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Sounds like an excuse. She could've had a different stance but didn't. Because she's the same thing. She was asked point blank how she's any different than Biden and she couldn't answer.
Suddenly her campaign choices make a lot more sense...
It's ridiculous to think that Harris couldn't have done what she wanted. Once you're named the nominee, that's it. They're not going to back out.
If she was unwilling to break from him because of his wishes, even if she was theoretically able, that speaks volumes about her as a leader.
The problem was her campaign was largely run by Biden's people. He clearly was interfering with her campaign and she kept trying to make the most of it.
I mean, that was the line from centrists anytime someone wanted any hope from harris that she might be less of a lapdog for netanyahu than biden was.
The way democrats talk: "We're turning the page and letting the daylight in!"
The way democrats act with a majority: "We couldn't get any daylight this time, but we did pass these bipartisan flashlights which are known to explode occasionally due to republicans demanding amendments be added to the batteries."
"We've also means tested the flashlights, so those who recall the time before the great darkness get less of the flashlights, and anyone who has flashlights that explode will be required to have a daily check of their pupils to ensure they've been good at not looking at the daylight."
Honestly, I kinda don't buy the idea Biden controlled Harris. Biden could have in 2008, but not in 2024. We all saw his term. He could be great, but when he slowed and floundered, it hampered his goals.
I'm torn between:
"I don't think an adult woman would instantly bind herself to an old man, she can have bad ideas on her own."
"I don't think she had everything planned out, she took advice from those around her, and the advice was shit but it's hard to get anything from outside this POV without getting even worse feedback."
But either way, I'm kind of glad that parts of the DNC is admitting fault after royally fucking up a second time and giving us Trump again. But I was also told they learned mistakes from 2016, and clearly they didn't, and must have fired everyone who did.
I wish Harris won merely as a stop-gap who is younger and more coherent, maybe could have gotten someone better next primary. Would have been messy and I would prefer anyone else, but not as bad. But it wouldn't have stopped the fascist uprising we're having, just keeping the cyst growing until it popped. If Biden didn't get Trump arrested, I doubt Harris would have, despite her history.
I wish she had won too. Didn't really like her but she was miles ahead of trump. I don't think you should be torn between the two, I think it was both. She listened to some very bad advice and believed the information she had at hand.
Let's blame Joe so Kamala can run again.
Not fooling me, DNC. I smell what you're cooking.
She's free to run again, but this time she has to win the primary. And that's unlikely. It's rare in modern times for someone to lose a Presidential election and get another shot at it, Nixon and Trump are the only two in over a hundred years.
You seem to forget what they did to sanders. If they want a specific candidate they will make sure they win.
Same reaction here, and the DNC is just dumb enough to do it.
Well, there probably won't be any more elections, so there's that.
Yeah, I bet we won't even have mid terms in 2 years
I want to tell myself that there's no way in hell they would let this happen, let alone make it happen.
Then I remember it's the DNC.
It’s not like they colluded to kneecap Bernie’s campaign. Wait…
Twice.
Kamala or Buttigeig, you can bet on it.
Seriously, go to Vegas. At least you'll make money on the end of the world.
Buttigeig is likely going to run given that he is giving up his chance at a Senate seat.
I feel like Walz is going to run as well. He's been showing up in national media a lot and seems to be becoming the face of the opposition.
Newsom seems like he's going to run as well, but he's been making terrible choices recently.
Newsom seems like he’s going to run as well, but he’s been making terrible choices recently.
Yeah, he's trying to become the preordained nominee by making choices party leadership likes.
This guy gets it. Speaking as a Californian, this is exactly, precisely what's happening. I don't use this term a lot because it resurfaces trauma of not realizing I was posting in a thread on Hexbear, but Newsom is straight up the textbook definition of a shitlib. He's always kinda been a shitlib, with a ratio of one kinda okay decision to like four disappointing, mediocre, and shitty decisions that make the wealthy and corporate donors happy. Now that he sees a path to the presidency laid bare, he's fully embracing his shitlib instincts. Please, for the love of Buddha, don't vote for him in the primary.
To be honest, this is just a signal that she probably wouldn't have been a good leader. Better than Trump, sure, but that bar is so low it's a tripping hazard.
She should have told Biden to pound sand after locking up the nomination.
But we should verify the claim before passing judgement.
As far as I'm aware, Biden controlled most of the campaign money at least initially. either way it's still a pretty weak excuse for Harris.
Biden really fucked us in so many ways though, I'm happy to blame him for losing the election as well. I mean he was the one who thought gaslighting us about the economy was a winning move, he put Harris in a terrible position to begin with. Not to mention deciding to run again in the first place, appointing a Trump collaborator as AF, refusing to exercise his power, etc etc
Honestly, her campaign already signaled that. This, if true, just reinforces it. It also reinforces that Biden was a bad leader, which he was.
Obligatory: I voted for Harris and Biden and dems down ticket every election since I've been old enough to vote.
Blaming Biden makes sense. Blame the problems on the actual person in charge. Harris wasn’t in charge, she should’ve let Biden take all of the failures of the term, regardless of her position at the time
No democrat president has been "in charge" in 50+ years.
The owners of the DNC have been in charge.
A grown woman "unallowed" to do something... Yeah that's who should be president.
“Didn’t allow her” what does that even mean, in the context of the campaign? What the actual fuck was she doing listening to ANYTHING from Biden at that point? He was a clear looser. He stepped back from the campaign (after he was forced to, but he did nonetheless). That was an incredibly obvious opportunity for Harris to openly and cleanly split from policies she thought were wrongheaded - but nope, can’t have that. Jesus tapdancing christ.
Biden’s hubris put us here, I guess. What an unmitigated fucking tool. He sold us down the river and expects to be remembered fondly by history? Fuck that. The title of his subsection in history books will be “The President who Couldn’t Keep the Republic” (a pointed reference to Ben Franklin’s quip at the original constitutional convention).
The last time that happened was 2000 with Bush v Gore. The longstanding notion was that the VP of the current administration should not really "break ranks" with the current administration. It was seen as undermining their boss essentially.
This was in less fucked up times, mind you. But that at one time was how it was "supposed" to work. Personally I'm a firm believer that "that's how it's always been done" is fucking stupid.
It's good to understand why things have been done that way. Sometimes there's wisdom in the way things have been done, and lessons learned by people who paid real costs to learn them. Sometimes the reasoning is so bad that doing things differently for its own sake is a reasonable decision. You don't know unless you dig deeper, and not digging deeper on things that matter seems pretty dumb
It's good to understand, but if the only answer you get is "it's always been done this way" odds are it's bad. If there was a good reason, that's the reason you'd get.
The pressure the DNC seems to exert over it's canidates is insane. There was probably a lot of pressure on her to toe the line. I heard they reigned in Walz quite a bit too.
Maybe one day the DNC will learn
I don’t expect the DNC to learn, because I don’t expect the DNC to exist when the next presidential election comes around.
It's fucking bizarre that Trump "randomly" ran as a Republican in 2016, and I can recall the fact that the RNC was trying to keep Jeb and Ted Cruz because they thought they would be a better/saner choice, until he had enough votes from the primaries.
He just kinda came from under their noses until they realized "Wait we like this, he is a dipshit we can buy and he does shit on camera for free press! Free advertising for fascism, score!"
I wish I had a portal to look at another timeline to see if someone in the DNC just didn't bother kneecaping Bernie in 2016 and had the general magnetizing force of him looking for all working class people, including those swindled by Republican brainfuckery. Might have been in a better place for America, even for one term.
^, I am both interested and terrified to see what the next few years bring. It's only the beginning, and the ride continues to get even more wild in all the worst ways.
I am living the next 6-12 months with a very sharp eye on the answer to the question “how quickly can I permanently get the fuck out of the country”.
I can believe this. She seemed frustrated when she spoke about the Palestine situation, and I picked up a strong subject that she wanted to say more about her objections over Israel's actions than she did.
I don't know if I can buy that when the DNC refused to let anyone with even a hint of background from the middle east get a platform, and when a protest at a speech happened, she said "I am speaking." Not listening, speaking.
Yeah, but that didnt bode well for her as a president...
She was the candidate, crowned with zero primary weeks before the election, with zero threat of being replaced.
But she stuck line by line to what Bidens team said
Buden's team that was Hillary's team, and before that Bill's team.
Kamala would have been an empty suit for the same neoliberal machine and she would have appointed the DNC chair back to that faction so they could influence the primary in four years.
If Kamala literally had to say exactly what her advisors said when she was literally irreplaceable, she would have been a president in name only.
Don't get me wrong, I held my nose and voted D like always, but I knew she was fucking it up, and long term that might have been for the best.
Tim Walz came out swinging, and they instantly sidelined him.
That alone was enough to say that the campaign was fucked.
Quick, hide Tim Walz, he's too popular with voters!
-Neoliberals apparently
I still want Ken Martin to publicly commit to ending the Victory Fund bullshit tho.
Just another example of how the Democratic party is only slightly less fucked than the Republicans.
I'm calling bullshit on this.
There's no possible way that Biden or any of his people could let or not let Harris do anything. They had no actual control over her campaign.
The only outsiders who had any control over her campaign were the DNC and the party establishment - the same pieces of shit who torpedoed Sanders in 2016 and 2020,.
I'm 100% certain that this narrative is coming from them, trying to dodge the blame they so richly deserve by pinning it on the senile guy.
This is hilarious, because of Biden's "I'd have won if I was the candidate" bullshit. More like "Harris might have won if I wasn't hamstringing her", but okay, sure, Joe. Let's get you to bed, now.