Joe Biden is being blamed by Harris allies for the vice president’s tough loss

WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden’s The name wasn’t on the ballot, but history will probably remember it Kamala Harris’ a resounding defeat was also his loss.

As Democrats Collect the pieces following the elected president Donald Trump’s decisive victorySome of the vice president’s supporters are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to run for re-election by the summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — means the loss The White House has all but sealed his party’s decision.

“The greatest burden of this defeat falls on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful candidacy. “If he had resigned in January instead of July, we might be in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century and subsequently galvanizing international support for Ukraine Russia’s invasion and past a $1 trillion infrastructure bill This will impact communities for years to come.

But after running against Trump four years ago to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will give way after just one term to his immediate predecessor, who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction and an insurrection incited by his supporters . Trump has vowed to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe 20 or 30 years from now, history will remember Biden for some of these accomplishments,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the short term, I don’t know if he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump, only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

The president remained out of sight for the second straight day on Wednesday, making congratulatory calls to the Democratic lawmakers who won the election and to Trump, whom he invited to a meeting at the White House, which the president-elect accepted.

Biden will give a speech in the Rose Garden on Thursday about the election. Shortly after Harris gave her concession speech on Wednesday, he issued a statement praising Harris for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

Some senior Democrats, including three Harris campaign advisers, expressed deep frustration that Biden failed to recognize early in the election cycle that he was not up to the challenge. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Biden, 81, ended his re-election campaign in July, weeks after an abysmal debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to serve as a credible candidate.

But surveys long before have shown this Many Americans were concerned about his age. Accordingly, in August 2023, about 77% of Americans said that Biden was too old to be effective for four more years a survey from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

The President left on July 21st after receiving not-so-subtle nudges from powerhouses in the Democratic Party, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He advocated Harris and handed over his campaign operation to her.

Harris managed to generate far greater enthusiasm among the party’s base than Biden generated. But she had a hard time seeing how her administration would differ from Biden’s.

Harris will appear on ABC’s “The View” in September couldn’t identify myself a decision that would have seen her break up with Biden. “There’s nothing that comes to mind,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a ringing boost that was repeated on Election Day.

Strategists advising the Harris campaign said the compressed campaign schedule made it even more difficult for Harris to differentiate himself from the president.

Had Biden resigned earlier this year, Democrats would have had enough time to hold a primary, they said. An intraparty competition would have forced Harris or another possible candidate to more aggressively explore differences with Biden.

The strategists acknowledged that overcoming broad dissatisfaction among the American electorate over rising costs stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and widespread concern about the U.S. immigration system was weighing heavily on voters in key states.

Still, they said Biden had left Democrats in an untenable position.

Harris senior adviser David Plouffe a post on X called it a “devastating loss.” Plouffe has not assigned blame. He noted that the Harris campaign “dug out of a deep hole, but not enough.”

With the vice president Concession speech On Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had had more time to address American voters.

“I think that would have made a big difference,” said Jerushatalla Pallay, a Howard University student who attended the speech at the center of her campus.

Republicans are poised to control the White House and Senate. Control of the House of Representatives has yet to be determined.

Matt Bennett, vice chairman of the Democratic-aligned group Third Way, said the moment was the most devastating the party has seen in his lifetime.

“Harris was dealt a really bad hand. Some of it was Biden’s doing, some of it may not have been,” said Bennett, who served as an adviser to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. “Would Democrats have fared better if Biden had resigned sooner? I don’t know if we can say for sure, but it’s a question we’ll be asking ourselves for some time.”

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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.