By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN
(CNN) — Josh Shapiro wasn’t the only finalist to be Kamala Harris’ running mate who was asked if he had ever been an agent of a foreign government, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday. Tim Walz was, too.
The Minnesota governor — whom Harris ultimately picked — was asked by her vetting team if he had ever been an agent of China, prompted by aides’ review of the multiple trips Walz took to China before running for office.
That was the same line of questioning, four people involved with that process say, which led to top lawyer Dana Remus asking Shapiro if he had ever been an agent of Israel, in a conversation that Shapiro recounts in his memoir set to be published next week.
“I told her how offensive the question was,” Shapiro wrote in an advance copy of which was obtained Sunday by CNN.
Shapiro described feeling that he was being asked only because he is Jewish and adds that to be asked that “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”
Shapiro’s calling Remus out by name infuriated some in the orbit of former President Barack Obama, with whom Remus is close, having worked for him both in the White House and when he was setting up his post-presidency. Shapiro has built up an active relationship of his own with the 44th president, who officiated Remus’ wedding.
But more than anything, the blow-up further aggravates a relationship between Harris and Shapiro that was fraught for years before she ever brought him in for an interview, and that is now on a potential collision course as both consider 2028 presidential runs. Harris, in her own 2024 campaign account, previously said she was concerned Shapiro “would be unable to settle for a role as number two and that it would wear on our partnership.”
The four people involved with the vetting process argue that the question of being a foreign agent is standard on the forms all the politicians hoping to be picked were asked to fill out, and which is the same form used for all high-level federal government appointees. Remus’ additional questions, they say, were also a natural expansion on the form as Shapiro entered the finalist stage of consideration.
“The crux of vetting is asking uncomfortable and even farfetched questions, especially ones that could be raised by your opponents. ‘Have you ever had an affair?’ ‘Have you ever embezzled state funds?’ ‘Have you ever been an agent for another country?’ The point isn’t that you believe any of it to be tru