Democratic National Committee National Finance Committee member Lindy Li sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris during an interview with News Nation on Tuesday, accusing her of failing to take “responsibility” for wasting over $1 billion in campaign donations. Despite the unusually short campaign window, which began in mid-July after President Biden suspended his campaign, the Harris campaign spent more than $1.5 billion in just four months.
Li, who participated in a campaign call with Harris donors and staffers, described the vice president’s demeanor as “self-congratulatory,” even though she became the first Democratic Party presidential candidate to lose the popular vote since 2004. “She actually held two calls, one for her top donors and one for grassroots. I was speaking and texting with fellow attendees in the call, and we were amazed by how self-congratulatory the tone was …. The call was about 20, 30 minutes,” Li said. “I don’t recall anyone taking responsibility for the fact that we spent about $2 billion across the super PAC and the campaign and came up so significantly short. We lost seven swing states.”
During the call, Li stated that Harris was recognized as a “visionary leader.” The DNC official added, “I believe at one moment during the call she was talking about her Thanksgiving recipe. I don’t say this with any malice or anything. I’m just merely conveying what happened. I think I was stunned to hear that, given just the extent and brutality of the loss, and the fact that DNC staffers, two-thirds, at least two-thirds, have been fired summarily, and a lot of them are at a loss as to what to do.”
In conclusion, Li observed that the party lacks direction after the election. “I’m just frankly stunned that there was no sort of postmortem or an analysis of how we can do better, what sort of lessons were learned. It was really just patting each other on the back, congratulating each other on I’m not sure what, and saying we’ll see you for Christmas.”
The DNC has laid off several staffers as the party works to regroup after the loss. Despite raising nearly three times as much as the Trump Campaign, the Harris Campaign ended the cycle with over $20 million in debt, though one campaign spokesperson has refuted that. Some staffers who were promised payment through the end of the year have been let go, and the DNC has launched a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to help pay down some of the debt.
Democrats, including members of the Harris campaign, have been playing the blame game in the days and weeks following the election. The campaign’s strategy of hiring prominent music artists to perform in elaborate concerts before the vice president’s rallies is being cited as a significant factor contributing to the campaign’s debt. According to a report from the New York Post, vendors and staff are concerned that they may not receive payment for their services.
Two sources informed the outlet that veterans from the Obama Campaign, Stephanie Cutter and David Plouffe, advocated for the concert strategy to engage low-propensity voters.“Harris added Cutter and Plouffe to her campaign shortly after replacing President Biden atop the party’s ticket in July, generating internal tensions with the existing Biden campaign team as the newcomers sought to replay the 44th president’s successful 2008 campaign,” The Post reported.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.