NEW YORK — The leaders of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign insist they simply didn’t have enough time to execute a winning strategy against Donald Trump, pointing to “ferocious” political headwinds that were ultimately too much to overcome in the 107-day period after President Joe Biden stepped aside.
Harris’ leadership team, speaking on the “Pod Save America” podcast that aired on Tuesday, defended strategic decisions over the campaign’s closing days, some of which have faced scrutiny in the weeks since Trump’s decisive victory. Specifically, they defended Harris’ outreach to Republican voters, her unwillingness to distance herself from Biden, her silence on Trump’s attacks on her transgender policies and her inability to schedule an interview with popular podcaster Joe Rogan.
“In a 107-day race, it is very difficult to do all the things you would normally do in a year and a half, two years,” said Harris campaign senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon.
David Plouffe, another senior adviser, added, “There was a price to be paid for the short campaign.”
The pointed reflections on Harris’ loss came just before she declared she was “proud of the campaign we ran” during a conference call with supporters as the party begins a painful process of self-examination. Trump won every swing state and made gains among key voting groups traditionally aligned with Democrats — young voters and voters of color, among them. Backed by the resounding win, the Republican president-elect is claiming a mandate to enact his populist agenda as he prepares to return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Harris acknowledged her defeat during the conference call, but praised the political organization her team built that featured more than 408,000 volunteers who knocked on nearly 20 million doors and made over 219 million phone calls.
“What we did in 107 days was unprecedented,” she said, noting that her campaign also raised more than $1.4 billion, which marks a record for U.S. presidential campaigns.
Still, Harris’ campaign finished the election in debt. And none of the Harris advisers acknowledged any mistakes during the wide-ranging podcast interview hosted by former Democratic operatives. Instead, they indicated that Harris had few options given the compressed timeframe and the broad anti-incumbent headwinds that have challenged elected officials across the world.
They also gave Trump’s team some credit.
They specifically pointed to Trump’s closing attack ad, which highlighted Harris’ support for taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries for transgender prisoners.
“Obviously, it was a very effective ad at the end,” said Harris deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks. “I think that it made her seem out of touch.”
The campaign tested several potential response ads but, in the end, decided it was best to avoid a specific rebuttal.
“There’s no easy answers to this,” O’Malley Dillon said.
Plouffe said he thought the Trump attack ad against “Bidenomics” was even more effective, but he acknowledged that the transgender attacks were not helpful.
“She was on tape,” he said. “Surgery for trans people who want to transition in prison was part of the Biden-Harris platform in 2020. It was part of what the administration did, right?”
And while the campaign has faced lingering questions about its media strategy, Harris’ team said she actually wanted to participate in a podcast with Rogan, who is among the world’s most popular podcasters and ultimately endorsed Trump.
Stephanie Cutter, another Harris senior adviser, said the campaign wasn’t able to “find a date” to make it work.
“We had discussions with Joe Rogan’s team. They were great. They wanted us to come on. We wanted to come on,” she said. “Will she do it sometime in the future? Maybe. Who knows. But it didn’t ultimately impact the outcome one way or the other.”
Plouffe noted that the campaign offered to do the Rogan podcast on the road in Austin, Texas. Trump ultimately did his interview with Rogan in the podcaster’s studio.
Harris’ campaign brass also defended her decision to court moderate Republicans in the campaign’s closing days. The decision has drawn ire from some progressives, who believe Harris should have worked harder to turn out more traditional Democratic voters.
“This political environment sucked, OK? We were dealing with ferocious headwinds,” Plouffe said. “So we had a complicated puzzle to put together here in terms of the voters.”
He acknowledged some “drift” toward Trump among non-college-educated voters, particularly voters of color, which made Harris’ outreach to moderate voters even more important.
“Yes, of course, you have to maximize your turnout and your vote share amongst liberal voters if you’re a Democrat. That was a huge focus,” he said. He added, “You’ve got to couple that with dominating in the middle. Not just winning it a little. We have to dominate the moderate vote.”
Speaking on Tuesday’s conference call, Harris’ running mate Tim Walz described the election result as “incredibly disappointing” and “a bit scary.” But he praised the campaign’s effort.
“There will be a day of reckoning when it will be asked, ‘What did you do during the 2024 campaign?’ Well, I know the people on this call can say, everything they possibly could,” Walz said. “And for that, as an American, I’m incredibly grateful.”
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