Democrats are criticising President Joe Biden over Kamala Harris’ defeat at the hands of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, as astonishment turns to fury and blame in the aftermath of a shattering rejection.
Lawmakers and strategists searching for someone to blame for Tuesday’s debacle have been more likely to target President Joe Biden than Harris, who is thought to have done a good job with the limited time she had to campaign.
Trump’s victory was matched by a Republican “red wave” in the Senate—has proven to be a Rorschach test, with different factions each proposing reasons for the setback influenced by their own brand of Democratic politics.
The backlash began with progressive senator Bernie Sanders stating in a stinging statement that a party that had abandoned the working class should not be surprised to “find that the working class has abandoned them.”
That elicited a strong response from Democratic National Committee chairperson Jaime Harrison, who slammed Sanders’ theory as “straight up BS” and tweeted a long list of Biden’s accomplishments for low-income families.
New York congressman Ritchie Torres criticised the left’s smug political correctness, claiming that Trump had “no greater friend” than activists who alienated people with “absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’… or ‘Latinx.'”
Harris has dodged the sharpest criticism, as she is perceived to have had inadequate time to campaign due to Biden’s original insistence on running again at the age of 81, despite having promised to be a bridge to future generations.
The ageing president’s sluggishness in withdrawing following a bad debate performance against Trump exacerbated the challenge, as Harris had to launch her campaign in July as a relative unknown, despite being vice president.
Billionaire former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who believes Biden’s campaign should never have advanced to the June 27 debate, criticised the president’s team in a blog for Bloomberg for hiding up his flaws “until they became undeniable on live TV.”
Other Democrats cited the continued economic repercussions of the coronavirus outbreak, which prompted governments to collapse around the world due to discontent over rising inflation.
Biden heaped accolades on his vice president at a televised White House address Thursday.
“She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran,” he told the nation.
While there was little she could have done to address post-pandemic pricing increases, many congressional Democrats told reporters behind the scenes that Harris’s staff overrated abortion access as an election winner and fell short on the economics.
Another critique is that Harris failed to disassociate herself from Biden once she was given the torch, despite his low support ratings of 40%.
This was demonstrated by her response that “not a thing comes to mind” when asked on a daytime chat, showing how she may have governed differently than her boss.
Other critics argue that she chose the wrong running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
However, there is little evidence that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro would have been more helpful in helping Harris win the primarily white, working-class Rust Belt.
Harris has also been chastised for not being more explicit in disavowing the leftist ideas she held in 2019 and explaining why she shifted so significantly to the middle.
According to this argument, Harris’ outreach to Republicans, together with her guarantee that “my values have not changed,” were insufficient to persuade voters that they were seeing the real lady and understanding what made her tick.
Despite all of the discussion about the need to learn lessons, some Democrats were eager for the bloodletting to end so that the focus could shift back to defeating Trump. ”
“Listen, I’m all in for the messaging/strategy biopsy. Need to build a bigger tent; use economic populism as the tentpole; be less judgemental and exclusionary,” Chris Murphy, a US senator from Connecticut, posted on X.
“But folks, Trump might not be lying about the roundups and political prosecutions. Job one is to get ready for that.”
