Joe Biden stood before millions of Americans still reeling from the news of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election and reassured them, “We’re going to be okay.”
Biden delivered a pep talk from the White House Rose Garden on a sunny Thursday in his first remarks since his vice president and successor-elect Kamala Harris lost the presidential election, but it was a devastating one. This conflicted with the dark mood of the Democratic Party following the recent election results. loss. Mr Biden pledged a smooth transition of power to Mr Trump and expressed confidence in the perseverance of the US test.
“Setbacks are inevitable, but we cannot afford to give up,” Biden said. “Defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling you to rise up. It has been the America of more than 240 years and will continue to be.” This is the story of
That message clashed sharply with dire warnings that many Democrats, including Biden, have been issuing about the dangers of a second Trump term. They predict that Trump’s return to power will endanger the very foundations of American democracy. They assured voters that President Trump would keep his promise to deport millions of illegal aliens. And they cast serious doubt on President Trump’s pledge to veto a nationwide abortion ban.
As we look ahead to four more years of President Trump’s term, Democrats must consider the reality that those warnings were in vain. In addition to winning the White House, Trump is on track to win the popular vote, becoming the first Republican to do so since 2004. Senate Republicans appear confident in their chances of regaining the majority and taking control of the House. Delegates say it’s still too close to call on Friday morning, with several important races still looming.
Democrats who thought this week would be a time of joy and celebration are disappointed, upset and furious at this bleak outcome. They are now heading into a brutal political wilderness, with current leaders weakened by aging and devastating defeats, and a younger generation that has not yet fully emerged.
The party also faces a potentially brutal civil war between leftists and centrists over the best path forward. This civil war will be fought over the levers of power within the party at every level, from the grassroots to the crowded hallways of Congress in all 50 states. In Washington.
Faced with harsh realities, the Democratic Party has had to ask itself the same questions over and over again. “How did we get here?”
Theories and accusations went from whispers to cries starting Wednesday. A few Democrats have suggested that Harris should have done more to distance herself from Biden, but given the roughly 100-day window to close her sizable lead with Trump, Harris Few party members appeared to criticize the candidate, who was credited with running the best possible campaign.
Some Democrats accused Mr. Biden of withdrawing from the presidential race in July after increasing pressure from his party following his disastrous debate performance against Mr. Trump. Jim Manley, a senior adviser to former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, said Biden should never have run for reelection.
“This is not the time to pull punches or care about anyone’s feelings,” Manley told Politico. “He and his staff have caused great damage to this country.”
In an even more damning indictment, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was praised for her role in forcing Biden to step down, suggested the party should have held an open primary.
Pelosi told the New York Times on Thursday that “there might have been other candidates in the race if the president had withdrawn earlier.” “We’re living with what happened, and the president’s immediate endorsement of Kamala Harris made it nearly impossible to hold a primary at the time. If it had been sooner. Things would have been different.”
A number of other Democratic leaders complained to reporters that Biden had put the party in a dire position by failing to consider widespread concerns about his age and unpopularity early on. (Mr. Biden will be 86 years old at the end of his second term, while Mr. Trump will be 82 years old at the end of his term.)
The White House pushed back against these complaints, framing the Democratic defeat in a more global context. Incumbency has been ousted around the world over the past year, a trend that experts attribute largely to anger and disillusionment caused by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent high inflation.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited this explanation at a press conference Thursday, noting that she still believes Biden “made the right decision” to resign.
“Despite our many accomplishments, there were global headwinds due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jean-Pierre said. “And if you look at what happened around the world in 2024, it dealt a political blow to a lot of incumbents.”
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Despite these headwinds, Democrats believe their communications strategy may have prevented a Republican victory. Party leaders are currently debating the role of new media and how powerful right-wing influencers, particularly in the so-called “manosphere,” helped propel President Trump to victory.
“We built the wrong machine,” Van Jones, a leftist, said in a Substack live chat, arguing that Democrats have focused too much on traditional media at the expense of fostering a left-wing media ecosystem. spoke.
Or, as progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders have argued, Democrats’ failure to respond to the concerns of working-class voters may have cost them the White House.
“It should come as no surprise that the Democratic Party, which has abandoned working-class people, now realizes that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said in a post-election statement. “In the coming weeks and months, those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have very serious political discussions.”
But who will lead those discussions? Biden will be 82 when he leaves the White House in January. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, now demoted to minority leader, will be 73, Pelosi will be 84, and Sanders, who won re-election on Tuesday, will be 89 by the end of his new term.
The party must now turn its attention to a new generation of leaders, but many argue that it should have launched this direction sooner. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who still harbors distant hopes of becoming speaker in January if his party wins a majority, could lead the charge. Progressive Democrats will likely look to popular members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to shape the party’s future. Other rank-and-file members point to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is already seeking to “stop Trump” in his state, as an example of resisting the new administration.
They will have a platform on which to operate, party leaders claim. Trump’s victory was devastating for them, but Democrats held on to at least three, and likely five, competitive seats in the Senate while holding back Republican gains in the House. Even if House Republicans retain their majority in the chamber, they will be forced to govern by narrow margins, but the last Congress turned out to be disastrous, leading to a significant Democratic victory in 2026. There is a possibility of smoothing the waves.
But for now, the Democratic Party, which poured its heart into making Harris the first woman, first Black woman and first Asian American woman president, appears exhausted. They have spent much of the past decade warning the nation about the dangers of President Trump and his political philosophy, only for a majority of American voters to send him back to the White House.
Trump’s first election victory sparked a wave of anger and protest among Democrats, but his second win appears to have drawn a sigh of relief from many of his critics. Now, Democrats are taking their time to grieve. And eventually, they will start picking up the pieces of their party.
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage
