David Plouffe says Biden \u2018totally fucked us\u2019 and calls Harris\u2019s 107-day sprint against Trump a \u2018fucking nightmare\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe Biden \u201ctotally fucked us\u201d by leaving it too late to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election, a former top campaign aide to Kamala Harris<\/a> has told the authors of a new book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Plouffe<\/a>, who was manager of Barack Obama\u2019s winning 2008 campaign and a senior adviser in his White House, was drafted in to help Harris\u2019s bid for president after the declining Biden withdrew from the race last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris\u2019s 107-day sprint against Donald Trump was \u201ca fucking nightmare\u201d, Plouffe is quoted as saying by authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson in Original Sin<\/a>: President Biden\u2019s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. A copy was obtained by the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s all Biden,\u201d Plouffe adds, reflecting on the former US president\u2019s decisions to run for re-election and then to cling on for more than three weeks after a catastrophic debate performance against Trump raised questions about his mental acuity and age. \u201cHe totally fucked us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plouffe, along with some other former Obama staffers, has previously been critical<\/a> of Biden and his role in the Democratic defeat. In the wake of Harris\u2019s loss he posted a message on X \u2013 formerly known as Twitter \u2013 that the Harris campaign had begun in a \u201cdeep hole\u201d. He later deleted<\/a> his account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book describes how Plouffe had received calls from donors worried about Biden\u2019s diminishing energy, cognitive skills and ability to deliver a speech. He in turn pressed the White House and Democratic party if they felt sure that the then president could win another election and was repeatedly told he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Tapper<\/a>, chief Washington correspondent for CNN, and Thompson, a national political correspondent for Axios, spoke to around 200 people for the book, including members of Congress and White House and campaign insiders. Some had been sounding the alarm about Biden\u2019s mental acuity and about desperate efforts by his close staff and allies to hide the extent of his deterioration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One senior aide, who quit the White House because they did not think Biden should run, admits to the authors that \u201cwe attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn\u2019t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love Joe Biden<\/a>. When it comes to decency, there are few in politics like him. Still, it was a disservice to the country and to the party for his family and advisers to allow him to run again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A prominent Democratic strategist says of Biden\u2019s determination to seek re-election: \u201cIt was an abomination. He stole an election from the Democratic party; he stole it from the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original Sin is one of several eagerly awaited books about the 2024 election and an alleged White House conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden, 82, seemingly tried to preempt its revelations last week with media appearances on BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today program and ABC\u2019s talkshow The View. Biden has signed with Creative Artists Agency for representation and hired communications strategist Chris Meagher<\/a> to help burnish his public reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the 27 June 2024 debate in Atlanta<\/a> was no anomaly, the book argues. Since at least 2022 Biden has been increasingly prone to lose his train of thought and struggle to remember the names of top aides. His speeches can be incoherent and difficult to hear. When he proved incapable of delivering a two-minute video address without stumbling, aides filmed him with two cameras so the edit would be less obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original Sin tells how prominent figures tried to intervene in various ways. Obama visited the White House in 2023 and warned Biden: \u201cJust make sure you can win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ari Emanuel<\/a>, a Hollywood powerbroker and significant Democratic donor, yelled at longtime Biden ally Ron Klain: \u201cJoe Biden cannot run for re-election! He needs to drop out! He can\u2019t win! What\u2019s the plan B?\u201d Klain admitted there was no plan B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Chuck Schumer<\/a>, the Democratic leader in the Senate, confronted the president after the debate last July at his home in Rehoboth, Delaware, and appealed to his desire to preserve his legacy. He warned Biden that, he if stayed in the race and lost to Trump then 50 years of \u201camazing, beautiful work goes out the window. But it\u2019s worse than that \u2013 you will go down in American history as one of the darkest figures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On their way out, the book reports, Biden put his hands on Schumer\u2019s shoulders and told him: \u201cYou have bigger balls than anyone I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden stepped aside on 21 July and quickly endorsed Harris, but it was too late, the authors contend. He had already helped usher in the fate<\/a> that he most wanted to avoid: the return of Trump to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n