left and anti-Israel activists launched an aggressive public campaign against Shapiro, warning Harris not to select him as her running mate and using inflammatory labels to discredit his record.
Shapiro ultimately withdrew from consideration. Harris ended up choosing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and the Democratic ticket lost the general election to their Republican opponents, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Last spring, during Passover, an arsonist who held Shapiro for Palestinian deaths in Gaza set fire to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg. Shapiro and his family evacuated safely.
Shapiro is now thought to be among the leading potential candidates to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.
Commenting on the revelations in Shapiro’s memoir, Aaron Keyak — who served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism during the Biden administration and is now a member of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Advisory Board — said, “The minimum demand of Jews in the United States and our allies — even those in public service — is to simply be treated like any other American, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or race. That Governor Josh Shapiro wrote that he was asked if he was a double agent of the world’s only Jewish state is an antisemitic inquiry.”
“While we can safely assume that asking all potential vice presidential picks if they are an Israeli double agent is not included on the standard list, the obvious question is why it was Governor Shapiro who was targeted by the staff of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, in particular,” Keyak — who also held the role of Jewish Engagement Director for the 2020 Biden/Harris presidential campaign — added. “The truth is, we almost certainly know why.”
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time the U.S. government or a presidential campaign has applied a double standard to American Jews during the vetting process for a wide range of officials. I have heard from too many being asked similar questions over many years and I can speak from personal experience. During my vetting process I faced questions in a classified setting that my fellow non-Jewish political appointees did not. These sort of antisemitic questions are anti-American and do not represent the best that the Democratic Party offers. Now and especially during the next presidential campaign we must demand better.”