Harris aide admits Democrats were hurt by abandoning primary process

Democrats' failure to hold a presidential primary hurt them in the 2024 Election. 

This is the view of David Plouffe, who is one of Vice President Kamala Harris's top aides.

According to Fox News, Plouffe made the admission in a recent interview that he did with The Atlantic. In the interview, he actually referred to the Democrats' abandonment of the primary process as a "cardinal sin."

Plouffe comments, however, are also being viewed as a condemnation of Harris. After all, how would things have been different unless the primary process produced a different candidate?

"The cardinal sin"

As the reader likely remembers, President Joe Biden was forced to end his reelection campaign after it became clear that he would have struggled to beat President-Elect Donald Trump. Then, instead of holding a primary, Democratic leaders simply replaced Biden with Harris.

Harris lost - in a big way - and, now, about a month later, the Democrats are still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. Plouffe's view is that not holding a primary was a major error.

He said:

I’m not sure, given the headwinds, any Democrat could have won. But if we had a primary in which a bunch of people ran and auditioned… through that process, whoever emerged… would have been a more fully formed person, would have had more time to mount a general election campaign. [Not having that process] is the cardinal sin.

Plouffe does seem to imply, here, that, in his view, Harris was the wrong candidate.

It is a surprising admission given the fact that Plouffe was one of the Harris campaign's top aides.

It is not just Plouffe making this claim

None other than U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is also admitting that the Democrats' abandonment of the primary process hurt them.

"Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race," Pelosi said.

This is a massive admission from Pelosi considering that reports have indicated that she was a major factor in how things played out - from Biden's removal and Harris's installment.

Pelosi, in the interview, went on to claim that Harris could have won the primary and been a stronger candidate as a result. Many disagree with the accuracy of this part of Pelosi's assessment.

The big question going forward is how the Democrats are going to recover from all of this. Early indications would suggest that they are moving away from Harris. Time will tell.