In his forthcoming memoir, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro claims that the team vetting possible running mates for then-Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris asked the Jewish governor if he was ever an agent of the Israeli government. 

Shapiro, in the book which is set to be released later this month, said the question was posed to him by Dana Remus, a former White House counsel and a member of Harris’s vetting team, multiple outlets have reported. 

Shapiro writes that he told Remus he found the question offensive, according to book excerpts published by The New York Times.

Shapiro, a Democrat, has been outspoken about his Jewish faith and support for Israel at a time when his party has grown icy towards the Jewish state. Shapiro writes that he was also asked more questions about Israel and his handling of pro-Palestine campus protests. 

"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 wrote, according to the excerpts. 

During Harris’s 2024 campaign, Shapiro was reportedly under consideration as a potential running mate. But, amid the internal divisions in the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, U.S. military aid to Israel, and Israel’s conduct in the war, Shapiro faced criticisms from progressives. 

In her own memoir, Harris noted that she broached Israel in her conversations with the Pennsylvania governor, but said the decision to remove Shapiro from consideration rested on concerns about his ambitions and that she suspected he would be frustrated in the vice presidential role. Shapiro has pushed back on those claims.