The blame game for Kamala Harris’ loss is in full flow, with top Democratic staffers in Washington reportedly placing the blame at President Joe Biden’s feet.
Their reactions, as reported by Politico, come two days after Harris lost her bid for the White House some five months after unexpectedly joining the race.
While polls during the campaign showed the candidates neck-and-neck, Donald Trump soundly defeated his rival and is expected to take all seven swing states when all votes are counted.
“She ran an extraordinary campaign with a very tough hand that was handed to her,” Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh told Politico. “The truth of the matter is, Biden should have stepped aside earlier and let the party put together a longer game plan.”
“There was a Biden weariness,” James Zogby of the Democratic National Committee added. “And he hung on too long.”
Some Harris staffers even told NBC News they felt Biden’s mark on the race made it difficult to attract the party’s greatest minds to her campaign when it launched in late July.
“Nobody wanted to work for him,” an unnamed campaign official told the outlet. “It was dying.”
But others think finger-pointing isn’t the solution as Republicans gained control of not only the White House, but also the US Senate. They could even be poised to maintain control the US House of Representatives, though more than two dozen races have yet to be called as of Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not a pointing fingers day,” Marty Walsh, former secretary of labor under Biden, told Politico. “It’s a reflection day.”
Biden addressed the country on Thursday following Trump’s win.
He promised a “peaceful transition of power,” a remark that comes in the wake of January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol after the Republican falsely claimed the 2020 election results were fraudulent.
“We accept the choice the country made,” the president said.
Biden also praised Harris’s campaign, praising her character: “She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.”
Harris made similar remarks in her concession speech at Howard University, her alma mater, on Wednesday.
“The outcome of this election was not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say: the light of America’s promise will always burn bright, and as long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting,” Harris told her supporters.
“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it,” she added. “We owe loyalty not to a president or a party but to the Constitution of the United States.”