Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro revealed in his new memoir, "Where We Keep the Light," which is set to be released later this month, that during his 2024 vetting as a potential vice presidential nominee for Kamala Harris, he was asked whether he was an Israeli agent. The disclosure has fueled further evidence and renewed speculation that Shapiro, widely viewed as a stronger electoral choice than Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was ultimately passed over because he is Jewish.
Josh Shapiro Writes That Harris Team Asked if He Had Ever Been an Israeli Agent
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 19, 2026
In his new memoir, the Pennsylvania governor suggests that when Kamala Harris's team vetted him to be her running mate, aides focused on Israel to an extent he found offensive.
Full Story:… pic.twitter.com/mnc070LdXu
“Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?”
— Rabbi Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) January 19, 2026
The question came from President Biden’s former White House counsel Dana Remus, who was a key member of Harris’s vice-presidential search team.
Governor Josh Shapiro, one of the most well-known Jewish elected officials in… pic.twitter.com/zs60CSimfw
Gov. Shapiro said that throughout the vetting process, Harris’ team fixated on his views on Israel. At one point, a member of the former vice president’s team even asked whether Shapiro had ever been a double agent for Israel.
“Had I been a double agent for Israel?” Gov. Shapiro wrote, recalling his incredulous reaction. He said he told the team the question was offensive, only to be met with a blunt response: “Well, we have to ask.”
“Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?” the questioner, Dana Remus, who was once a White House counsel, continued.
“If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” Shapiro replied.
The Pennsylvania governor wrote that he knew Remus was “just doing her job.” But he indicated that the types of questions relating to his Jewish identity and his support for Israel, “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”
“I believe in free speech, and I’ll defend it with all I’ve got,” he wrote. “Most of the speech on campus, even that which I disagreed with, was peaceful and constitutionally protected. But some wasn’t peaceful.”
Shapiro pointed directly to the demonstrations that swept the United States in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In the weeks that followed, protests and encampments erupted across American universities, not to condemn Hamas, but to denounce Israel for fighting back, accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide,” and of confining Gazans to what protesters described as an open-air prison.
"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," Shapiro continued.
The revelation comes shortly after the release of Kamala Harris’ memoir, "107 Days," which recounts her short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful presidential campaign. In the book, Harris argues that Shapiro was not a strong choice for vice president, contending that he harbored political ambitions of his own and that her team frequently had to remind him he would be second in command. Harris ultimately selected Walz, writing that he lacked those ambitions and was easier to manage. She also claimed Walz would help her appeal to white male voters, a theory that ultimately proved unsuccessful.
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