Democrats want Biden to take responsibility for loss to Trump

Democrats are tired of Joe Biden saying he would have won. 

What they want, they say, is for the former president to admit to his part in the party’s 2024 loss to Donald Trump. 

Democratic strategists, operatives and donors this week in conversations and text exchanges all reiterated the same thing: They want Biden to take responsibility for former Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat to the new president.

They also say he never should have run for a second term in the first place. 

“Would it be nice if Biden finally accepted and admitted he shouldn't have run for a second term? Sure,” said Democratic strategist Anthony Coley, who worked for the Biden administration. “But candidly, does it really matter at this point? History will have the final say — and its first draft isn't looking good.” 

Democrats continue to find themselves in a dire state as they desperately try to figure out how to rebuild their party after November’s devastating defeat.  

Polling this week from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs revealed that only about one-third of Democrats are “very optimistic” or “somewhat optimistic” about the future of their party. That is a huge drop from July 2024 when 6 in 10 Democrats said they had an optimistic view of their party. 

Democrats know they have to rewrite their playbook almost entirely from their messaging and the way they connect with voters to the way they view fundraising.

It’s no longer OK to say they outraised and outspent the opponent, some of them acknowledge, because Trump proved twice that both points didn’t matter. 

But the thing that irks them arguably the most is the way Biden and his closest advisers conducted themselves as they decided to seek another term in office. And lately, as a rash of books (including this author’s "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House") and reports have come out about Biden’s mental acuity, the way he has tried to rewrite the narrative recently has also annoyed a lot of Democrats. 

In a string of interviews in recent weeks, Biden has defended his record and pushed back at critics — even former aides — who argued that he suffered cognitive decline. 

“They are wrong,” Biden said of the criticism. “There is nothing to sustain that.” 

He also went on to defend his performance as president: “I said when I got out of the race, I was still going to be president. 

“I think I did a pretty damn good job the last six months,” he said. 

But he also maintained that he “wasn’t surprised” Harris ended up losing. He attributed her defeat largely to sexism. 

The interviews have angered Democrats who say they can only begin their rebuilding efforts with some accountability on what exactly went wrong. That begins with Biden, they say. 

“He needs to stop talking about what could have happened and what should have happened and how the party betrayed him and start talking about how he ultimately betrayed the party,” said one Democratic strategist. “The reason we find ourselves in this position is because he was too stubborn to step aside.”

In a series of posts on social platform X this week, former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod — who was one of the few Democrats who was openly skeptical of Biden running for a second term in recent years — doubled down on his thinking. 

“A lot of folks now are acknowledging what was obvious then: A guy who was already showing frailties and would have been closer to 90 than 80 by the end of his second term should not have run for the hardest job on the planet,” Axelrod said. “Never was going to end well.” 

“Next to being president, the pressure of running for it is almost as hard,” Axelrod said. “The idea that an 81-year-old man, already limited, could handle both — and then serve another four years — always was nuts. And the people closest to him did him no favor by not telling him the truth.” 

Judging by Biden’s approach in his recent interviews, Democrats say they are doubtful that the former president or his closest advisers will do an about-face. 

Nayyera Haq, who served as an aide in the Obama White House, said fellow Democrats are looking to the future. 

“The difference now with Biden saying he would have won is that there is no longer a cadre of people whose job it is to protect the aging president’s ego,” Haq said. “Like most of the country, they want to move on and look to what’s next.” 

And as for Biden’s top advisers, Haq added: “I wouldn’t expect any of the Biden loyalists to change their tune now, not after years of creating the original problematic reality.”  

Amie Parnes covers the White House and presidential politics for The Hill. She is also the co-author of several bestsellers, including the recent "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House."