The aftermath of the 2024 presidential election continues to stir chaos inside the Democratic Party as David Plouffe, a veteran political strategist and top adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, reportedly delivered a damning assessment of the race against Donald Trump.
Plouffe described Harris’s general election effort as “a f---ing nightmare” and pointed the finger squarely at former President Joe Biden, whose late withdrawal from the race, he claims, created irreparable damage and left Harris scrambling with barely 100 days to face a resurgent Trump.
Plouffe’s scathing comments appear in an upcoming book titled Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, co-authored by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political reporter Alex Thompson.
The book, scheduled for release on May 20, has already been distributed to select media outlets, including The Guardian, which broke the story about Plouffe’s internal frustrations and criticisms.
According to excerpts obtained ahead of the release, Plouffe did not hold back his fury, stating bluntly that Biden “totally f---ed us.” The statement reflects the growing anger among top Democratic strategists who believe Biden’s decision to stay in the race until the eleventh hour—only to bow out after a catastrophic debate performance against Trump—undermined the party’s ability to mount a coherent and aggressive campaign.
The fallout from Biden’s withdrawal, announced during the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, triggered chaos within party leadership and forced Harris to accept the nomination with limited time to prepare a nationwide push against Trump’s powerful reelection machinery.
Biden’s exit from the race followed months of rising concern among Democrats and voters alike about his age, cognitive sharpness, and stamina. At 82, the former president was the oldest person ever to seek a major party nomination.
His shaky performance in the first and only debate against Trump amplified already simmering doubts, prompting senior Democrats to pressure him to reconsider his bid. When Biden finally relented and threw his support behind Kamala Harris, the damage, according to Plouffe and others, had already been done.
In the days leading up to the convention, Harris’s campaign found itself racing to reintroduce a new standard-bearer to the public, form a coherent message, and organize logistics for a national campaign, all while Trump’s operation had months of head start.
Plouffe, who previously managed Barack Obama’s groundbreaking 2008 campaign and served as a key adviser during the Obama presidency, suggested that the dysfunction surrounding the Harris campaign wasn’t entirely her fault. Instead, he placed full responsibility on Biden, whose late-stage decisionmaking left the party in disarray at a crucial moment in the election cycle.
“It’s all Biden,” Plouffe is quoted as saying in Original Sin. His remarks have already sent shockwaves through the Democratic establishment, highlighting the deep internal rifts that continue to haunt the party following one of the most consequential elections in modern history.
In recent weeks, Biden has made multiple media appearances, including on The View and in a BBC interview, where he has attempted to soften his legacy and redirect blame away from himself.
Speaking to The View, Biden said he still believes he would have defeated Trump if he had stayed in the race. Referring to Trump bluntly as “a loser,” Biden asserted that the choice to withdraw was made in good faith but acknowledged that he carries guilt over the Republican’s return to the White House.
“I was confident I would beat Trump,” Biden told the hosts. “He’s a loser.”
Despite this confidence, Biden acknowledged during a BBC interview that he doesn’t regret withdrawing after the debate, and he downplayed the impact his timing might have had. “I don’t know how that would have made much of a difference,” he said, attempting to shift the narrative away from the damaging consequences his delayed exit created for Harris and the Democratic Party.
Those comments, however, do little to quell the anger from veterans of Democratic campaigns like Plouffe, who view Biden’s indecision as a fundamental failure of leadership. They argue that the months lost in uncertainty, followed by a rushed transition to a new candidate, doomed the party’s chances in a race against an opponent like Trump who thrives on chaos and thrives even more when his opponents are caught off balance.
Plouffe, now 57, had already shown signs of frustration immediately following Harris’s loss in the November election. In a now-deleted social media post on X, he lamented the result and expressed sorrow for what he called a “devastating loss.”
He wrote, “We dug out of a deep hole but not enough. Thanks for being in the arena, all of you.” That message, widely interpreted as a veiled criticism of Biden’s role in shaping the party’s fate, came shortly before he deleted his account amid a storm of backlash and scrutiny from party loyalists and media commentators.
Since then, little has been said publicly by Plouffe—until now. His quotes in Original Sin offer the most candid insight yet into the frustration that permeated the top ranks of the Harris campaign. Many Democratic operatives felt that Harris was put in an impossible position.
With no primary process to legitimize her rise, no time to raise sufficient funds, and no coordinated messaging apparatus in place, Harris entered the race with enormous enthusiasm but lacked the infrastructure to fight effectively. Her campaign struggled to resonate in key swing states, and turnout in urban centers and among younger voters—two groups critical to Democratic victories—failed to match 2020 levels.
Behind the scenes, advisers attempted to rally support quickly. Fundraising spiked after the convention, and major endorsements poured in. But none of it was enough to counterbalance the months of negative press, the persistent attacks from Trump’s campaign, and the perception that the Democratic Party was operating without a clear plan.
By the time November arrived, polls showed Trump with a consistent lead in battleground states, and the final results confirmed what many had feared—Harris had fallen short.
The narrative laid out in Original Sin paints Biden not just as a passive participant in his own decline but as a central figure in a series of miscalculations that led to one of the most consequential political defeats of the 21st century.
His insistence on running again despite visible signs of fatigue, his reluctance to listen to concerns within his own party, and his abrupt exit from the race all combined to create what Plouffe and others now refer to as a political disaster.
Harris, for her part, has remained largely silent on Biden’s role in the loss. She has focused her post-campaign appearances on issues like reproductive rights, climate policy, and protecting democracy. But allies close to her have reportedly expressed frustration with how the transition was handled and how much blame she has unfairly shouldered for a race many believed she was never given a fair chance to win.
As Democrats begin the painful process of post-election reflection, the battle lines over Biden’s legacy are becoming clearer. Some defend him as a dedicated public servant who made the best choice he could under difficult circumstances.
Others, like Plouffe, view him as the architect of the party’s unraveling—a once-beloved figure who stayed too long, ignored the warning signs, and left behind a political vacuum that Donald Trump was only too eager to exploit.
The publication of Original Sin is expected to ignite further debate within the Democratic Party about how to move forward, how to rebuild trust, and how to avoid a repeat of the 2024 disaster. For many strategists, the lessons are already clear. Future campaigns must be built on clarity, unity, and timely decision-making. The cost of getting those things wrong has never been more evident.
