The Democrat blame game in Philadelphia has intensified following Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Trump in the Keystone State, with Harris turning out less voters in Philadelphia compared to former presidents Biden, Clinton and Obama.
In an on-camera interview, Fox News spoke to Philadelphia Democrat Party Chairman Bob Brady, who torched the Harris campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort, defended President Biden, and said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro should have been the vice-presidential pick on the 2024 Democratic ticket.
In response, the Harris campaign immediately lashed out against Brady’s comments in a seething statement. They said that the Harris team knocked on more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day.
HARRIS WORLD BLAME GAME BEGINS AFTER CRUSHING LOSS TO TRUMP
Philadelphia Democrat Party Chairman Bob Brady found it baffling that Vice President Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, pictured, over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate, and said that the decision cost her the state as well as other states. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Brady, a former congressman, tells Fox News that the Harris campaign was only in touch with the local coordinating campaign, which his team worked alongside.
“But the national campaign, nothing. Zero. They had no respect. They had no coordination. I never even had a conversation with the lady,” Brady said, referring to Harris.
“First time ever. I’ve had Joe Biden here many times. He was here for our dinner. I had President Obama here, met with the workers. I had President Clinton here, met with the workers. I had candidate Clinton here, met with the workers, [the Harris campaign] never met with us.”
Brady acknowledged that the campaign had a hectic schedule but said even a short Zoom call with volunteers would have given them “a little bit of a pop,” but that never materialized.
“And then they didn’t even do the right thing as far as giving us the resources that we need,” Brady added. “And they want to blame us. And now I understand someone… was blaming Joe Biden. Can you imagine blaming Joe Biden for her loss? She lost. He didn’t lose.“
Politico reported last month that top Democrats in Pennsylvania were raising concerns that the Harris campaign operation was being poorly run in the nation’s biggest battleground state. Pennsylvania Democratic elected officials, party leaders and allies told the outlet that some Harris aides lack relationships with key party figures, particularly in Philadelphia and its suburbs. They also complained they had been left out of events and surrogates had not been deployed effectively.
Bob Brady with President Biden in October. ( Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Brady said the way the campaign was run in Philadelphia was symptomatic of how the Harris campaign ran its operations nationwide.
“It kind of seems that way, don’t it. I mentioned our collar counties, they didn’t give them any respect. They were screaming and hollering for signs. They didn’t get them to the last minute, we didn’t get them to the last minute and I think that’s indicative throughout the whole country and the vote shows it. It does show it,” Brady.
Brady said that when help did arrive in Philadelphia it was made up of volunteers arriving from other parts of the country who didn’t relate with locals.
“They got a clipboard, they knock on the door, drop literature and take off. They don’t say, ‘How’s mom? How’s your dad? How’s your kids doing?’” Brady said. “That’s more important, it’s the human touch when you have your committee people doing it in the neighborhoods where they live in.
He says the campaign should have reached out to experienced operatives on the ground to find out what help and resources they needed.
“Ask us for our help. We know how to do this. It’s not our first campaign. It may have been hers, but it’s not ours. And she got thrust in the last minute. Okay, well, then come to us. We’ll tell you what we need to get done. How [do we have] to do it? And that didn’t happen,” Brady said.
Brady says that it was a mistake for President Biden to drop out of the race and believes he would have performed better than Harris had he remained on the ticket.
“I think we would have been better with Joe Biden. I think that he would have done a better job. And it shows differently to 2020 to 2024 how his margins were much higher than hers throughout the country.”
“He had one bad debate. Obama had a bad debate. Fetterman had a bad debate. He would have overcome that because he spoke many times. Later, he came to a cocktail party with what maybe a thousand people. He spoke great. I was with him Friday at the union, he spoke great,” Brady said of President Biden.
“And now to blame him, to actually have somebody blaming him for her loss… How about the candidate? Maybe there’s something wrong there.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois. Brady says that Vice-President Harris should have chosen Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Brady also found it baffling that Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate and says that the decision cost her the state as well as other states.
“We would have won Pennsylvania and maybe would have won other parts of the state, other parts of the country, because he would have been out there campaigning in other parts of the country,” Brady said.
“He’s a great campaigner. He’s articulate. He looks good. He talks good. Everybody likes him. He would [have done] a great job as a vice president in Texas, in Omaha, anywhere you take him, he would have been great, let alone we would have got a lock in the state of Pennsylvania.”
Harris campaign senior adviser Brendan McPhillips shot back at Brady’s claims and blamed him for not raising enough cash for the campaign’s operations in the city.
“The Pennsylvania for Harris team knocked more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day, which is two million more doors than Bob Brady’s organization can claim to have knocked during his entire tenure as party chairman,” McPhillips said.
“No serious person can say they have an answer to what caused nationwide trends in the electorate less than 24 hours after polls closed. If there’s any immediate takeaway from Philadelphia’s turnout this cycle, it is that Chairman Brady’s decades-long practice of fleecing campaigns for money to make up for his own lack of fundraising ability or leadership is a worthless endeavor that no future campaign should ever be forced to entertain again.”
McPhillips added, “The thousands of dedicated staff and volunteers on the Harris campaign should be applauded for their efforts in the face of an unprecedented campaign and will no doubt be the ones who are going to dust themselves off and get back to work.”
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