WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden’s the name was not on the ballot, but history will probably remember it Kamala Harris’ a failure as terrible as his loss.
Like the Democrats pick up the pieces after the president Donald Trump’s decisive the victorySome of the vice president’s backers are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to seek re-election until this summer — despite long-standing concerns among voters about his age and post-pandemic unease over inflation and the U.S.-Mexico border — sealed his party. Surrender of the White House.
“The biggest responsibility for this loss goes to President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had left in January instead of July, we would be in a very different place.”
Biden will leave office after the United States emerged from the worst pandemic in a century, after boosting international support for Ukraine. The invasion of Russia and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will impact communities for years to come.
But having run against Trump four years ago to “restore the soul of the country”, Biden will step down after just one term to his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, felony convictions and a rebellion launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape 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 Thom Reilly, co-director of Arizona State University’s Center for an Independent and Enduring Democracy. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know if it escapes the legacy of being the president who defeated Donald Trump four years later to start another Donald Trump administration.”
The president stayed out of sight for a second straight day on Wednesday, making congratulatory calls to Democrats and Trump who won down-ballot races. Biden invited Trump to a White House meeting, and the president-elect accepted.
Biden will give a Rose Garden speech on Thursday about the election. Harris issued a statement shortly after his concession speech on Wednesday, praising Harris for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”
Top Democrats, including three Harris campaign advisers, expressed deep frustration with Biden for failing to accept the challenge early in the election cycle. The consultants spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Biden, 81, ended his re-election campaign in July, weeks after a devastating debate sent his party into a spiral and cast doubt on whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to function as a credible candidate.
But polls showed this long before many Americans were concerned about his age. 77% of Americans said in August 2023 that Biden was too old to be effective for another four years, a survey Courtesy of the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.
The President bowed on July 21 After receiving not-so-subtle nudges from Democratic Party powers, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Biden Harris agreed and gave him his campaign operation.
Yang argued that Democratic Party leaders also deserve blame for taking too long to oust Biden. With a few exceptions, notably Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Democrats refrained from speaking publicly about Biden’s age.
“Why didn’t this come from any Democratic leaders?” Yang said. “It’s a lack of courage and independence and too much careerism, if I keep my mouth shut, we’ll keep trucking.”
The campaign also drew anger among some Arab Americans and young voters over Israel’s approach to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Senator Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that Democrats had lost track of the concerns of working-class Americans.
“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” The Vermont independent said. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing?”
Harris managed to generate more enthusiasm than Biden generated from the party’s base. But he struggled to distinguish how his administration would differ from Biden’s.
Harris appeared on ABC’s “The View” in September could not be identified The decision was to separate from Biden. “There’s not one thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, which he repeated throughout Election Day to the Trump campaign.
Strategists advising Harris’ campaign said the compressed campaign schedule made it even harder to separate Harris from the president.
If Biden had stepped aside earlier this year, they said, it would have given Democrats enough time to hold a primary. Going through the paces of an intra-party contest would have forced Harris or another candidate to more aggressively explore their differences with Biden.
Strategists acknowledged that overcoming widespread unease among American voters about 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 had left Democrats in an untenable spot.
David Plouffe Senior Counsel at Harris Publication of X He called it a “devastating loss.” Plouffe did not assign blame and said the Harris campaign “got out of a deep hole but not enough.”
In the Vice President’s house concession speech on Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had had more time to make his pitch to American voters.
“I think that would have made a big difference,” said Jerushatalla Pallay, a Howard University student who attended the conference downtown on her campus.
Republicans are poised to control the White House and the Senate. Control of the chamber is still undecided.
Matt Bennett, executive vice president of the Democratic group Third Way, said this moment was the most devastating the party has experienced in its life.
“Harris was dealt a very bad hand. Some of it was done by Biden and some of it maybe not,” said Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. “Would the Democrats have done better 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 a while.”
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