Kamala Harris’s top aides unleash on Biden, media and Democrats over presidential election defeat
As Kamala Harris emerged from a holiday in Hawaii, her campaign chiefs broke their silence on her election defeat, blaming everyone from Joe Biden to the media.
US Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from US Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Kamala Harris’s campaign chiefs have unleashed on Joe Biden, the media and their fellow Democrats in a bid to explain her devastating defeat at the hands of Donald Trump.
Three weeks after the US election, the Vice President’s top aides broke their silence and weighed into the blame game, as Ms Harris returned from a holiday in Hawaii to thank her volunteers and encourage them to “keep fighting”.
“I still strongly believe the light of America’s promise will burn bright as long as we never give up … We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said, amid reports that she was mulling over running for president again in 2028 or to lead her home state of California.
The masterminds of her unsuccessful campaign spoke out on Pod Save America, a podcast run by Barack Obama’s former aides, with Ms Harris’s senior adviser David Plouffe talking up their efforts in the face of what he said was a “pretty brutal” political atmosphere.
“This political environment sucked. We were dealing with ferocious headwinds,” he said, pointing to widespread dissatisfaction with the direction of the country under Mr Biden, the President’s poor approval ratings and the anger among voters about inflation.
Mr Plouffe – who spearheaded Mr Obama’s 2008 election victory – said there was “a price to be paid” for Ms Harris being thrust into the race after Mr Biden’s “pretty catastrophic” debate against Mr Trump, leaving her with just 107 days to campaign.
“We inherited a deficit, we got it to even, but the thing never moved,” he said.
He said the Trump campaign’s most effective attack ad against Ms Harris tied her to the President’s “Bidenomics” record.
But fellow senior adviser Stephanie Cutter said Ms Harris felt “tremendous loyalty” to Mr Biden and believed it “wouldn’t be a clean break” had she decided to criticise his record.
“Vice presidents stick by their presidents, and she wasn’t willing to change that precedent,” she said.
“We were never going to satisfy anybody … Too many people thought that she would be a continuation, which on the economy was the incumbent-killer.”
Ms Harris’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon hit out at the “completely bulls***t” criticisms of the Vice President for failing to face the press at the start of her campaign, with Ms Cutter adding that the questions she did receive in interviews were “dumb”.
Deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks also blasted members of the Democratic Party for “eating our own” by condemning decisions they did not agree with.
“If you’re in the Democratic Party and you step out of line, you get punished for it … by your own party,” he said, adding: “Republicans do not do that.”
Mr Fulks revealed he dealt with an “insane” amount of internal angst over an advertisement that included a swear word, as he complained that his party was “losing the culture war”.
Ms Cutter also said the Vice President was “ready, willing” to appear on America’s most popular podcast hosted by Joe Rogan but that Mr Trump ended up recording his interview on the only day she was available to do it in Texas.
The campaign chiefs maintained they always believed it was a neck-and-neck race, with Ms O’Malley Dillon pointing out that the swing to Mr Trump was only three percentage points in the battleground states, compared to eight points across the rest of the US.
“Where she campaigned, we did way better than the rest of the country,” she said.
“We did make real progress against these national headwinds.”
Ms Harris emerged on Tuesday (local time) for a brief call with her supporters, saying she was “proud of the race we ran”.
“I know this is an uncertain time. I’m clear-eyed about that … and it feels heavy,” she said.
“The fight that fuelled our campaign … that did not end on November 5th.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Kamala Harris’s top aides unleash on Biden, media and Democrats over presidential election defeat
How Biden’s pardon corrupts his political legacy
Joe Biden claimed he was different to Donald Trump. But in pardoning his son, he similarly sowed distrust in the principles and institutions that were a bulwark against his rival.
Biden to ‘pardon Fauci’ as Trump puts enemies in crosshairs
President Joe Biden is considering unprecedented, sweeping pre-emptive blanket pardons of Donald Trump’s so-called ‘enemies’, including the US’s Covid Tsar, Dr Anthony Fauci.