Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has pulled back the curtain on the secretive and often brutal vetting process he endured as a finalist for Kamala Harris’s 2024 running mate, revealing that lawyers for the campaign asked him point-blank if he had ever served as a “double agent” for Israel.
The revelations come from Shapiro’s upcoming memoir, Where We Keep the Light. According to excerpts reported by the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post, the governor describes a tense vetting session where his Jewish faith and past ties to Israel became a central, and apparently uncomfortable, focus for the Harris team.
Shapiro writes that Dana Remus, a senior attorney leading the vetting, asked him directly if he had ever been “a double agent for Israel” or if he had “ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel.”
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The governor’s response in the room was blunt.
“If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” Shapiro recounts in the book.
The line of questioning didn’t sit well with the popular Pennsylvania Democrat. He writes that he was left wondering if he was being singled out.
“Wondering 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,” Shapiro wrote. When he told the team he found the inquiry offensive, the reply was simply, “Well, we have to ask.”
Shapiro notes that the exchange “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”
The Apology That Never Happened
The friction wasn’t limited to lawyers. Shapiro reveals that Harris herself pressed him during their interviews on whether he “would be willing to apologize” for comments he had made regarding pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Shapiro had previously criticized some of the demonstrations, a stance that drew ire from progressive activists during the heated months leading up to the election. In the book, he defends his refusal to walk back those statements.
“Most of the speech on campus, even that which I disagreed with, was peaceful and constitutionally protected,” he writes. “But some wasn’t peaceful.”
Context of the Snub
Shapiro was widely considered a frontrunner to join the Democratic ticket, which eventually went to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in August 2024. At the time, speculation ran high that Shapiro’s staunch support for Israel—and the vocal opposition from pro-Palestinian groups—played a role in the decision.
Activists had scrutinized Shapiro’s history, including a volunteer stint with the Israeli army and a 1993 college essay in which he claimed Palestinians were “too-battle minded” to form a peaceful state. While Shapiro has since clarified those youthful writings and describes himself as a Zionist who supports a two-state solution, the political pressure from the party’s left flank was undeniable.
Neither Harris nor Shapiro responded to requests for comment regarding the book’s claims.
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