Democrats begin blame game over devastating loss

Democrats and political talking heads have initiated the circular firing squad as they search to blame anyone else for Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.

- GRAIG GRAZIOSI

Vice-president Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party lost the White House, lost the Senate, and still may lose the House. The Supreme Court has a conservative majority that handed Trump a presidential “get out of jail free” card for almost anything he does in office between 2025 and 2028.

So, who is to blame?

Some Democrats think swapping Joe Biden for Ms Harris was their deadly mistake. Others have blamed Mr Biden himself, saying he took far too long to drop out. Progressives point to the Biden administration's stance on Israel and the Ms Harris campaign's attempts to appeal to moderates and anti-Trump Republicans.

Maybe it's not a single person, but the issues themselves; some analysts have argued that US citizens resonated with Mr Trump's stances – however sometimes disturbing – on immigration, on the economy, on foreign wars.

Here are the leading scapegoats Democrats and analysts are trying to serve up to enraged liberal voters:

Harris and the Democratic Party

The vice-president has never had a showing as a strong national candidate. She lost her primary race in 2020, and took the reigns from Mr Biden without a primary or any other input from actual voters. Ms Harris was appointed the 2024 Democratic Party presidential candidate; she was not elected to that role.

Ms Harris's campaign hung its hopes on voters from marginalised backgrounds and women – including Republican women concerned about their abortion rights – to come through for her on election night. But that does not appear to have panned out, with Black men and Hispanic voters moving towards Mr Trump.