In the aftermath of the wrenching 2024 elections, the halo that once surrounded former President Joe Biden seems to be fading faster than a mirage. Alongside him, Kamala Harris, erstwhile Vice President, likewise appears to be descending from apotheosis into practical oblivion. During the strenuous presidential race, the Democratic Party managed to demonstrate a united front, lavishing Biden with undeserved praise regarding his intellectual prowess and seemingly unique abilities to steer the ship of state.
Kamala Harris, the vice presidential sidekick, was lauded equally for her diligence, responsibilities, and achievements. However, this image faded quicker than the applause on their defeat. It turned out that, behind the scenes, the Democrats’ ship was far from steady, rife with internecine squabbling and finger-pointing.
In the teeth of a devastating electoral loss, Harris accused Biden’s team of ignoring her, of falling to realize how integral her success was to Biden’s image. Essentially, she spilled the beans on the internal conflicts tarnishing the Biden administration’s façade. Surprisingly, the Biden team didn’t hold back, asserting that Harris was all talk and no action.
According to various members of the Biden caravan, Harris was far from adept at her job, habitually complaining, avoiding actual work, and demonstrating a palpable level of incompetence. Somewhat defensively, Harris claimed that Biden’s team failed to comprehend that her successes graphed directly onto his. Speaking out of both sides of her mouth, she strategically suggested that if she did well, the perception of Biden’s age and potential infirmity would be mitigated.
This debacle moved from bad to worse when Harris further lambasted the Biden faction for failing to defend her against criticism. According to her, the ‘porous’ border issue that had troubled not only Democratic but also Republican administrations should have been hers to rest on her shoulders alone. She conveniently overlooked the clear fact that the border problem had been materially improved under President Donald Trump until Biden’s team reintroduced their ill-thought-out, pro-illegal-alien stance.
Ironically, Harris had come ingloriously unstuck in the 2020 Democratic race, with not a single delegate to show for her efforts. When she was subsequently crowned as the Democratic candidate in 2024, it was less a product of democracy and more the calculated decision of the party elites and bureaucracy, divorced from the will of the rank-and-file members.
Parallel to these revelations, others pointed their fingers at Harris herself. She was notorious for being a difficult taskmaster, a reputation that her staff, marked by the high attrition rate, seemed to second. According to a Daily Mail report, there’s nothing but ‘venom’ flowing in the direction of Harris among Biden insiders.
The tension within Biden’s camp escalated further when Harris accused Biden of ‘recklessness’ in his decision to run for re-election in her new memoir. A quoted Biden ‘insider’ had less-than-flattering words for her, characterising her claims as a ‘sloppy, sort of craven, relatively unsophisticated attempt at deflecting blame.’
Another critic among the Biden insiders labeled her as simply ‘whining’ about her unsuccessful presidential campaign. It was apparently easier for Harris to lay blame elsewhere rather than confront her failure in pursuit of the nation’s highest office.
Adding to her litany of grievances, Harris also expressed distress that Biden, who withdrew after a disastrously failed debate with President Donald Trump, didn’t give her a mention until nearly nine minutes into his 11-minute speech. The striking absence of any early mention of Harris in his speech underscores the deep-seated problems within the Democratic camp.
The back-and-forth among the former President and Vice President paints a distressing picture of a fractured Democratic Party. In recapitulating this saga of the Democratic Party’s downfall in the 2024 presidential race, it is clear that their defeat resulted not only from a lack of vision but also a significant deficit of unity and cohesion.
This ongoing circus of accusation and counter-accusation further undermines the credibility of both Biden and Harris, it’s evident that their acclaimed camaraderie during the 2024 presidential race was merely a charade. Instead of viable leadership, the democratic party offered up a flagging will to power full of spectacle but empty of substance.
It is a sobering reminder that the foibles and failures of political figures are not so easily swept under the carpet. Rather, they can and will return to haunt, as is evident from the post-election spectacle unfolding between Biden and Harris. It remains to be seen how this dramatic saga ends and the lasting impact that it may have on future Democratic campaigns.
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