{"id":8314,"date":"2024-11-07T14:45:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T06:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=8314"},"modified":"2024-11-07T14:46:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T06:46:01","slug":"democrats-play-blame-game-after-devastating-harris-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=8314","title":{"rendered":"Democrats play blame game after devastating Harris loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"319\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20241107144349.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20241107144349.jpg 319w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u622a\u56fe_20241107144349-300x166.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 319px) 100vw, 319px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats spent the immediate aftermath of election night on Wednesday looking for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early hours of what one called a \u201cbloodbath,\u201d they repeatedly questioned how President-elect Trump and Republicans beat them for a second time. And who, they wondered, was responsible for such a stunning defeat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the most part, they did not direct arrows toward Vice President Harris, who many say ran the best campaign she could have run given the circumstances of her 100-day sprint following President Biden\u2019s withdrawal from the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there was some second-guessing on Harris\u2019s running mate pick of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who one operative said \u201cultimately offered next to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There also was some griping about how Harris\u2019s economic message largely fell flat. And larger discussions about the campaign\u2019s polling and how it missed Trump\u2019s growing coalition of Latino voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHow do you lose a campaign this badly?\u201d one Democratic strategist put it bluntly. \u201cFor weeks, they told us this campaign would be tight. And really, it wasn\u2019t even close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, many Democrats were sympathetic to Harris, saying they largely view her as a victim of economic headwinds and a president in Biden whose approval ratings were underwater at 40 percent. They said she simply did not distance herself from Biden on key issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris\u2019s allies largely rushed to her defense on Wednesday, trying to get ahead of a potential narrative of how the campaign unraveled. One source close to the campaign sought to explain how difficult a task Harris had before her when she rose to the top of the ticket in late July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDo you know how hard it was to come in and quickly steer the ship in the other direction with 100 days left on the clock?\u201d the ally said. \u201cI don\u2019t think people understand the complexity of that task. And there was no playbook for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic strategist Christy Setzer was sympathetic to the obstacles Harris faced, and said the candidate didn\u2019t deserve criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRight now, the only silver lining is that there seems to be a widespread understanding that this wasn\u2019t the fault of Kamala Harris or her campaign,\u201d Setzer said, adding that it was \u201cthe best campaign any of us has ever seen\u201d against Trump and still fell short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTrump had no ground game and ran only on rambling hatred,\u201d Setzer added. \u201cIf we couldn\u2019t pull it off here, there were much larger forces at play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, while Democrats reeling from the loss largely blamed the economy, some also said Biden bore responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These Democrats said the president and his team failed to hear the electorate\u2019s unease with rising costs and inflation. They also questioned his insistence to stay in the race despite concerns about his age and mental acuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA lot of us feel this could have been different if he decided not to run for a second term and if we had an actual primary,\u201d said one Democratic strategist. \u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of f\u2014ing ifs but we would have had a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The strategist acknowledged there had been a lot of second-guessing and finger-pointing behind the scenes in the final weeks of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden, a second strategist said, should have dropped out of the race well before the presidential debate in June, which inevitably led to his exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cListen, I love the guy. But it\u2019s not like that was the first time people noticed a decline,\u201d a second strategist said. \u201cThey were handling him with kid gloves for months and they bear some responsibility, if I\u2019m being straight with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The strategist and other operatives and Democratic donors pointed to the accommodations made for Biden to overcompensate for his age, including having the president ascend on a shorter staircase to reach Air Force One and donning \u201cmaximum stability\u201d sneakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe should have run for one term and then passed the baton?\u201d one donor asked. \u201cSurely, he knows he\u2019s not the only one who can beat Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Biden did withdraw, a onetime aide to former President Obama said Democrats should have held an open contest to replace him at the Democratic convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn a way, this decision to move Kamala to the top of the ticket was shoved down our throats,\u201d the former aide said. \u201cNo one thought she\u2019d win at the time. Why was this our only option?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said the party apparatus bears some responsibility for the loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,\u201d Sanders wrote in a post on the social platform X. \u201cWhile the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd they\u2019re right,\u201d Sanders added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there was criticism of the Harris campaign, it was that they ran an operation that relied too heavily on an outdated playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris\u2019s campaign frequently touted their strong ground operation, boasting about boots on the ground and doors knocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt the end of the day, it didn\u2019t even matter,\u201d said a third strategist who is in touch with the campaign. \u201cAlso, they need to answer why their polling was so off. Why were they telling us they had multiple paths to 270? Because they didn\u2019t win one of those states.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the most part, Democrats said their overall party apparatus needed a reboot from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the coming weeks and months, Democrats are going to need to have an honest conversation about who we think we are and what we stand for versus what the American people think we are and stand for because there is obviously a communication divide here and we need to address it,\u201d said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs we look at the autopsy of this, the mistake would be believing if we had only done this differently versus looking at all of the things that led to this defeat and giving each of them considerable weight,\u201d Mollineau added. \u201cThere\u2019s no one answer about why we find ourselves where we are today. There are more than a few, and each one of them needs to be delved into.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats spent the immediate aftermath of election night on Wednesday looking for answers. In the early hours of what one called a \u201cbloodbath,\u201d they repeatedly questioned how President-elect Trump and Republicans beat them for a second time. And who, they wondered, was responsible for such a stunning defeat? For the most part, they did not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2534,1883,2035],"class_list":["post-8314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-harris","tag-how","tag-they"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Democrats play blame game after devastating Harris loss - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=8314\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats play blame game after devastating Harris loss - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democrats spent the immediate aftermath of election night on Wednesday looking for answers. 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