Kamala Harris’ allies blame Joe Biden for the vice president’s resounding defeat

Joe Bidenhis name was not on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harrisa resounding defeat, as was his loss.

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, some of the vice president’s supporters are expressing disappointment over Biden’s decision to seek re-election before this summer – despite long-standing voter concerns about his age, as well as worries about post-pandemic inflation . as the US-Mexico border – practically sealed his party’s loss of the White House.

“The greatest responsibility for this loss lies with President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and backed Harris’ unsuccessful campaign. “If he had resigned in January instead of July, we might have ended up in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the U.S. out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will impact communities for years to come.

But after running against Trump four years ago to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will be behind just one term by his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection led by his supporters. Trump has promised to radically overhaul the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years history will remember Biden for some of these accomplishments,” said Tom Reilly, co-director of the Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the short term, I’m not sure he will escape the legacy of a president who defeated Donald Trump only to lead a new Donald Trump administration four years later.”

The president remained out of sight for a second straight day Wednesday, making congratulatory calls to Democratic lawmakers who won the primaries and one to Trump, whom he invited to a White House meeting that the president-elect accepted.

Biden is set to give a speech in the Rose Garden on Thursday about the election. He issued a statement shortly after Harris gave her concession speech Wednesday, praising Harris for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

Some senior Democrats, including three Harris campaign advisers, have expressed deep disappointment with Biden, who failed to acknowledge early in the election cycle that he was not up to the task. The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Biden, 81, ended his re-election campaign in July, weeks after dismal debate results stymied his party and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to emerge as a credible candidate. .

But polls conducted long before that showed that many Americans were worried about his age. In August 2023, about 77% of Americans said Biden was too old to remain effective for another four years, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

The president resigned on July 21 after receiving not-so-subtle nudges from Democratic officials including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He endorsed Harris and handed over his campaign to her.

Harris managed to generate much more enthusiasm than Biden generated among the party base. But she has struggled to understand how her administration will differ from Biden’s.

Appearing on ABC’s “The View” in September, Harris was unable to name a solution in which she would separate from Biden. “There’s nothing that comes to mind,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a sound bite it played on Election Day.

Strategists advising Harris’ campaign said the compressed campaign schedule has made it even harder for Harris to distinguish herself from the president.

They said if Biden had resigned earlier this year, it would have given Democrats enough time to hold primaries. Navigating intra-party infighting would force Harris or another possible candidate to more aggressively highlight differences with Biden.

Strategists acknowledged that overcoming widespread dissatisfaction among the American electorate with rising costs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and widespread concerns about the US immigration system weighed heavily on the minds of voters in key states.

Still, they said Biden put Democrats at a disadvantage.

Harris senior adviser David Plouffe called it a “devastating loss” in a post on X. Plouffe did not assign blame. He noted that the Harris campaign has “dug out of a deep hole, but not enough.”

During the vice president’s concession speech on Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had more time to speak to American voters.

“I think it would make a huge difference,” said Jerushatallah Palley, a Howard University student who attended the talk downtown on her campus.

Republicans are poised to control the White House and Senate. Control of the House of Representatives has yet to be determined.

Matt Bennett, executive vice president of the Democratic group Third Way, said the moment was the most devastating the party had faced in his lifetime.

“Harris was dealt a very bad hand. Some of that is due to Biden, but maybe not,” said Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. “Would Democrats have been better off if Biden had backed down earlier? I don’t know if we can say for sure, but it’s a question we’ll be asking ourselves for some time.”