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Ken Salazar, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico under President Joe Biden, considered running for president against his former boss in 2024, he revealed.
“I should run for president,” Salazar told himself, after Biden’s disastrous July 2024 debate performance, according to a book excerpt obtained by Politico.
Salazar also claimed that he begged for a border czar and early on advised Biden to refer to the U.S. border situation as a crisis.
“There was political failure to understand the reality of the crisis at the border, and the political consequence it would have on Democrats in the 2024 election.
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President Joe Biden is greeted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar upon his arrival at Felipe Angeles International Airport in Zumpango, Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2023. (Fernando Llano/AP)
Salazar claimed that within the administration, officials used the word “crisis” all the time, “even if at that time the White House refused to acknowledge it as such.”
When Salazar advised then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to use the word, Mayorkas apparently told him: “Ken, I have a lot on my plate already. I’m about to be impeached for all this border stuff. The Republicans have it out for me.”
Salazar never ended up declaring himself as a candidate despite recruiting a team and drafting a presidential platform, Politico reported.
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He had planned to throw his name into consideration when Biden dropped out, but the Democratic Party never held open primaries, instead choosing to coronate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s candidate unilaterally, a decision Salazar called “a mistake,” per Politico.
FILE – Former U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar speaks in Mexico City on Dec. 6, 2023.
Salazar criticized Harris’ action, or lack thereof, on the border after she was tasked with stemming the flow of migration. Harris was dubbed the border czar, a position Salazar had pushed for the Biden White House to create, but he was unhappy with the nature of her work in the position.
“But sadly, her designation in this position was having no effect on migration flows,” he wrote.
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“[Harris] had been placed in charge of getting at the ‘root causes’ of migration, but many felt she had been ineffective,” he continued.
“For whatever reason, she had been unable to help with the border and migration crisis, even though she’d sat next door to the Oval Office for almost four years.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attend Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Pool/Getty Images)
Salazar, a Colorado-born lawyer of Mexican descent and his state’s first Hispanic senator, praised Biden’s eventual decision to effectively shut down the border in 2024, but acknowledged it was too late.
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“This should have been a moment of vindication — after all, American voters were demanding action on the border — but it was too late, and images of an out-of-control border would dominate the closing months of the presidential election,” he wrote, per Politico.
Salazar also revealed in his book, titled “Borderlands: My Fight For An Inclusive America,” that he’s been giving out advice to potential Democratic presidential candidates, pitching them on his “borderlands platform,” an immigration policy that he says acknowledges the U.S. immigration system is broken and “must be fixed,” according to Politico.
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He has already met with Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, and plans to meet with Illinois’ Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, Politico reported.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., conducts the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 in the Rayburn Building on June 9, 2022. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speaks to supporters during an election night event at Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona, on Nov. 3, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images, Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital contacted Salazar, Pritzker, Gallego and Kelly for comment.