BLAME GAME

Among Democrats, the soul-searching and finger-pointing has begun

- PHILIP ELLIOTT, BRIAN BENNETT, AND CHARLOTTE ALTER

KAMALA HARRIS HAS BEEN DEFEATED, Donald Trump is headed back to the White House, and the Democrats have begun soul-searching to determine what went so wrong in a landslide that saw the party lose ground across the nation.

There's plenty of blame to go around. Most of the finger-pointing hasn't been aimed at Harris, who ran a truncated campaign that was generally well regarded before the Election Day drubbing. Instead, some of the sharpest criticism focused on President Joe Biden for moving forward with a catastrophic re-election bid.

"The story might have been different if he had made a timely decision to step aside and allowed the party to move on," says David Axelrod, the strategist behind both of Barack Obama's presidential wins.

The frustration with Biden, many Democrats argue, should extend to members of his inner circle who shielded an 81-year-old President in physical decline. "I don't believe that Joe Biden believed he was diminished," says John Morgan, a Florida attorney and Biden donor. "Now, who may have known he was diminished were the sycophants around him in the White House."