These Are The Democrats Blaming Biden For Trump's Defeat Of Harris
By: Sara Dorn (Forbes)
Has everyone forgotten that the Democratic Party really did hold nationwide primaries and voters chose Joe Biden to be their candidate? Democrat leadership certainly wasn't voicing any concerns during the primaries. Seems the 'blame game' only tries to cover up a conspiracy within Democratic Party leadership.
The idea that an incumbent Vice President could avoid the record of the incumbent President seems to be grossly delusional. Kamala Harris is the ultimate insider positioned to obtain the most benefit from the Biden legacy. Expecting Harris to run as an outsider would have tarnished her political character and raised serious questions about how trustworthy she would be as President. Like or not, the Biden legacy was an albatross that Harris could not escape. Kamala Harris became the surrogate to receive the political accountability for Democratic Party priorities and agenda over the last four years.
The leadership of the Democratic Party may have forced Joe Biden out of the race (against the clear choice by voters). But Democratic Party leadership did not repudiate the political agenda they imposed on Joe Biden (who promised to govern as a moderate). The Democratic Party handed Kamala Harris the dirty end of the stick and expected her to cover the backside of party leadership by creating a cult of personality. But Taylor Swift endorsements could not overshadow the incumbency of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the record of Democrat priorities.
Blaming Biden, blaming Harris, and blaming voters won't change the fact that the 2024 election was a referendum on the Democratic Party. The electorate sent a clear message that leadership of the Democratic Party has forced the country in the wrong direction. It's time for the Democratic Party to join the rest of the country instead of hoping to ride a dead horse into the future. The Democratic Party trying to keep the past alive is dividing the country.
Democrats need to accept the inconvenient truth that it's time for the Democratic Party to change course.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Topline
In the wake of former President Donald Trump's resounding defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris—in which he improved his 2020 margins in nearly every key demographic—Democrats are facing a reckoning about what went wrong, and many are openly pointing the finger at President Joe Biden.
Key Facts
Democratic strategists, pundits and lawmakers have publicly blamed the loss on Biden's refusal to exit the race until late July, even as his unpopularity in polls surged and an increasing number of Americans said he was too old to serve another term.
David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama's strategist, told Time magazine, "the story might have been different if" Biden "made a timely decision to step aside," but noted that any Democrat may have been doomed by his unpopularity, adding, "no incumbent party has ever won with a president with a 40% approval rating or under."
Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the 2020 Democratic nomination, told the Associated Press, "the biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden," noting party leaders who refused to speak out against Biden earlier were also at fault.
Veteran Democratic National Committee member John Zogby had a similar take, telling Politico Biden "hung on too long" and his aides "failed to see his inability to step up his game."
Biden biographer and Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foerwrote, "Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk."
Jim Manley, a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told Politico, "He's a good man who can be proud of his accomplishments. But his legacy is in tatters," adding the "country is headed in a very dangerous direction and it's due in part to his arrogance."
Manley is reportedly among nearly a dozen officials and party operatives who pinned Harris' loss on Biden in interviews with Politico, including former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Mark Longabaugh, who told the outlet: "the truth of the matter is, Biden should have stepped aside earlier and let the party put together a longer game plan."
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., the first congressional Democrat to publicly call on Biden to step down, told Politico, "it would have been better if we had a primary, even if Harris was the eventual victor."
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein wrote in a post mortem for the paper, "President Biden, at 81 years old and hovering beneath 40 percent favorability in most polls, should never have run for re-election."
Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, told the Associated Press, "I don't know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later."
Democratic strategist Max Burnstweeted, "it seems short-sighted to heap blame on Kamala Harris for not running ahead of Joe Biden's 2020 numbers when even Joe Biden was trailing his own 2020 numbers before dropping out of the race entirely."
Atlantic columnist Tyler Austin Harper wrote in a piece bluntly titled "Blame Biden," that while Harris bears some responsibility, "she had an 81-year-old albatross hanging around her neck: Joe Biden."
Writer Ross Barkan, who also titled his Substack column "Blame Biden," wrote that Biden's "ego blinded him and his myopic advisers enabled a foolhardy campaign," opining that Biden should have announced his retirement in 2022 and allowed Democrats to hold an open primary.
"The View" host and former Trump Pentagon press secretary Alyssa Farah Griffin, who endorsed Biden, asked Thursday on the show, "why didn't Biden give her six months or a year to run?"
News Peg
Biden spoke to the nation for the first time Thursday after Harris' defeat, acknowledging that for some, Trump's win is "a time of loss," but urging Americans not to "forget all that we accomplished," Biden said. "It's been a historic presidency—not because I'm president—because what we've done, what you've done—a presidency for all Americans." Biden called Trump Wednesday to congratulate him and express "his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition," the White House said in a statement, adding he also invited Trump to meet with him at the White House. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked on Thursday if Biden feels any responsibility for the loss, defended Biden and said, "he believes he made the right decision when he stepped aside," adding "we can't rewrite history."
Tangent
Trump gained points among a vast array of demographics—shifting voters in rural, urban and suburban counties further right, winning Latino and Black voters by wider margins than he did in 2020, and outperforming his previous support among counties with large shares of younger, middle-age and older residents, according to a New York Times analysis of all counties where at least 95% of the vote has been reported. Trump has won five of the seven swing states so far, and is on track to also take Arizona and Nevada, though the results have yet to officially be called by the Associated Press.
Key Background
Democrats dismissed concerns about Biden's age until his consequential June 27 debate with Trump. In the following weeks, a growing number of Democrats publicly called on the president to step down, and he ceded to the pressure on July 21, promptly endorsing Harris, who announced the same day her plans to seek the nomination. Harris enjoyed a brief honeymoon period in polls, bolstered by positive reviews of her debate performance, but Trump narrowed the gap as Election Day neared. With just 107 days to campaign, Harris and the party faced an uphill challenge in separating her from Biden—and are widely viewed to have failed to do so, a shortcoming epitomized by a response Harris gave on ABC's "The View" when asked what she would have done differently during her time in the White House and said "there's not a thing that comes to mind." The Trump campaign seized on Harris' links to Biden, repeatedly highlighting the quote in ads, speeches and statements. "It was necessary for the Democratic nominee to separate him or herself from an unpopular incumbent, as much as we love Joe Biden. None of those things happened," Moulton told Politico.
Contra
Some have observed that the party platform as a whole, rather than Biden himself, led to Harris' defeat. Democrats failed to capitalize on voters' concerns about the economy and immigration—the two top-rated issues for Americans in this year's election—and instead focused too much on "identity politics, rather than understanding that the vast majority of people in this country are working class," Sanders told The New York Times. Former Biden Labor Secretary Marty Walsh also told Politico Biden wasn't solely to blame and that the administration's messaging "just didn't resonate with people." Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky told CNN Thursday "This is not Joe Biden's fault. It's not Kamala Harris fault. It's not Barack Obama's fault. It is the fault of the Democratic Party in not knowing how to communicate effectively to voters." Former DNC Chair Howard Dean told CNN Thursday Republicans outworked Democrats in the grassroots ground game. "The Democratic Party ought to be putting a lot of money into school board races, and into city council races, and into local representative races, including in very red states, and they're not doing that," Dean said.
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Recriminations, backbiting, infighting, scapegoating, and overall gaslighting won't avoid the clear message sent by the electorate. It's time for the Democratic Party to change. It's time for the Democratic Party to join the rest of the country.
A leopard does not change it's spots.
Nope and you got what you voted for - a traitor.
Not quite true. Republicans have changed their spots (and Democrats are freaking out). Democrats could change their spots, too, if they choose to let democracy work.
Democracy worked. Not just the way they wanted it to. There are a lot of factors that they didn't take into consideration.
True as that may be, imo it does not seem likely in the near future.
Yeah, seems like someone painted themselves into a corner with that one.
Did they ever.
And just how and who would you know who I voted for?
THE PROJECTION
THE DENIAL
THE DELUSION
today's gop
Well, looks like the GOP swept the field with their PROJECTION, DENIAL, and DELUSION. Too bad Democrats lost their mojo.
Yeah, yeah, we know it's all Trump's fault. Or Biden's fault. Or Harris' fault. Or Walz's fault. Or voters fault. Or, maybe, democracy just didn't work like it's supposed to.
Funny how the ones accusing others of projection, denial, and delusion regarging Harris's failure are they themselves the ones guilty of such.
No. Not true.
It's the fault of freakshows voting for freakshows.
Yes. It most certainly is. Now you can go ahead and have the last word.
If dems truly believe this is why they lost they’ve got tough times ahead.
Have to agree. And if I'm not mistaken, Biden said he was a transitional president. Which should have clued Dems in that he wasn't going to do 8 years. In reality, he didn't want to run in 2020 but he was their best bet to defeat Trump. Yes, she only had 105 days or so to campaign, she wasn't clear on economic improvements, which has factually improved, but not in-your-face, in-your-wallet feelings
What I found hilarious was Charlatan the Dog blaming Biden on Wednesday when it was HIS "interview" with Harris that was plastered every Friday thru Monday night during sports events concerning paying for trans-gender meds, operations for prisoners that helped dig her hole. Though he and his cohost were against it, just him and his big-mouth being a central figure in the commercial helped doom her with black and Latino voters. Why people listen to that loud-mouth J/A I'll never know, but he is a sort of influencer.
“If dems truly believe this is why they lost they’ve got tough times ahead.”
There are tough times ahead for all of us as the divisive nature of our country continues.
trump is the only beneficiary as it is evident we are not yet ready to elect a woman to the presidency. Not saying both his opponents did not have flaws, but ignoring trumps entire public history, his obvious lack of moral fiber, and his incessant disregard for the truth seemingly did not, does not matter.
Now that he has free reign, as unimaginable to some as that seems, we can only hope the results will not destroy honoring our history, will not corrupt our moral fiber, nor diminish our ability to discern what is true and what is right.
Emphasis on our, for regardless of the division, the vitriol, and even the fear and hatred, we collectively will determine where we go from here.
Hopefully we still remember our commonality should, and must, eventually outlast the puerile partisan polity.
Just a lonely voice..,Peace!
That should have been thought of, en masse, before people started voting. The media failed us and we failed ourselves. Even if Trump doesnt destroy democracy he will have destroyed our faith in it. By voting Trump in it says something depressing about our society. Blaming Harris or Biden will not cure the problem.
It appears that divisiveness come to an end on Tuesday. The only ones that are still pushing it are those that lost.
It's not, and never was about having a woman as president. The only ones that worried about the gender was, again, those that lost. It was about POLICY. Twice now the democrats have run a woman and both lost because their policy (or lack thereof) was not what the people wanted. One had a shitty policy and the other had no policy.
And that falls squarely on the party. They knew long ago that Biden wouldn't make it. He should have never been nominated even as a joke. But they did it anyway. The party screwed her over. Harris didn't have the backing of the people in 2020 and dropped out. 2024 she was "voluntold" to run. And the results reinforced the voice of the people from 2020.
I really hope you aren't referring to the SCOTUS ruling on immunity. If so, take another look at it. He does not have "free reign". He never did.
Once again, only pushed by those that lost. Just take a look around here on NT and the rest of social media. Those that lost are unhinged. And it's not anything new. These same people have been lashing out like that for quite a while now. Now, those that won? I will admit that some have not been the nicest in terms of communicating with others but, it's far better than what we saw from the winning side in 2020.
“By voting Trump in it says something depressing about our society.”
Tend to agree.
Perhaps the Pollyanna in me looks at how quickly the years pass with the hope that the coming administration cannot do irreparable damage to our country in short order. We’ve survived many instances of uncertainty when the hour seemed too dark to imagine the light of a renewal.
Speaking of time, it is certainly an important period where we collectively need to recalibrate our priorities. Said it before, but still believe we can and will be better under a new generation of leadership…at every level.
And that is where we still have a voice… rather than losing it in dissent to our present reality. It is what it is, but never lose sight of believing in what it could be.
“Those that lost are unhinged.”
My candidate lost. I don’t think ‘unhinged’ would describe the tenor of the post, but have come to expect that kind of response hereabouts.
As a WHOLE, those that lost are unhinged. Aside from the "free reign" statement, I never made it about you specifically.
“it is evident we are not yet ready to elect a woman to the presidency.”
I disagree. Speaking for myself i would have no problem voting for a woman, there is only one requirement, she has to have policies i agree with. Clinton didn’t, and harris didn’t.
You cant fix stupid. They have to fix themselves. Until that time they have to be beaten. We can see now that a lot of people are not up to the fight.
What I'm referring to is this ridiculous mea culpa act some Harris voters are engaging in.
Lol, ain't it cool?
It's hilarious. Placing blame on everything and everybody but where it belongs.
Standard MO.
It is funny to watch them eat their own. So much for Joes legacy. Shitty policies, kicked to the side and then blamed for losing the presidency. I would feel sorry for him but he doesn't realize just how much his own party screwed him.
Six months ago they were claiming with a straight face he was one of the top 10 Presidents ever.
Sixteen months ago, donors and leaders in the democrat party were telling Woodward that he was unfit. the man who saved democracy has become a partisan hack.
I know, it's 2020 all over again.. LOL (OH, wait)
IMO, there are a number of reasons that the dems got their asses whipped, some goes quite far back and other were decisions made in the last year or so.
The dem party has gone to far left, way to far left and as showed in the vote, minorities voted against the dems as well as whites. My opinion on this is that that American has always been center/right, center/left in no way has it gone far left or far right and the current dem party is far left currently and has been heading in that direction for some time, and along the way losing more and more dem voters. With groups in the party like the ‘’squad’’ making fools of themselves and alienating the working class in many cases. If I remember correctly two of the four lost their reelection bids and that should have sent a warning to the party, but deaf ears prevailed.
I keep a close watch on what happens in Indian country and though not mentioned in the news it was not only black, Hispanics, Asians that swung to Trump, Native American did as well and I know the reason and it comes down to patting us on the head and doing a few good things for us but the single most important items to us is our sovereignty and the government hold all the cards on that. We cannot do anything with our land without the BIA/Interior Dept giving its OK and that can take years of red tape when it should not take any time at all since it is OUR land. No businesss want to open on Indian land, if Walmart wanted to open a center on a rez it would take the BIA/DOI years to ok it if they ever did ok it, it’s doesn’t matter what we want on our land it’s the government choice and the red tape that crushes it.
The paternal handling of Indians by the government has got to come to an end and most Indian don’t see the dems doing that and many feel, OK we don’t like Trump he is an asshole but perhaps he may loosen those government reigns and let us develope our land like we see fit not how government seems fit which means no development.
Biden said he would be a transitional president and decided at the end to run for another term when it was obvious he was on the decline. He dropped out of the race after the disaster of a debate and the dems finally pushing him out. There was around 100 days left and Harris was appointed not selected/elected in a primary which IMO pissed of a lot of people and there is not way she could separate herself from the policies of the administration with a 36% rating and most anyone else would have lost. If Biden had dropped out like he said and the dems had the primary and selected a rep that the people wanted it could have been a much tighter race.
The US has always voted its pocket book and it always will along with the border that left the dems holding Aces and 8’s, a dead mans hand. When the working class is hurting they will vote for change, if they like the person they are voting for or not when Harris was chosen she did not represent change and it’s quite amazing that the party didn’t see that.
When the party is made up of very liberal or progressives they have no idea what the working class wants/needs or requires and IMO that is what the dem party has turned out to be. There are a lot of good people in the party especially the younger ones and the recent vets, time to listen to them and not the OTH gang or the radical fringes.
In all my years and I do not remember either party coming to the rez and saying, Hey, we are going to give you your sovereignty so you can use your own land as you see fit and get the government out of your lives. What ever party does that and follows through with it will have ten million new party members.
To be perfectly clear I am not a Trump fan, but I am a realist, he was elected by the majority of citizens and I’m not going to have a breakdown over it, we Indians have a long history of being able to survive.
Now that the die is cast, we’ll see if the Democratic Party will make the changes necessary to become viable again and if Trump can make good on his promises, and there are some pretty outrageous promises. I like the NO TAX thing but cannot in my wildest imagination see that come to pass.
The rubber now meets the road, and we will see if Trump can walk the walk or is it more political BS.
The blame for Trumps election goes to the people who voted for him , no one else.
Its only been three days and I'm already tired of people blaming the Democrats and acting like the Trump voters had no choice but to vote for him. It is ridiculous.
Sigh............Four years later and no covid keeping people at home, Kamala has 69,313,000 votes, Joe Biden got 81,283,000 million votes. do you think 12 million less votes is trumps fault or the DNC fault? or maybe just a shitty unlikable candidate?
Trump got roughly the same amount of votes in 2024 that he got in 2020, although that will change some in the final count, as will Harris numbers.
However, the 2020 was election was before Trump tried to steal the 2020 election and became a traitor. So in 2024 70 million plus people voted for that. That is my issue.
And 12 million democrats felt so disenfranchised, and that their candidate was so bad they couldn't vote for her, and that isn't the republicans or trumps fault.
“The blame for Trumps election goes to the people who voted for him , no one else.”
you can blame me and others like me if you want, but we aren’t the ones who put bad policies in place and we aren’t the ones who put up two really terrible candidates.
Mainly this
Yes, a known TRAITOR and you have alleged service members who voted for him.
What those attempting to throw all the blame on Trump and his base for Harris's loss seem to refuse to consider the reason/s why those independents and Democrats that would have voted for Biden/Harris and then Harris/Waltz at first wound up eventually deciding for Trump. In my opinion, the Democrats who voted for Harris are blaming the wrong person/s. The fault for the loss lies solely on Harris and her inability to galvanize her base with reasonable solutions for change and moving forward while Trump was able to connect with voters in the ways Harris failed to do. The election results are obvious proof of that. That is my opinion and I apologize in advance for stepping on toes and ruffling some feathers.
Thank you Ed for telling the truth here. Too bad some on here will not see the wisom of your woords and admit that it was Harris all by herslef that lost the election.
She sucked as a candidate and so did the dolt she picked as her VP.
BTW....His own hometown voted for Trump.
LOL
Who won?
You can be tired of it JR, but the face remains the dems got their asses kicked, period. I am no fan of Trump but I surely have a better handle on why minorities went for Trump than you or anyone that isn’t a minority.
What I outlined in my comment above is exactly why I feel that the dems lost. The dems lost to one of the worse candidates to every run for the office of President, that should deliver a huge message to the party, it they don’t understand it and who they have walked away from much of the working class and the inroads made by the republicans in minority communities they will never fricking be of any consequence in a national election.
In this country minorities have not had a great time, JR that is history and a cold hard fact, yet the the minorities are moving away from the dems because IMO, the paternal treatment and far left stance that has taken over the party. I have to be really honest, I don’t really give a shit about much of the current priorities of the dems, what bathroom someone uses doesn’t add up to the death rate of Indians because of very poor health care we receive. I don’t give a shit about the public schools and whether they have two free hot meals everyday, when Indian kids get the worst education and no fucking hot meals for free.
Do you think that we would be in the position that we are if we had control of our land/lives? Fuck no we would not. Do you understand that on the Rez that land really does not belong to us? It belongs to the government and is held in trust for us. Our, medical, education has been taken over by the feds and it sucks it is a way to keep on the Rez and dependent on the fricking government, be it dem or repub. I want to see change where we are actually treated like the rest of US citizens. We fight and die for this country daily yet we are held back by the same government that stresses independence and self worth. WTF is that about, the Great White Father In DC doesn’t do us any favors and we all have fathers and sure as hell don’t need anyone in DC taking that position.
Do you have any idea of the mineral rights and timber and oil on our land, or precious metals more than enough to make us real middle class instead of a fucking after thought. We spend much of our money on fighting the government, both state and federal over sovereignty issues and voting issues.
The feds make us wait decades for an answer to a request to be recognized federally, some of the tribes have waited 50 years or more for an answer when it comes it is a big NO. Think about that JR, the Duwamish have been turned down a number of times and Seattle is named after Chief Seattle and the Duwamish have a history in the US of well over 5,000 years in PNW but according to the feds where was a gap in their lineage of a few years caused by the government as the reason for turning them down WTF!!!
The Chinook have sent two of their tribal members as US Ambassadors to other countries yet they are told that there isn’’t enough history to have them recognized by the Feds, I guess that 3,000 years before any European saw America the Chinook had advanced thriving nation isn’t good enough for the Feds.
So, just to be sure that everyone understands if Trump stops the BS and recognizes legit tribes and there are hundreds and gives us what ever other American has, right to do what is needed on your own land then you can bet you ass that Indians will vote for him.
And your faith in that is based on what?
I am sympathetic to all of your points but dont see the correlation to THIS election.
American Indian issues were not on either party's agenda. And as you know better than anyone Trump does not give a damn about American Indian rights.
‘’And your faith in that is based on what?’’
Being an Indian for 80 plus years and dealing with this on a regular basis in lawsuits.
The correlation to this election is just like the last election, the Indian vote in some states carried the dems to victory in 2020, I didn’t think that you would need to be reminded of that. AZ, NV, WI, MN, MI, NM, etc
Trump IMO doesn’t give a shit about any groups rights, but you are mistaken about the agenda for the election, the Dems made numerous pitches to various tribes as did the repub. In fact, the republicans won NC didn’t they? It was the republicans that made a huge push for the Easter Band of Cherokee and the Lumbee the two largest tribes in NC plus some of the smaller tribes. Seems that they voted for Trump in fairly large numbers compared to the 2020 elections,
JR, you missed the whole point of my comments,
Telling. Very telling.
It will be the same thing as last time.
Excellent post. My theory is very similar. I call it the 10% theory. 10% on the far left, 10% on the far right. The other 80% of us are within 10% of the middle. Left or right. Unless you’re on the extremes, we have a lot more in common than different.
My maternal grandmother who raised used to frequently tell me she thought BIA was one of the most useless government organizations in existence. She believed that if the federal government had allowed NA's to handle their own affairs affairs it would have been a lot more efficient than under beurocraric interference of the BIA who she felt was never really cared what was best for the Nations.