The Democratic Party is a mess. They don’t have a message or a unified party, which makes for poor strategizing when taking on the well-oiled machine that is the Trump White House. The total capitulation on the budget fight is the clearest example of Democrats in total disarray. Yet, these structural flaws could be traced back to the 2024 election, where there are lingering internal squabbles over the expulsion of Joe Biden from the 2024 ticket. Still, even then, the former president reportedly continued to hamstring Kamala Harris, where some are noting how Slow Joe was always an albatross around her neck.
“No daylight” was the mantra, and Mr. Biden expected Harris to protect his legacy as opposed to do what she needed to define herself to voters, who knew little about why she was even running for president. Joe might have been half braindead, but his crew did everything to sabotage Harris. The following is an excerpt from "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes:
He would say publicly that Harris should do what she must to win. But privately, including in conversations with her, he repeated an admonition: let there be no daylight between us. “No daylight” was the phrase he had used as a vice presidential candidate in 2008 to bind Republican nominee John McCain to an unpopular president, George W. Bush.
Almost everywhere she went, Harris walked among former Biden aides who sought to defend his presidency. Her campaign was run by a former White House deputy chief of staff — whom she had just empowered to box out her own confidants — and a phalanx of department heads who had served Biden until the previous month.
The day before Harris’s first interview, a joint appearance with [Vice Presidential nominee] Tim Walz, she dived into the recurring question of whether and when she would let daylight shine between herself and Biden. Veteran Democratic communications strategist Stephanie Cutter launched into a proposed preamble — a list of all the items that made Harris proud of her work with Biden.
“Wait, wait, wait!” said Sean Clegg, a longtime Harris adviser who was regarded with suspicion by the Biden holdovers running the campaign. “Let’s not do this. Let’s not go down memory lane.”
That was the last time he was invited to media prep. Cutter, another Harris confidant later joked, cut him out.
[…]
Her rallies and convention speech had not answered the question of why she was running for president — or how her vision for the country would deliver for voters — other than having been next in line. She was running out of major moments to explain a vision to a broad audience. Her September 10 debate with Trump would offer another opportunity — perhaps a last chance before voters cast early ballots — to establish that key part of her narrative.
But the day of the debate Biden called to give Harris an unusual kind of pep talk — and another reminder about the loyalty he demanded. No longer able to defend his own record, he expected Harris to protect his legacy.
Whether she won or lost the election, he thought, she would only harm him by publicly distancing herself from him — especially during a debate that would be watched by millions of Americans. To the extent that she wanted to forge her own path, Biden had no interest in giving her room to do so. He needed just three words to convey how much all of that mattered to him.
“No daylight, kid,” Biden said.
First, Joe Biden, you’re a selfish clown. You had no legacy, man; it was already a failed one in the eyes of voters. There was nothing to defend. Second, while Joe was more concerned about his place in history than his party’s health, I doubt Kamala Harris would have had the political acumen to define herself to voters, make her case, and appear viable, given her many awkward social quirks and abject stupidity on the issues, even without the chains slapped on her by Biden.
Still, we know things are tense between the two sides, which has spilled out among Democrats writ large as to who is to blame. It’s part of the long list of things the Left blames for going south in 2024. There wasn’t a single internal Democratic poll with Kamala ahead of Trump during her run. Could that have changed if Biden told her to do what’s best for her candidacy? On paper, sure, she lost, so there’s only one way to go when you hit rock bottom, but Harris is also a proven political loser who couldn’t string a sentence together. There’s going to be a lot of revisionist nonsense from the Left vis-à-vis Trump and Biden. Still, maybe this is another sign that Democrats were doomed from the start and that beating the Republicans in 2024 was always going to be a long shot now that all the data sets have been released.
Editor's Note: The 2024 election post-mortem continues to be disastrous for Democrats and their party, and while they fight amongst themselves over their agenda, President Trump is making America great again.
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