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<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en" dir="ltr"><head><meta charSet="utf-8"/><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"/><link rel="icon" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/favicon-3888b0e329526a975703e3059a02b92d.ico"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-default-b504d70343a9438df64c32ce339c7ebc.png"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="76x76" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-76x76-d5accc11b8265af76495fbfa9d38dd3b.png"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="120x120" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-120x120-419ba228184c040a691628d3dd82c206.png"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="152x152" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-152x152-aafde20dd981a38fcd549b29b2b3b785.png"/><meta name="application-name" content="theatlantic"/><meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#FFFFFF"/><meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/_next/static/images/apple-touch-icon-default-b504d70343a9438df64c32ce339c7ebc.png"/><meta property="og:site_name" content="The Atlantic"/><meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/><meta property="fb:admins" content="577048155,17301937"/><meta property="fb:app_id" content="100770816677686"/><meta property="fb:pages" content="29259828486,1468531833474495,1061579677251147,457711054591520,370457103090695,1631141167169115,148681772342453,1510507419185410,128344747344340,128377530562508,236061986423933"/><meta name="p:domain_verify" content="68e1a0361a557708fefc992f3309ed70"/><meta name="twitter:site" content="@theatlantic"/><meta name="twitter:domain" content="theatlantic.com"/><script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","name":"The Atlantic","url":"https://www.theatlantic.com","inLanguage":"en-US","issn":"1072-7825","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://www.theatlantic.com/search/?q={q}","query-input":"required name=q"}}</script><script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.theatlantic.com/#publisher","name":"The Atlantic","url":"https://www.theatlantic.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","unitCode":"E37","value":224},"height":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","unitCode":"E37","value":224},"url":"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/files/atlantic-logo--224x224.png"},"sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic","https://twitter.com/theatlantic"]}</script><style id="_vis_opt_path_hide">#paywall,#nonMeteredNudge,#gate {opacity:0;}</style><title>Why Biden's Team Thinks Harris Lost - The Atlantic</title><meta name="description" content="Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better."/><meta property="krux:title" content="Why Biden's Team Thinks Harris Lost - The Atlantic"/><meta property="krux:description" content="Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better."/><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/biden-harris-2024-election/680560/"/><link rel="image_src" href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Q8Mhfk2-HXUk9NDKELoBUVTXVW4=/0x0:2000x1042/1200x625/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg"/><meta name="author" content="Franklin Foer"/><link rel="ia:markup_url" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/facebook-instant/article/680560/"/><meta property="article:publisher" content="https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic/"/><meta property="article:opinion" content="false"/><meta property="article:content_tier" content="metered"/><meta property="article:tag" content="politics"/><meta property="article:section" content="Politics"/><meta property="article:published_time" content="2024-11-07T11:00:00Z"/><meta property="article:modified_time" content="2024-11-07T12:11:10Z"/><meta name="robots" content="index, follow, max-image-preview:large"/><meta property="og:title" content="Why Biden’s Team Thinks Harris Lost"/><meta property="og:description" content="Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better."/><meta property="og:url" content="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/biden-harris-2024-election/680560/"/><meta property="og:type" content="article"/><meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Q8Mhfk2-HXUk9NDKELoBUVTXVW4=/0x0:2000x1042/1200x625/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg"/><meta property="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/><meta name="FacebookShareMessage" content=""Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk," @FranklinFoer writes:"/><meta name="TwitterShareMessage" content=""Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. 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involving pictures of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden overlaid in a political map" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV ArticleBentoRecirc_articleImage__M6dMP" srcSet="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Rg2MvNA19ll0aThiuJr01VNjWqk=/463x0:1588x1125/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/dem2_1/original.jpg, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/NtZVDznOjSKq6TgkJEyDpApuCL8=/463x0:1588x1125/160x160/media/img/mt/2024/11/dem2_1/original.jpg 2x" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/Rg2MvNA19ll0aThiuJr01VNjWqk=/463x0:1588x1125/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/dem2_1/original.jpg" width="80" height="80"/></picture></figure><h3 class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleTitle__8fFYc" data-action="click link - project - title 2" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/democrats-2022-error-message/680661/" data-event-element="title" data-event-position="2">The Democrats’ 2022 Error Message</h3></a><a class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleAuthor__kirBf" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ronald-brownstein/" data-action="click link - project - author 2" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ronald-brownstein/" data-event-element="author" data-event-position="2">Ronald Brownstein</a></li><li class="ArticleBentoRecirc_article__drQUh"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/republicans-win-senate-house-presidency/680636/" class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleLink__LBkjA"><figure class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleFigure__g9vgl" data-action="click link - project - image 3" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/republicans-win-senate-house-presidency/680636/" data-event-element="image" data-event-position="3"><picture class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articlePicture__wR05Z"><img alt="Back view of two small elephants with a large elephant between them" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV ArticleBentoRecirc_articleImage__M6dMP" srcSet="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/sR99LHH9ebi1kWAbIhYkUSyT3oM=/438x0:1563x1125/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/Trump_Trifecta_final/original.jpg, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/LOI9tDVj-2Azjkzg15HVncw1w0A=/438x0:1563x1125/160x160/media/img/mt/2024/11/Trump_Trifecta_final/original.jpg 2x" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/sR99LHH9ebi1kWAbIhYkUSyT3oM=/438x0:1563x1125/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/Trump_Trifecta_final/original.jpg" width="80" height="80"/></picture></figure><h3 class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleTitle__8fFYc" data-action="click link - project - title 3" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/republicans-win-senate-house-presidency/680636/" data-event-element="title" data-event-position="3">What Trump Can (And Probably Can’t) Do With His Trifecta</h3></a><a class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleAuthor__kirBf" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/russell-berman/" data-action="click link - project - author 3" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/russell-berman/" data-event-element="author" data-event-position="3">Russell Berman</a></li><li class="ArticleBentoRecirc_article__drQUh ArticleBentoRecirc_hideAtBreak__gKcJW"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/america-trump-different-now/680637/" class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleLink__LBkjA"><figure class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleFigure__g9vgl" data-action="click link - project - image 4" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/america-trump-different-now/680637/" data-event-element="image" data-event-position="4"><picture class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articlePicture__wR05Z"><img alt="Donald Trump's silhouette" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV ArticleBentoRecirc_articleImage__M6dMP" srcSet="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/jgzMWVEaOg3JgoWLKQ9YppZYskk=/1728x0:4428x2700/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/HR_16271170/original.jpg, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/tdvtin4FaAvPEBfpARDBsTKm_nY=/1728x0:4428x2700/160x160/media/img/mt/2024/11/HR_16271170/original.jpg 2x" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/jgzMWVEaOg3JgoWLKQ9YppZYskk=/1728x0:4428x2700/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/11/HR_16271170/original.jpg" width="80" height="80"/></picture></figure><h3 class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleTitle__8fFYc" data-action="click link - project - title 4" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/america-trump-different-now/680637/" data-event-element="title" data-event-position="4">Don’t Give Up on the Truth</h3></a><a class="ArticleBentoRecirc_articleAuthor__kirBf" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner/" data-action="click link - project - author 4" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/peter-wehner/" data-event-element="author" data-event-position="4">Peter Wehner</a></li></ul></aside><article class="ArticleLayout_article__RHFMN article-content-body"><header class="ArticleHero_root__3w7kV ArticleHero_articleStandard__2tcdv" data-event-module="hero"><div class=""><div class="ArticleHero_defaultArticleLockup__vb8lz"><div class="ArticleHero_rubric__e4rjD"><div class="ArticleRubric_root__HNhbf" id="rubric" data-flatplan-rubric="true"><a class="ArticleRubric_link__nl9hy" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/" data-action="click link - section rubric" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/" data-event-element="rubric">Politics</a></div></div><div class="ArticleHero_title__PQ4pC"><h1 class="ArticleTitle_root__VrZaG" data-flatplan-title="true">Why Biden’s Team Thinks Harris Lost</h1></div><div class="ArticleHero_dek__EqdkK" data-flatplan-description="true"><p class="ArticleDek_root__P3leE">Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better.</p></div><div class="ArticleHero_byline__iFT6A"><div class="ArticleBylines_root__IBR5V"><address id="byline">By <a class="ArticleBylines_link__kNP4C" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/" data-action="click author - byline" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/" data-event-element="author" data-flatplan-author-link="true">Franklin Foer</a></address></div></div></div><div class="ArticleLeadArt_root__nRSLU"><figure class="ArticleLeadFigure_root__Bj81R ArticleLeadFigure_standard__20Izv"><div class="ArticleLeadFigure_media__R1npW" data-flatplan-lead_figure_media="true"><picture><img alt="Joe Biden" class="Image_root__XxsOp ArticleLeadArt_image__HZS4B" sizes="(min-width: 976px) 976px, 100vw" srcSet="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/5kEC10D66VW8wWCZqfCJyTcSizo=/0x0:2000x1125/750x422/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 750w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/g_nINK0QvSeXZ8cheqIyUDcQAag=/0x0:2000x1125/828x466/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 828w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/xZSBMwFw2rKAr1BY7dkYwvWvntQ=/0x0:2000x1125/960x540/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 960w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/77M4cc-qvesOQjw0t_EqK1i0-gs=/0x0:2000x1125/976x549/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 976w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/W3_QsTS81q22y-b76el4N_TxXB0=/0x0:2000x1125/1952x1098/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 1952w" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/xZSBMwFw2rKAr1BY7dkYwvWvntQ=/0x0:2000x1125/960x540/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg" id="article-lead-image" width="960" height="540"/></picture></div><figcaption class="ArticleLeadFigure_caption__Byu7W ArticleLeadFigure_standardCaption__PsDkd" data-flatplan-lead_figure_caption="true">Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Anna Moneymaker / Getty.</figcaption></figure></div></div><div class="ArticleHero_articleUtilityBar__JbQFj"><div class="ArticleHero_timestamp__bKhcB"><time class="ArticleTimestamp_root__b3bL6" dateTime="2024-11-07T11:00:00Z" data-flatplan-timestamp="true">November 7, 2024</time> </div><div class="ArticleHero_articleUtilityBarTools__ZHw8s"><div class="ArticleShare_root__Mq0RB"><button class="ArticleShare_text__oQKBy ArticleShare_shareButton__X0cIe" aria-haspopup="true" aria-controls=":R1i5ioomm:" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Open Share Menu" data-action="click share - expand" data-event-verb="shared" data-event-element="share dropdown">Share<svg width="15" height="15" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="ArticleShare_shareIcon__G4iq1"><path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M7.335.272a.25.25 0 01.337 0l4.623 4.204a.25.25 0 01.017.353l-.336.37a.25.25 0 01-.353.016L8.004 1.926v7.9a.25.25 0 01-.25.25h-.5a.25.25 0 01-.25-.25V1.924l-3.62 3.291a.25.25 0 01-.353-.016l-.336-.37a.25.25 0 01.016-.353L7.335.272zM.5 7.545a.25.25 0 00-.25.25v6.75c0 .138.112.25.25.25h14a.25.25 0 00.25-.25v-6.75a.25.25 0 00-.25-.25H14a.25.25 0 00-.25.25v6H1.25v-6a.25.25 0 00-.25-.25H.5z" fill="#000"></path></svg></button></div><button class="SaveButton_saveButton__7LYFZ" aria-label="Save"><span class="SaveButton_text__fiZgx">Save </span><svg width="12" height="16" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="SaveButton_icon__HFNiD SaveButton_unsaved__bP4MN"><path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M6 10.828l5 3.31V1H1v13.139l5-3.31zM.776 15.486A.5.5 0 010 15.07V.5A.5.5 0 01.5 0h11a.5.5 0 01.5.5v14.57a.5.5 0 01-.776.416L6.138 12.12a.25.25 0 00-.276 0L.776 15.486z" fill="currentColor"></path><path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M5.572 8.75c0 .138.111.25.25.25h.5a.25.25 0 00.25-.25V6.57H8.75A.25.25 0 009 6.32v-.5a.25.25 0 00-.25-.25H6.572V3.25a.25.25 0 00-.25-.25h-.5a.25.25 0 00-.25.25v2.32H3.25a.25.25 0 00-.25.25v.5c0 .138.112.25.25.25h2.322v2.18z" fill="currentColor"></path></svg></button></div></div><gpt-ad class="GptAd_root__pAvcS ArticleInjector_root__I7x9v LeadArticleAd_root__tdCqm s-native s-native--standard s-native--streamline" format="injector" sizes-at-0="mobile-wide" targeting-pos="injector-article-start" sizes-at-976="desktop-wide"></gpt-ad><div class="ArticleInjector_clsAvoider__dqIAm" style="--placeholderHeight:298px"></div></header><div class="ArticleAudio_root__4Qcq3" data-view-action="view - 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Listen to more stories on the Noa app.</p></div><section class="ArticleBody_root__2gF81" data-event-module="article body" data-flatplan-body="true"><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">Earlier this fall, one of Joe Biden’s closest aides felt compelled to tell the president a hard truth about Kamala Harris’s run for the presidency: “You have more to lose than she does.” And now he’s lost it. Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk.</p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">In the hours after Harris’s defeat, I called and texted members of Biden’s inner circle to hear their postmortems of the campaign. They sounded as deflated as the rest of the Democratic elite. They also had a worry of their own: Members of Biden’s clan continue to stoke the delusion that its paterfamilias would have won the election, and some of his advisers feared that he might publicly voice that deeply misguided view.</p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">Although the Biden advisers I spoke with were reluctant to say anything negative about Harris as a candidate, they did level critiques of her campaign, based on the months they’d spent strategizing in anticipation of the election. Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better.</p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">One critique holds that Harris lost because she abandoned her most potent attack. Harris began the campaign portraying Trump as a stooge of corporate interests—and touted herself as a relentless scourge of Big Business. During the Democratic National Convention, speaker after speaker inveighed against Trump’s oligarchical allegiances. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York bellowed, “We have to help her win, because we know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.”</p><p id="injected-recirculation-link-0" class="ArticleRelatedContentLink_root__VYc9V" data-view-action="view link - injected link - item 1" data-event-element="injected link" data-event-position="1"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/why-trump-won/680555/">David A. Graham: What Trump understood, and Harris did not</a></p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">While Harris was stuck defending the Biden economy, and hobbled by lingering anger over inflation, attacking Big Business allowed her to go on the offense. Then, quite suddenly, this strain of populism disappeared. One Biden aide told me that Harris steered away from such hard-edged messaging at the urging of her brother-in-law, Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer. (West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) To win the support of CEOs, Harris jettisoned a strong argument that deflected attention from one of her weakest issues. Instead, the campaign elevated Mark Cuban as one of its chief surrogates, the very sort of rich guy she had recently attacked.</p><p id="injected-recirculation-link-1" class="ArticleRelatedContentLink_root__VYc9V" data-view-action="view link - injected link - item 2" data-event-element="injected link" data-event-position="2"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/kamala-harris-donald-trump-inflation/680557/">Annie Lowrey: Voters wanted lower prices at any cost</a></p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">Another Bidenland critique takes Harris to task for failing to navigate the backlash against identity politics. Not that Harris ran a “woke” campaign. To the contrary, she bathed herself in patriotism. She presented herself as a prosecutor, a friend of law enforcement, and a proud gun owner. But she failed to respond to the ubiquitous ads the Trump campaign ran claiming that Harris supports sex-change operations for prisoners. She allowed Trump to create the impression that she favored the most radical version of transgender rights.</p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">Biden, allies say, never would have let such attacks stand. He would have clearly rejected the idea of trans women competing in women’s sports. Of course, he never staked out that position in his presidency. But it’s true that Harris avoided the issue, rather than rebutting it, despite the millions of dollars poured into those attack ads. And in the end, those ads very likely implanted the notion that Harris wasn’t the cultural centrist she appeared to be.</p><p class="ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW" data-flatplan-paragraph="true">A sour irony haunts Biden aides. In the coming months, Trump will use executive power and unified control of Washington to wreck many of the administration’s proudest accomplishments. But the ones he doesn’t wreck, he will claim as his own. Biden helped build the foundations for economic growth, with the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and the infrastructure bill. Because the investments enabled by all three of those bills will take years to bear fruit, Biden never had the chance to reap the harvest. Despite Trump’s opposition to those pieces of legislation, the benefits of those bills could bolster his presidency. Biden will have passed along his most substantive legacy as a gift to his successor.</p><div class="ArticleBody_divider__GpNxD" id="article-end"></div></section><div data-event-module="footer"><div class="ArticleWell_root__fueCa"><div data-event-module="author footer" class="ArticleFooter_authorFooter__5NsdY"><div class="SectionHeading_root__3GnqT"><h3 class="SectionHeading_heading__iNkek">About the Author</h3></div><div><div class="ArticleBio_root__ua8zj"><address id="article-writer-0" class="ArticleBio_author__6pDyl" data-event-element="author" data-event-position="1" data-flatplan-bio="true"><div class="ArticleBio_content__O0ZVF"><a class="ArticleBio_headshotContainer__Am2nR" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/" data-event-element="image"><img alt="" loading="lazy" class="Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV ArticleBio_headshot__6Aykd" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/FP0thPbTtGN1KKQ4VRVszF_m-vY=/0x100:2547x2647/120x120/media/None/Franklin_Foer_byEvy_Mages_cropped_2_1_1/original.jpg" width="60" height="60"/></a><div class="ArticleBio_bioSection__Hef4P"><div data-flatplan-bio="true"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/" class="author-link" data-label="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/" data-action="click author - name" >Franklin Foer</a> is a staff writer at <em>The Atlantic</em>.</div><div class="ArticleBio_moreStories__LKpwT"><p class="ArticleBio_contentHeading__cmbmT">More Stories</p><a class="ArticleBio_storyLink__xuRiU" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/anti-semitism-donald-trumps-cabinet-picks/680741/" data-event-element="more stories" data-event-position="1"><p>Trump Is Building the Most Anti-Semitic Cabinet in Decades</p></a><a class="ArticleBio_storyLink__xuRiU" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trumps-cabinet-announcements-have-broken-government/680656/" data-event-element="more stories" data-event-position="2"><p>Why the Gaetz Announcement Is Already Destroying the Government</p></a></div></div></div></address></div></div></div><div class="ArticleTags_root__zS_pT"><div class="ArticleTags_tagTitle__WjjAt">Explore More Topics</div><div><span class="ArticleTags_tagLink__SZysG"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/tag/person/donald-trump/">Donald Trump</a>, </span><span class="ArticleTags_tagLink__SZysG"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/tag/person/joe-biden/">Joe Biden</a>, </span><span class="ArticleTags_tagLink__SZysG"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/tag/person/kamala-harris/">Kamala Harris</a></span></div></div></div><div></div></div><gpt-ad class="GptAd_root__pAvcS ArticleInjector_root__I7x9v s-native s-native--standard s-native--streamline" format="injector" sizes-at-0="mobile-wide,native,house" targeting-pos="injector-most-popular" sizes-at-976="desktop-wide,native,house"></gpt-ad><div class="ArticleInjector_clsAvoider__dqIAm"></div></article><div></div></main><div></div><div></div></div></div><script id="__NEXT_DATA__" type="application/json">{"props":{"isLoggedIn":false,"hasPaywallAccess":false,"hasAdFree":false,"pageProps":{"id":"BlogArticle:680560","isTnfCompatible":true,"layout":"standard","hasMeter":true,"url":"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/biden-harris-2024-election/680560/","dateModified":"2024-11-07T12:11:10Z","__typename":"BlogArticle","notFound":false,"urqlState":{"1333528746":{"data":"{\"article\":{\"__typename\":\"BlogArticle\",\"id\":\"BlogArticle:680560\",\"authors\":[{\"url\":\"https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/\",\"displayName\":\"Franklin Foer\",\"__typename\":\"Author\",\"id\":\"Author:36\",\"biography\":{\"default\":\"\u003ca href=\\\"https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/\\\" class=\\\"author-link\\\" data-label=\\\"https://www.theatlantic.com/author/franklin-foer/\\\" data-action=\\\"click author - name\\\" \u003eFranklin Foer\u003c/a\u003e is a staff writer at \u003cem\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c/em\u003e.\",\"__typename\":\"Biography\"},\"headshot\":{\"width\":120,\"height\":120,\"srcSet\":\"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/FP0thPbTtGN1KKQ4VRVszF_m-vY=/0x100:2547x2647/120x120/media/None/Franklin_Foer_byEvy_Mages_cropped_2_1_1/original.jpg, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/TtTPbWvKz68LUs5RWpzQktqFtmg=/0x100:2547x2647/240x240/media/None/Franklin_Foer_byEvy_Mages_cropped_2_1_1/original.jpg 2x\",\"url\":\"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/FP0thPbTtGN1KKQ4VRVszF_m-vY=/0x100:2547x2647/120x120/media/None/Franklin_Foer_byEvy_Mages_cropped_2_1_1/original.jpg\",\"__typename\":\"BasicImage\"},\"river\":{\"edges\":[{\"cursor\":\"MjAyNC0xMS0yMSAxMTo1MTowMHw2ODA3NDE=\",\"node\":{\"id\":\"BlogArticle:680741\",\"title\":\"Trump Is Building the Most Anti-Semitic Cabinet in Decades\",\"url\":\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/anti-semitism-donald-trumps-cabinet-picks/680741/\",\"__typename\":\"BlogArticle\"},\"__typename\":\"PromoEdge\"},{\"cursor\":\"MjAyNC0xMS0xNCAxMzozNTowOXw2ODA2NTY=\",\"node\":{\"id\":\"BlogArticle:680656\",\"title\":\"Why the Gaetz Announcement Is Already Destroying the Government\",\"url\":\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trumps-cabinet-announcements-have-broken-government/680656/\",\"__typename\":\"BlogArticle\"},\"__typename\":\"PromoEdge\"},{\"cursor\":\"MjAyNC0xMS0wOCAxNToyMTowMHw2ODA2MDE=\",\"node\":{\"id\":\"BlogArticle:680601\",\"title\":\"The Strange History Behind the Anti-Semitic Dutch Soccer Attacks\",\"url\":\"https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/11/jewish-history-behind-dutch-soccer-attacks/680601/\",\"__typename\":\"BlogArticle\"},\"__typename\":\"PromoEdge\"}],\"__typename\":\"RiverConnection\"},\"slug\":\"franklin-foer\",\"socialMedia\":[]}],\"authorContext\":\"\",\"categories\":[],\"content\":[{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"Earlier this fall, one of Joe Biden’s closest aides felt compelled to tell the president a hard truth about Kamala Harris’s run for the presidency: “You have more to lose than she does.” And now he’s lost it. Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"In the hours after Harris’s defeat, I called and texted members of Biden’s inner circle to hear their postmortems of the campaign. They sounded as deflated as the rest of the Democratic elite. They also had a worry of their own: Members of Biden’s clan continue to stoke the delusion that its paterfamilias would have won the election, and some of his advisers feared that he might publicly voice that deeply misguided view.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"Although the Biden advisers I spoke with were reluctant to say anything negative about Harris as a candidate, they did level critiques of her campaign, based on the months they’d spent strategizing in anticipation of the election. Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"One critique holds that Harris lost because she abandoned her most potent attack. Harris began the campaign portraying Trump as a stooge of corporate interests—and touted herself as a relentless scourge of Big Business. During the Democratic National Convention, speaker after speaker inveighed against Trump’s oligarchical allegiances. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York bellowed, “We have to help her win, because we know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.”\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleRelatedContentLink\",\"idAttr\":\"injected-recirculation-link-0\",\"innerHtml\":\"\u003ca href=\\\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/why-trump-won/680555/\\\"\u003eDavid A. Graham: What Trump understood, and Harris did not\u003c/a\u003e\",\"index\":0},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"While Harris was stuck defending the Biden economy, and hobbled by lingering anger over inflation, attacking Big Business allowed her to go on the offense. Then, quite suddenly, this strain of populism disappeared. One Biden aide told me that Harris steered away from such hard-edged messaging at the urging of her brother-in-law, Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer. (West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) To win the support of CEOs, Harris jettisoned a strong argument that deflected attention from one of her weakest issues. Instead, the campaign elevated Mark Cuban as one of its chief surrogates, the very sort of rich guy she had recently attacked.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleRelatedContentLink\",\"idAttr\":\"injected-recirculation-link-1\",\"innerHtml\":\"\u003ca href=\\\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/kamala-harris-donald-trump-inflation/680557/\\\"\u003eAnnie Lowrey: Voters wanted lower prices at any cost\u003c/a\u003e\",\"index\":1},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"Another Bidenland critique takes Harris to task for failing to navigate the backlash against identity politics. Not that Harris ran a “woke” campaign. To the contrary, she bathed herself in patriotism. She presented herself as a prosecutor, a friend of law enforcement, and a proud gun owner. But she failed to respond to the ubiquitous ads the Trump campaign ran claiming that Harris supports sex-change operations for prisoners. She allowed Trump to create the impression that she favored the most radical version of transgender rights.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"Biden, allies say, never would have let such attacks stand. He would have clearly rejected the idea of trans women competing in women’s sports. Of course, he never staked out that position in his presidency. But it’s true that Harris avoided the issue, rather than rebutting it, despite the millions of dollars poured into those attack ads. And in the end, those ads very likely implanted the notion that Harris wasn’t the cultural centrist she appeared to be.\"},{\"__typename\":\"ArticleParagraphContent\",\"subtype\":null,\"idAttr\":\"\",\"innerHtml\":\"A sour irony haunts Biden aides. In the coming months, Trump will use executive power and unified control of Washington to wreck many of the administration’s proudest accomplishments. But the ones he doesn’t wreck, he will claim as his own. Biden helped build the foundations for economic growth, with the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and the infrastructure bill. Because the investments enabled by all three of those bills will take years to bear fruit, Biden never had the chance to reap the harvest. Despite Trump’s opposition to those pieces of legislation, the benefits of those bills could bolster his presidency. 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Everything else is an asterisk,\\\" @FranklinFoer writes:\",\"shareTitle\":\"Why Biden’s Team Thinks Harris Lost\",\"title\":\"Why Biden’s Team Thinks Harris Lost\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-07T11:00:00Z\",\"editorsNote\":null,\"leadArt\":{\"__typename\":\"LeadArtImage\",\"image\":{\"url\":\"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/xZSBMwFw2rKAr1BY7dkYwvWvntQ=/0x0:2000x1125/960x540/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":540,\"srcSet\":\"https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/5kEC10D66VW8wWCZqfCJyTcSizo=/0x0:2000x1125/750x422/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 750w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/g_nINK0QvSeXZ8cheqIyUDcQAag=/0x0:2000x1125/828x466/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 828w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/xZSBMwFw2rKAr1BY7dkYwvWvntQ=/0x0:2000x1125/960x540/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 960w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/77M4cc-qvesOQjw0t_EqK1i0-gs=/0x0:2000x1125/976x549/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 976w, https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/W3_QsTS81q22y-b76el4N_TxXB0=/0x0:2000x1125/1952x1098/media/img/mt/2024/11/Biden_postmortem/original.jpg 1952w\",\"reducedMotionSrcSet\":null,\"altText\":\"Joe Biden\",\"captionText\":\"\",\"attributionText\":\"Illustration by The Atlantic. 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