Pelosi Blames Biden’s Timing as Democrats Reflect on Election Defeat

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pointed to President Joe Biden's delayed exit from the presidential race as a factor in the Democrats' disappointing performance in Tuesday’s election. In an interview with *The New York Times*, Pelosi expressed that if Biden had stepped down earlier, the party may have had better results. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said, adding her voice to a growing chorus within the Democratic Party assessing blame for the recent loss of the White House and potentially both chambers of Congress.

 

Pelosi is reported to have been one of the primary advocates pushing Biden to step down after a particularly poor debate performance against Donald Trump. Biden eventually ended his campaign in late July, endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris as his successor. However, Harris lost to Trump on Tuesday, a defeat some Democrats attribute to the president’s timing. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi noted, explaining that a competitive primary could have bolstered Harris’s candidacy and strengthened her prospects in the general election. “But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened,” she said.

 

Pelosi also remarked that Biden’s immediate endorsement of Harris essentially foreclosed the possibility of a primary, making it “almost impossible to have a primary at that time.” Had Biden exited earlier, Pelosi believes the race would have been more dynamic and beneficial for the party.

 

Harris aides have echoed Pelosi’s sentiments, suggesting that Biden’s delayed exit hampered the campaign. One unnamed Harris aide told *Politico*, “We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president. Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight.” However, a former Biden aide refuted this narrative, telling *Axios* that Harris's team was avoiding responsibility. “How did you spend $1 billion and not win?” the aide asked, adding an expletive for emphasis.

 

Further complicating matters, a former Biden aide told *Politico* that former President Barack Obama’s advisers had exacerbated tensions by promoting intraparty discord to hasten Biden's exit. According to this aide, the Obama camp “publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out” and didn’t fully support Harris as the nominee.

 

Several prominent Democrats have also weighed in, each highlighting different issues they believe contributed to the loss. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman criticized the faction that pushed Biden out of the race, suggesting they should bear responsibility for the election's fallout. “For those that decided and moved to break Biden, and then you got the election that you wanted, it’s appropriate to own the outcome and fallout,” he told *Semafor*.

 

In New York, Congressman Tom Suozzi said the Democrats' electoral struggles were partially due to an excessive focus on “being politically correct.” He argued that the party failed to effectively counter Republican criticisms on issues such as “anarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls' sports, and a general attack on traditional values.”

 

Similarly, Congressman Ritchie Torres criticized the “far left” for alienating a broad base of voters. He posted on X, “The far left managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx.’”

 

Meanwhile, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran as a Democrat in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, criticized the party leadership for losing touch with working-class Americans. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” Sanders wrote. He expressed doubt that Democrats would learn from their recent defeat.

 

In response, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison posted on X, refuting Sanders' critique, calling it “straight up BS.”

 

 

Based on a report by BBC 2024-11-11

 

 

 

[Cryingdick]

It wasn't Biden's timing. It was hers. She waited too long to oust him. In return Biden insta-endorsed Harris as a middle finger to the entire DNC. Jill shows up to vote in MAGA red dress and Joe shows up smiling, skipping along and singing zippity doo da to the speech. I guess Nancy didn't get the memo "Nobody effs with a Biden"

 

I guess she can put it in her pipe and smoke it.

[thaibeachlovers]

It's like something out of a very bad movie.

If Pelosi didn't prove before that she's a vile political hag, she has now, in spades.

[RichardColeman]

If I was Biden , I would really rub it in and make Harris president now, just so she has to hand over power to Trump 

[JonnyF]

All the Democrats (including some on here) are to blame for the narrative that he was "sharp as a tack" while he stumbled/fell around on stage slurring, making gaffe after gaffe.

 

If they had been more honest they would have had time to democratically nominate a suitable candidate instead of selecting DEI disaster Harris. 

 

Som Nam Naa. 

[Cryingdick]

53 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

If I was Biden , I would really rub it in and make Harris president now, just so she has to hand over power to Trump 

No. If she remains VP she has to certify the election for Trump. If Biden resigns he puts another poop stain on his legacy and he never wanted Kamala to win. No way he lets her become the first woman minority president even with an asterisk. 

 

That is fantasy land. 

[OneManShow]

She just want to blame someone for their loss. Democrats candidates were already disqualified at the beginning.🤔

Nancy circus. 

 

 

[deadbeat]

Everyone knew Biden was not up for it from at least 2020. Clear signs of dementia that wete obvious to anyone.

Without a teleprompter he was toast so what made her think that the american public would give him another 4 years?

[Luuk Chaai]

57 minutes ago, deadbeat said:

Everyone knew Biden was not up for it from at least 2020. Clear signs of dementia that wete obvious to anyone.

Without a teleprompter he was toast so what made her think that the american public would give him another 4 years?

must run in the "family" 

the Kamala 32 teleprompter fail

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=36e605349ca0773c&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS914US914&q=kamala+32+days+teleprompter+broke&tbm=vid&source=lnms&fbs=AEQNm0BKxFXqFZETuC92mLOmXO9xTuwl7LTqpjEikSHB2sNnAo_Nt6_jBoO5j_EG4ZXs8aQCufxT5WhqKxk_t3EFVMM67rI6i01ADbZ-a5wYaAsalDcO6S1GH-LO2-BpNO0GjKLJtZvaXL-Gbm83nbM1Onu3h4VelXiQNxWr1jTYhYDM2npiHIqg_ONcaOuMZMTYPAOQ4PXKxaYx9WmfDvLVpMnXqxI5iw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOspCTvdOJAxWIXWwGHdpwG2wQ0pQJegQICRAB&biw=1997&bih=972&dpr=0.96#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ce8b8e91,vid:iYAx_UZ_tcA,st:0

 

[spidermike007]

The blame game starts and the bottom line is that people like Pelosi and Biden and all these other dinosaurs need to be evicted from the Democratic party leadership and the party needs to be rebuilt. 

 

From an editorial in the NY Times. 

Jaime Harrison who runs the Democratic National Committee, will pass the baton in humility and bewilderment . . . but to whom?

Rep. Ro Khanna, a progressive considered a future presidential candidate, called for the party to start over. “There needs to be new thinking, new ideas and a new direction. And, you know, the establishment produced a disaster.”

 

It’s hard to know where to start.

Trump’s smashing win shows he has built a durable and diverse working-class coalition. He held strong with every voting bloc, and made gains with most. In 2020, he lost Latino men to Biden by 36 to 59 percent; this year, he won them 55 to 43. Many women voted for abortion rights ballot initiatives while supporting Trump, whose Supreme Court justices helped overturn Roe. Young men under age 30, whom Biden won by 15 points four years ago, now voted for Trump by 14 points. The entire country, including blue states, moved rightward.

 

This affirmed the GOP argument that Democrats are considered elitist and out of touch, speaking only to the 43 percent of the electorate with college degrees. They are seen as soft on crime, wrong on energy production, and as radical culture warriors who expect us all to welcome boys on to girls sports teams and say “birthing persons;” people who, in a quest for social justice, label everyone who disagrees with them bigots and racists.