Lindy Li, who sits on the Democratic National Committee finance committee, raked Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign over the coals, branding it a “$1 billion disaster” and called for accountability after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory,
Li at one point dropped an f-bomb during her television hit while venting that President Biden’s late-stage decision to drop out was a “f— you” to Democrat. She contended that she and others had been misled about Harris’ chances in the election.
“The truth is this is just an end epic disaster, this is a $1 billion disaster,” Li bluntly told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday.
“They’re $20 million or $18 million in debt. It’s incredible, and I raised millions of that. I have friends I have to be accountable to and explain what happened because I told them it was a margin-of-error race.”
Campaign filings have indicated that the Harris-Walz campaign took in at least $1 billion, and when combined with other aligned groups, the total was well over $1.6 billion. Notably, there is still another filing due for the month of October. Politico reported that the campaign was $20 million in the hole after Nov. 5.
Li is far from the only Democrat pointing fingers. Across the board, Democrats have been stunned by the scale of the loss last Tuesday and engaged in a mix of soul-searching and blame-trading. Trump appears poised to have gained ground in every state except Washington since the 2020 election.
Some are blaming Biden or the Harris-Walz campaign strategy. In other instances, prominent progressives have wrestled with concerns about identity politics, backlash to wokeism, patronizing messaging, elitism and lack of an exciting agenda paved the way for Trump’s victory.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for instance, accused the party of abandoning working-class votes and becoming defenders of the status quo.
“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,” Sanders wrote in a fiery takedown of the party last week.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) argued that Democrats’ “tent is too small” and that elites of the party have “shunned” populists.
“A firm break with neoliberalism. Listen to poor and rural people, men in crisis. Don’t decide for them. Pick fights. Embrace populism. Build a big tent. Be less judgmental. But we are beyond small fixes,” he wrote on X.
Others have highlighted the fact that incumbent political leaders around the world have faced losses and electoral setbacks in recent elections due to blowback over inflation. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) countered that it was a “winnable” election for Democrats.
“Even when Biden got out, VP Harris was 5 points up in some of the polls. Anybody who is saying now that this wasn’t a winnable campaign didn’t say that back in August,” Khanna told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.
Khanna also suggested that the Israel-Hamas war hampered Harris’ performance with the progressive base.
Democrats are desperate to learn from their mistakes so that they could put themselves on a stronger political path heading into the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential elections.
In the run-up to Election Day, Harris had publicly cast herself as the “underdog” in the race and her campaign repeatedly warned that the contest would be a nail-bitter.
Biden, 81, had dropped out of the race on July 21 amid a mutiny from Democrats sparked by his fumbling debate performance. He promptly endorsed Harris, 60, to become the standard bearer, who locked up the nomination in a matter of weeks by winning over party insiders.
Back in July, Li had been defensive of Biden hailing him as a “class act and the consummate leader” and complaining on July 18 that “Biden is the MOST successful President of my lifetime.” She later said that she was “in shock” that Biden dropped out, but noted there was “uniformal relief” from donors he dropped out.
On Saturday, Li ripped into the way in which Biden went down, suggesting that his rapid endorsement of Harris was an “f you” to his fellow Democrats. Fox News censored her accidentally dropping the f-bomb on air and Li later restrained herself from using it again.
“I actually think President Biden, the whole endorsing her 30 minutes after he dropped out, I think that was a big, ‘F you’ to the party. ‘If you don’t want me, here’s somebody you may not like, deal with it,’” Li said.
“Kind of like sticking it to the man.”
Last week, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is widely believed to have played a key role in pushing out her fellow octogenarian Catholic Democrat, similarly panned the way Biden exited.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told “The Interview,“ a New York Times podcast. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
Li groused that she was “misled” about Harris’ chances by top brass, including campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
“I was promised… Jen O’Malley Dillon promised all of us that Harris would win,” she complained. “She even put videos out saying that Harris would win. I believed her, my donors believed her, and so they wrote massive checks. I feel like a lot of us were misled.”
O’Malley Dillon later sent out a memo to staffers reflecting on the loss.
“You stared down unprecedented headwinds and obstacles that were largely out of our control. We knew this would be a margin of error race, and it was,” she wrote to the team.
“The whole country moved to the right, but compared to the rest of the country, the battleground states saw the least amount of movement in his direction. It was closest in the places we competed.”
Trump, 78, had scored an even more resounding victory on election night 2024 than he had in 2016, sweeping all seven battleground states and winning the largest quantity of popular votes for a Republican presidential hopeful in US history.
Meanwhile, Democrats are mired in a blame game and widespread finger-pointing over their stunning loss.
Trump is set to meet with Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
