Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the Harris campaign asked whether he had ever served as a “double agent for Israel” during the vice-presidential vetting process, offering an inside look at the challenges facing Jewish Democrats amid the rise of the pro-Palestinian left.
In his memoir set to be released next week, Mr. Shapiro said he was surprised and affronted when 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ team began quizzing him on his views about Israel, including his role, if any, with the government.
“Had I been a double agent for Israel?” Mr. Shapiro paraphrased in his book, according to excerpts that went viral Monday after being published by The New York Times, CNN and other outlets.
He said Dana Remus, former Biden White House counsel and senior member of the Harris campaign’s vetting team, asked if he had “been an agent of the Israeli government.”
“Was she kidding?” Mr. Shapiro asked in the book, adding, “I told her how offensive the question was.”
Ms. Remus replied, “Well, we have to ask,” before adding, “Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent for Israel?”
Mr. Shapiro said he was stunned. “If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” he wrote in the book, “Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” scheduled for release Jan. 27.
“I calmly answered her questions. Remus was just doing her job. I get it,” he wrote. “But the fact that she asked, or was told to ask, that question by someone else, said a lot about people around the VP.”
The rest is history. Ms. Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, confounding politicos who said Mr. Shapiro could have delivered Pennsylvania, a must-win swing state. She ultimately lost Pennsylvania to President Trump by 120,000 votes.
The book’s account drew outrage from Jewish leaders, including Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy under President Biden.
“The more I read about [Shapiro’s] treatment in the vetting process, the more disturbed I become,” Ms. Lipstadt said Monday on social media. “These questions were classic antisemitism.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey Democrat, called the account “outrageous,” saying Monday on social media that such “insinuation and targeting is antisemitism, plain and simple.”
Reports that Gov. Josh Shapiro was asked if he was a “double agent for Israel” during VP vetting are nothing short of outrageous, and, if true, demand an immediate explanation from the Harris campaign.
That kind of insinuation and targeting is antisemitism, plain and simple.…
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) January 19, 2026
Also condemning the vetting was conservative author and podcast host Hugh Hewitt, who called the questions “so antisemitic, my eyes roll back when I read them, because those are classic tropes.”
“The real question is, what did the Harris team think they were doing?” Mr. Hewitt asked on Fox News Channel.
Ms. Harris and Ms. Remus have not commented publicly on the book, but in her campaign memoir “107 Days,” the former vice president said she didn’t pick Mr. Shapiro because she worried he would want to be “co-president” instead of settling for a subordinate role.
Mr. Shapiro’s biography includes a stint at an Israeli kibbutz in high school, during which he volunteered at a farm, a fishery and an Israeli army base, but didn’t have a military role, his office has said.
Robby Soave, senior editor at the libertarian outlet Reason, said he thought the Harris campaign taking a pass on Mr. Shapiro was “idiotic,” but that the governor’s complaints about the vetting came across as “whiny.”
“He previously bragged about being a volunteer for the IDF (in a non military role) during a study abroad program in Israel,” Mr. Soave said on social media. “It’s not so crazy to ask him about that, or scrutinize his Israel views in general. It’s not because he’s Jewish, it’s because he studied in Israel.”
Mr. Shapiro wouldn’t have been the first Jewish candidate to appear on the presidential ticket. That milestone was achieved by former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election.
“I’m very certain nobody asked Joe Lieberman from Team Gore, ’Are you an agent of the Mossad?’” Mr. Hewitt said.
Times have changed.
“It’s astonishing to me that the Democratic Party has a Jewish problem,” Mr. Hewitt said. “They don’t like them, and the left wing is ascendant in the Democratic Party, and it’s a burden that the Democratic Party candidates in 2028 are going to share with Gov. Shapiro.”
Mr. Shapiro is running for reelection in November, but he also is seen as a shortlist candidate for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
