President Joe Biden exuded joy Thursday in his first public address since Donald Trump's stunning victory over Kamala Harris, the candidate he reluctantly endorsed after Democrats forced him to withdraw from the race months earlier. "The American experiment endures," he said cheerfully, in what could be seen as a rebuke to the Democrats and journalists who have spent the last 48 hours wallowing in despair. "We're going to be OK."
Biden praised Harris for running an "inspiring campaign" and having a "backbone like a ramrod." He discussed his recent conversation with the president-elect, during which he congratulated Trump on his victory and pledged to "ensure a peaceful and orderly transition" because "in a democracy, the will of the people always prevails," and we must "accept the choice the country made." He urged demoralized Democrats to stop denouncing their fellow Americans as uneducated racists who hate women. He stressed the need to "bring down the temperature" and "see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans."
The president, who turns 82 later this month, congratulated himself on a "historic presidency" and for "leaving behind the strongest economy in the world." Biden told his staff to be proud of "all that we accomplished," which includes having "changed America for the better." He claimed, despite all evidence to the contrary, that "much of the work we've done is already being felt by the American people." Most of it wouldn't be felt until years later, Biden alleged, because "it takes time to get it done."
Biden, who remains the only Democrat to beat Trump in an election, might feel somewhat vindicated by Harris's crushing loss. After all, he didn't choose her as a running mate in 2020 because of her competence and political talent. He picked her because she's a woman, and that's what he promised to do. Also because Elizabeth Warren was too obnoxious. But in many ways the election was also a repudiation of Biden's unpopular presidency. Democrats have already started bickering over who is more to blame.
"We ran the best campaign we could, considering Joe Biden was president," an anonymous Harris aide told Politico. "Joe Biden is the singular reason Kamala Harris and Democrats lost tonight." David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, argued on X that Biden had left a "deep hole" for the vice president to have to dig out of, then promptly deleted his account. Another Harris aide told Politico that Biden should have dropped out sooner so that Democrats could have held a contested primary, which Harris would have won. (She would not have won.)
Biden's team shot back on Thursday, blaming former president Barack Obama and his advisers for the party's defeat. "There is no singular reason why we lost, but a big reason is because the Obama advisers publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn't even want Kamala Harris as the nominee, and then signed up as the saviors of the campaign only to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn't Obama," one Biden ally told journalist Josh Kraushaar.
That sound you hear? It's the popcorn popping.
