Democrats have directed their wrath and indignation toward President Joe Biden after President-elect Donald Trump's resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
Nearly a dozen officials and party operatives said in interviews that Biden, 81, squandered valuable months only to end in disaster on the debate stage against Trump in June, Politico reported. They said questions over Biden's age, apparent cognitive decline, and unpopularity put Democrats at a huge disadvantage.
They are furious that they were forced to embrace a candidate who voters made clear they did not want and that he stayed in the race long after it was clear he couldn't win. And by the time Biden decided to pass the torch, he saddled Harris with too many challenges and too little time to build a winning case, they said.
"He shouldn't have run," Jim Manley, a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Politico.
"This is no time to pull punches or be concerned about anyone's feelings. He and his staff have done an enormous amount of damage to this country."
When Harris took over in late July, Democrat leaders hoped she could separate herself from Biden's deficiencies, even with only 107 days to Election Day. The momentum she gained out of the gate raised hopes within the party that she could squeeze out a victory against Trump.
But any gains she made were swamped Tuesday when Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004. Biden was criticized for being incapable of selling the electorate on his accomplishments and for his apparent overconfidence, which kept him in the campaign despite growing signs that he wasn't up for the job, Politico reported.
"She ran an extraordinary campaign with a very tough hand that was handed to her," Mark Longabaugh, a Democrat strategist and former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told Politico. "The truth of the matter is, Biden should have stepped aside earlier and let the party put together a longer game plan."
White House aides and allies contended Tuesday's loss was so comprehensive that it's unknown if any Democrat could have won under such circumstances, Politico reported. Anti-incumbency anger ignited by the immigration crisis and inflation shifted working-class voters decisively toward Trump.
They expressed doubt Harris could have formed a workable coalition even if she had had more time to campaign.
"People, for whatever reason, feel it was better four years ago — and I don't think we could fight that," a longtime Democrat operative told Politico, pointing to the growing percentage of Hispanic and Black voters who flipped to Trump. "We just have a bad brand right now."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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