CNN
—
A short-lived campaign born of political upheaval weeks before the party’s national convention. A news organization that held Kamala Harris to a higher standard than Donald Trump. The hurricane “messed up” two weeks of election campaigning.
Harris’ campaign leaders defended their decision in interviews published Tuesday, blaming a variety of external factors for the Democrat’s defeat three weeks ago.
“There was a cost to the short campaign,” said David Plouffe, a senior adviser to Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee in the summer after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
Three weeks after the election, Plouffe and three other Harris advisers spoke for the first time on the liberal podcast Pod Save America. They argued that the 107-day campaign did not give Ms. Harris time to differentiate herself from Mr. Biden and deliver a message that would warm up a chilly political climate for Democrats. Harris’ aides have expressed no apparent regrets, suggesting the vice president might have fared better had she had more time.
“It was hard to do what needed to be done in a 107-day campaign,” said campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who criticized Trump for spending too much time attacking Trump and warning voters. refuted the claim. We don’t know what a second term will bring, but it’s not enough to make a positive case for Harris.
“The idea that people are so well-constructed and already wired about President Trump that they don’t need to learn anymore is completely false,” Dillon said.
None of the campaign officials called out Biden by name, but they repeatedly cited political “headwinds” and touted how much Harris needs to bounce back to be competitive. .
“Every time she spoke to voters, every time she stood on the stump, she was committed to her vision. But the headwinds were tough,” Dillon said. “In the areas where she campaigned, we did much better than the rest of the country.”
Harris herself spoke about the race in a call with grassroots supporters on Tuesday. The vice president seemed unwilling to shift blame, but suggested that the short campaign had hindered his chances.
“The outcome of this election is obviously not what we wanted. It’s not something we worked hard for, but we’re proud of the race we ran and appreciate your support in this race. The role was important,” Harris said. “What we accomplished in 107 days was unprecedented.”
Campaign leaders also dismissed the idea that “Pods Will Save America” should have been a direct response to President Trump’s chilling attack ads on transgender rights, but the ads were Kamala is for them,” it concludes with the memorable line. President Trump is on your side. ” The spot featured Harris’ own words and emphasized her support for taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery for transgender prisoners.
“If we had the belief that if we had responded to this trans ad with ads in battleground states nationwide, we could have won,” Plouffe said. “I don’t think that’s true.”
Quentin Fawkes, deputy campaign manager, acknowledged that the ad was helpful to President Trump.
“It was clearly a very effective ad in the end,” Fulks said. “I think that made her feel out of place.”
But Harris campaign planners dismissed suggestions from some Democrats that her failure to respond to ads after the election played a major role in her defeat. Advisers said they had tested several responsive ads, but none were deemed particularly effective in focus groups.
“We took this very seriously,” Plouffe said, adding that it would not determine the outcome of the election. “This is not driving voter behavior like the economy.”
In a wide-ranging conversation with podcast host and former adviser to Barack Obama, Dan Pfeiffer, Harris’ aides discussed key decisions made during the campaign, including extensive outreach to moderate Republicans in the final weeks of the campaign. Defended strategic decisions.
“Of course we want to maximize our footprint, and that’s where we’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and a lot of resources. That’s important,” Plouffe said. “We need to combine that with control in the center. We can’t just win a little bit. We have to monopolize the moderate vote.”
Stephanie Cutter, another senior adviser to Harris, said the vice president is ready and happy to finally appear on Joe Rogan, the popular podcast that features President Trump and has the support of the host. He said he plans to appear on the show. She said they were unable to reach an agreement on a schedule.
“Has anything changed?” Cutter said. “It would have been topped by the fact that she was doing it, not because of the conversation with Joe Rogan.”
Mr. Cutter and Mr. Dillon also criticized the “traditional media” for not pressuring President Trump to hold a full-fledged policy conference.
“Trump did none of those things,” Cutter said. “Literally nothing,” Pfeiffer added.
Dillon concluded: “It doesn’t matter.”
“We heard a lot of terrible things about her not doing enough media work,” Cutter said.
They also criticized Harris for asking what reporters described as lazy or irrelevant questions during several high-profile interviews.
“We ended up doing an interview, and in Stephanie’s opinion, the questions were small and process-oriented,” Dillon said.
“That was ridiculous,” Cutter said. “You’re just an idiot.”
“They didn’t inform the voters who wanted to know more, who were listening to understand,” Dillon said.
CNN’s Ebony Davis contributed to this report.
