Joe Biden stood before the American people, millions of whom were still reeling from the news of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race, and reassured them: “We’re going to be OK.”
In his first remarks since his vice president and chosen successor, Kamala Harris, lost the presidential election, Biden delivered a pep talk from the White House Rose Garden on a sunny Thursday that clashed with Democrats’ somber mood in the wake of their devastating elections. to lose. Biden promised a smooth transition of power to Trump and expressed confidence in the sustainability of the American experiment.
“Setbacks are inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable,” Biden said. “A defeat does not mean that we are defeated. We have lost this battle. The America of your dreams calls you to rise again. That has been the story of America for over 240 years.”
Related: ‘A Big Crater’: An Expert on the Surprising Votes of Generation Z – and Young Women’s Growing Support for Trump
The message clashed sharply with the dire warnings many Democrats, including Biden, have issued about the dangers of a second Trump term. They have predicted that Trump’s return to power would threaten the foundations of American democracy. They assured voters that Trump would keep his promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. And they expressed serious doubts about Trump’s promise to veto a nationwide abortion ban.
As they face four more years of Trump’s presidency, Democrats must reckon with the reality that those warnings were in vain. Not only has Trump won the White House, but he is also on track to win the popular vote, making him the first Republican to do so since 2004. Senate Republicans have regained their majority and appear confident in their chances of retaining the House of Representatives. Representatives, with several key races still too close to call Friday morning.
The dismal outcome has left Democrats bereft, disengaged and enraged, when they previously thought this week would be the cause of joy and celebration. They now find themselves in an unforgiving political wilderness, with the current leaders ravaged by old age and catastrophic defeat, and with a younger generation that has not yet fully developed.
The party is also likely to face a brutal civil war between its leftists and centrists over the best path forward – a war that will be fought over the instruments of power in the party at every level, from the grassroots of all fifty US states to the crowded corridors of Congress. in Washington.
The grim reality has Democrats asking themselves the same question again and again: How did we get here?
The hypotheses and accusations evolved from whispers to shouts starting Wednesday. While a handful of Democrats suggested Harris should have done more to distance herself from Biden, few party members appeared to blame the nominee, who had run the best campaign possible given her roughly 100 days to close a sizable gap to close with Trump.
Some Democrats blamed Biden, who only withdrew from the presidential race in July after mounting pressure from his party following a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Jim Manley, who was a senior adviser to former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, said Biden should never have run for re-election.
“This is not the time to hit or worry about anyone’s feelings,” Manley told Politico. “He and his staff have done an enormous amount of damage to this country.”
In an even more damning indictment, Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives who was praised for her role in pressuring Biden to step aside, suggested the party should have held an open primary.
“If the president had come out earlier, there might have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told the New York Times on Thursday. “We live with what happened. And because the president immediately endorsed Kamala Harris, that made it virtually impossible to hold primaries at the time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
A number of other senior Democratic aides complained to reporters — in background, without adding their names to the quotes — that Biden had put the party in a terrible position by not sooner addressing widespread concerns about his age and unpopularity. (Biden would have been 86 at the end of his second term, while Trump will be 82 at the end of his term.)
The White House pushed back against these complaints and placed the Democrats’ losses in a much more global context. Incumbents have lost ground around the world over the past year, a trend that experts blame largely on the anger and disillusionment sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and resulting high inflation.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited this statement during her press conference on Thursday, while noting that Biden still believes he “made the right decision” in stepping aside.
“Despite all the achievements we were able to make, there were global headwinds due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Jean-Pierre. “And it took a political toll on a lot of incumbents, if you look at what happened globally in 2024.”
Despite these headwinds, Democrats wonder whether their communications strategy could have prevented the Republicans’ victory. Party leaders are now debating the role of the new media and how dominant right-wing influencers, especially in the so-called “manosphere,” helped propel Trump to victory.
The left-leaning Van Jones argued that Democrats had focused too much on traditional media at the expense of cultivating a left-wing media ecosystem, saying in a Substack Live chat: “We built the wrong machine.”
Or perhaps Democrats’ inability to connect with the concerns of working-class voters cost them the White House, as progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders have argued.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has failed the working class would find that the working class has failed them,” Sanders said in his post-election statement. “In the coming weeks and months, those of us who care about basic democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.”
But who will lead those discussions? Biden will be 82 when he leaves the White House in January. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader who has now been demoted to minority leader, is 73. Pelosi is 84. Sanders, who won reelection on Tuesday, will be 89 by the time his new term ends.
The party must now look to a new generation of leaders, a pivot that many believe should have come earlier. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives who still harbors vague hopes of becoming speaker in January if his party can win a majority, could take the lead. Progressive Democrats will likely look to popular lawmakers like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to shape the party’s future. Other rank-and-file members have cited California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is already trying to “Trump-proof” his state, as an example of his opposition to the new administration.
They will have a base to work from, party leaders claim. Although Trump’s victory was devastating for them, Democrats protected at least three and possibly five competitive seats in the Senate while softening Republican gains in the House of Representatives. Even if House Republicans retain control of the chamber, they will be forced to govern with a narrow majority, which proved disastrous in the last session and could pave the way for significant Democratic gains in 2026.
But for now, the Democrats who poured their hearts and souls into electing Harris as the first woman, the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman to serve as president appear exhausted. They spent most of the last decade warning the country about the dangers of Trump and his political philosophy, only to have a majority of American voters return him to the White House.
While Trump’s first election victory sparked a wave of outrage and protests among Democrats, his second victory seemed to be met with a sad sigh from many of his critics. Right now, Democrats are taking time to mourn. And then they will eventually pick up the pieces of their party.
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
Read more about the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage
