Democrats continue to blame and point fingers following Vice President Kamala Harris’s electoral loss to Republican President-elect Donald Trump early Wednesday.
While certification by the states continues through Dec. 12, 2024, Trump appears to have achieved an Electoral College landslide victory, leading 312 votes against Harris’s 226, as well as winning the popular vote. Harris campaign staff and Democratic donors and elected officials are now attempting to spin the fallout of Harris’s unsuccessful 107-day campaign.
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, released a letter Wednesday slamming the party for abandoning working class Americans. Voters without college degrees backed Trump 56%-42% over the vice president, according to NBC News battleground exit polls.
“It shall come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which had abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders wrote. “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well.”
It 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.
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.
And they’re right. pic.twitter.com/lM2gSJmQFL
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2024
Trump made major electoral gains with Hispanic men by a 55%-43% margin over Harris, the 2024 battleground exit polls show, a seismic shift from President Joe Biden’s 59%-36% lead over Trump in 2020. Trump also outperformed his 2020 election results among black men, and increased support from urban areas such as Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right,” Sanders said in his statement.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to Sanders in a New York Times podcast interview Thursday evening, saying she does not “respect” his take on Harris’s loss. Pelosi also noted “Bernie Sanders has not won” his previous bids for the presidency.
“Let me, with all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him, for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families,” Pelosi said.
“For example, under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work. What did, what’s his name?” Pelosi continued, seemingly forgetting Trump’s name. “What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America.”
‘BERN’ING BRIDGES: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemingly forgets President-elect Trump’s name as war of words erupts between her and Sen. Bernie Sanders following the results of the 2024 election. pic.twitter.com/1qDR1wSnT2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 10, 2024
Sanders stood by his criticism of the Democratic Party when pressed Sunday by CNN’s Dana Bash.
“Oh, absolutely,” Sanders told the CNN host when asked if he still believed the accusations from his Wednesday statement. Sanders went on to praise Biden before reiterating his belief that working class Americans are “angry.”
JUST IN: Bernie Sanders tells CNN he stands by his belief that Kamala Harris lost because Democrats have abandoned the working class, adding that the common man is angry. This comes after the Democratic National Chair labeled his reaction as “bullshit,” and Nancy Pelosi blasted… pic.twitter.com/JQjbFAXNUM
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) November 10, 2024
Nationwide exit polls revealed 73% of Americans said they are “angry” or “dissatisfied” about the state of the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration. Approximately 59% of Americans likewise said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance.
NBC EXIT POLL:
73% of Americans say they’re “angry” or “dissatisfied” about the way things are going under Biden-Harris.
59% say they disapprove of Biden’s job performance.pic.twitter.com/U8LeHemaOB
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 10, 2024
Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who joined the Harris campaign as a senior adviser, removed his X (formerly known as Twitter) account after taking a dig at Biden.
“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough. A devastating loss,” Plouffe wrote before the deletion.
Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe appears to delete his X account after taking a dig at Biden.
“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough. A devastating loss.” pic.twitter.com/tTtH5fJmyF
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 7, 2024
Another Harris aide told Politico, “We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president. Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight.”
Harris aides are blaming Joe Biden for Kamala Harris’ loss:
Chris Wallace: “One Harris aide now telling Politico:
Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost.”
Kristen Soltis Anderson: “Fair amount of the blame does fall on Joe Biden. Kamala Harris was dealt… pic.twitter.com/fte1ZddgHi— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) November 9, 2024
Lindy Li, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) official who raised millions for Harris, called the campaign a “one-billion-dollar disaster.”
“I believed her. My donors believed her. And so we wrote massive checks,” Li told Fox News co-host Will Cain of Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. “I feel like a lot of us were misled.” (RELATED: ‘I Don’t Know How To Handle This’: Harris Supporters Post Videos Of Themselves Weeping After Trump’s Victory)
Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who left the Democratic Party in May, blamed Trump’s win on Biden and Harris, particularly their administration’s green energy policies and electric vehicle (EV) mandates.
“They made us look weak around the world,” Manchin said Saturday of Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdraw and the border crisis.
“They want to push out EVs. I said, ‘Are you crazy?’” Manchin told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. “That’s the problem you all have. You cannot force on me to spend my money that I work for on things I don’t want.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, who left the Democrat Party, blasts VP Kamala Harris for failing to take responsibility for her mistakes.
He really doesn’t like the Biden admin’s EV mandates.
“I said, none of this makes sense at all!”
“I have told him I couldn’t take it no more.” pic.twitter.com/FrD9SHXNdE
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 10, 2024
“I said, ‘None of this makes sense at all!’ And that’s what we’ve been fighting. And that’s the disagreement we’ve had,” Manchin said. “I’ve been upfront with him. I have told I couldn’t take it no more. I said, ‘I cannot stay in this party and have identification as a Democrat.’”
Manchin told Kilmeade he wants Trump, who he called “my president,” to succeed.
BRIAN KILMEADE: “Would you join the Trump administration if he asked you?”
JOE MANCHIN: “I want my president — and guess what? Donald Trump is my president now. I want him to succeed…” pic.twitter.com/xL5UWiHCFv
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 10, 2024
Chris Kofinis, Manchin’s former chief of staff, told The Washington Post that Democrats will continue to get their “ass kicked” as long as they continue pandering to “elites.”
Chris Kofinis, former chief of staff to Sen. Joe Manchin III, to WaPo: pic.twitter.com/dNJTiRQtZx
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) November 10, 2024
“It’s very simple: If you try to win elections by talking to the elites of this country, you’re going to get your ass kicked — there are not enough Beyonces, Oprahs or Hollywood elites to elect anyone,” he told the outlet.
“Trump is not the disease. He is the symptom,” Kofinis continued. The disease is political, cultural, and economic elites who keep telling the public what they should think, feel and believe — and guess what they told them on Tuesday: Go to Hell.”