Kamala Harris’ staffers were left angry and frustrated by attempts by the vice president and her campaign leaders to sugarcoat their election nightmare.
Harris was blasted for her “happy talk” after an all-in call on Thursday night to thank exhausted campaign workers.
“Yeah, this sucks... We all just speak truth, why don’t we, right?” she said, according to Axios. “There’s also so much good that has come of this” campaign.
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Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon was unable to contain her emotions, tearing up at the end of the call before rallying to say: “I don’t like emotion, I don’t do that. You are great people who have done a great thing, and you came really close.”
The remarks touched a sour chord with Democratic Party staff, who felt let down by the attempts at putting a positive spin on the disastrous night.
“It was detached from the reality of what happened,” one told Axios. “We are told the fate of democracy is at stake, and then the message was, ‘We’ll get them next time.’”
Quoting four people on the call, the report said campaign leaders begged staffers not to speak with the media in an apparent attempt to contain the internal bickering over the way the election was run.
A recording was leaked that same night, suggesting a deeper issue within the campaign.
There was said to be anger over the way the race was painted as a “margin-of-error” finish when it was such a clear-cut triumph for a man the Harris campaign had demonized.
“People are depressed and frustrated about the overconfident leadership of the campaign,” a Harris staffer told Axios. A former Biden worker added: “How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f---?”
The report suggested there was consternation within the campaign over how it allegedly ended up in debt despite raising more than $1 billion in just over three months. The campaign was reported to be at least $20 million in debt after the election.
The miserable aftermath of the 2024 presidential election has pitched Joe Biden and Harris loyalists against each other, with both sides blaming the other for the party’s poor performance with voters.
“The 107-day Harris campaign was nearly flawless. The Biden campaign that preceded it was the opposite,” a Harris staffer told Axios.
Biden’s aides hit back, claiming it was a mistake to try and sideline the president. “The Harris team benched [Biden] and then they lost, so now the people who represent Biden are saying, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have benched him,’” said a Democratic insider.
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