Former President Barack Obama's years of dominating Democratic Party politics may be drawing to a close, as he and party leaders will likely face a "greater reckoning" after Democrats’ losses in the 2024 election, experts predict.
The whirlwind presidential election saw the Democratic Party rally around both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee at separate times – all with Obama’s seal of approval. The political landscape shifted with a single tweet from Biden on a Sunday July afternoon, with Obama and his allies deeply entwined with efforts to navigate the party to what they hoped would be an electoral victory come Nov. 5, a look back at the cycle shows.
President-elect Trump notched a decisive win last month, racking up 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226 and taking a victory lap for what the media has described as an "historic political comeback" that has shaken the Democratic establishment as they pivot to combating Trump 2.0 and his policies.
"I think there are going to be big demands for a greater reckoning. The Democratic politburo – Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries and others – all participated in the obvious lie that Biden was capable of a second term, in the anti-Democratic move to install a wholly untested Vice President Harris," Democratic strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital when asked about Obama’s legacy following the election. "And in lacking the courage for the past four years to stand up a progressive left whose policies are far out of touch with most voters."
"They all failed the test of leadership in this respect."
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This month, Obama delivered a speech at the 2024 Obama Democracy Forum, which earned him a headline on MSNBC, reading, "Obama still doesn’t get why Trump won. That’s the problem."
"Obama’s characteristic rhetorical virtues were on full display. He was a constitutional law professor before he was a politician, and he still sounds like one. At the same time, he was a once-in-a-generation talent as a political communicator. He knows how to convey a complex set of ideas in a digestible and appealing way," the op-ed read.
"But there was a massive gaping hole at the center of his speech. He still doesn’t understand why his eight years in power culminated in the rise of Trump," the op-ed continued, arguing that the "first step" to better respond to Americans’ demand for change from the status quo "is to stop listening to Barack Obama."
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The Democratic Party and Harris campaign have been dragged by some allies, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for moving away from working-class voters while Trump rallied their support. Harris came under fire, for example, for featuring Hollywood celebrities and musicians during her campaign rallies, which were viewed as tone-deaf as Americans struggled with inflation, and their anxiety mounted over ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine.
Now, the Democratic Party is in the midst of a reckoning over the failed election efforts, which saw the White House and Senate flip red and the House remain in the GOP’s control.
"Harris’ advisers blame everything but themselves for their loss," an op-ed published in the Washington Post this month reads. The piece took issue with how a handful of Harris campaign staffers joined the left-wing "Pod Save America" podcast, which is hosted by former Obama aides, and defended their work on the campaign.
David Plouffe, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter and Quentin Fulks joined the show – all of whom, except Fulks, previously worked for Obama’s presidential campaigns or administration.
"What the four never did is directly admit any major mistakes they made. ‘We should have really pushed Harris to distance herself from President Biden’; ‘Maybe we spent too much time in Arizona’ (Harris lost there by 6 percentage points); ‘We should have had a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention.’ There were no blunt statements like that," the op-ed read.
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While the New York Post editorial board declared in a headline following the election: "Trump and America bury the Obama doctrine."
When "Obama installed Kamala Harris as the latest face of his revolution, the American public of all colors, ages and genders finally called time," the Post editorial board argued. "Voters at last saw through the industrialized demonization of Trump and woke up to the truth that his policies are far closer to the American ideal and what they consider normal."
"Let’s all pray that our self-proclaimed betters in their Martha’s Vineyard mansions will finally realize that this was the death of ‘Obamaism’ once this latest thumping fully sinks in," they concluded.
Amid the unprecedented election cycle for Democrats, Obama and his longtime allies have been entwined with Biden’s exit and Harris’ rise and fall as the nominee.
Concerns over President Biden’s mental fitness had circulated for years, heightening last winter when Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents when he was vice president, characterized Biden in his report as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
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Biden’s actions on the national and international stage soon came under further scrutiny, showcasing a handful of gaffes and miscues, including Obama taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in LA in June, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directing Biden back to a gaggle of world leaders in Italy that same month, and data showing Biden frequently delivered remarks to supporters at campaign rallies for a shorter amount of time than a sitcom.
Amid the controversy, however, Obama was seemingly acting as Biden’s political closer to help lock up votes and donations, joining the 46th president at swank fundraisers in California and New York City, and at a moderated conversation with late night host Stephen Colbert between Obama, Biden and former President Bill Clinton.
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Biden and Trump’s only debate of the election cycle opened the floodgates to both Democrats and Republicans questioning and sounding off with concern over Biden’s mental acuity. Biden was seen tripping over his words during the debate, losing his train of thought at times, responding with a raspy voice, and was overall slammed for having a slow and weak demeanor while squaring off against Trump.
Just days after the disastrous debate, Obama defended Biden’s performance by arguing the election pitted a political crusader supporting "ordinary folks" against Trump, whom he described as a man "who only cares about himself."
"Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight – and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November," he posted to X, accompanied by a link to Biden’s campaign website.
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Obama remained vocally coy on Biden in the subsequent days, as the White House was grilled about the president’s mental acuity, and soon traditional Democratic allies of the president began calling on Biden to pass the torch to a younger generation.
Notably, a list of Obama allies and former advisers led the charge in calling for Biden’s exit from the race, including former adviser David Axelrod, former director of speech writing Jon Favreau, former advisers Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor, and Hollywood actor and longtime Obama friend George Clooney.
"It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010," Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed after joining Biden and Obama for the fundraiser in L.A. "He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."
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As media reports circulated that Obama was working "behind the scenes" to oust Biden from the race, the 44th president remained mum, not denying the reports. Politico reported that Clooney even gave Obama a "heads-up" that his op-ed calling on Biden to bow out of the race was set to publish, with Obama reportedly not objecting to the opinion piece.
Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 in a message posted to X that Sunday afternoon. Obama commended Biden’s decades in politics in response, but did not tip his hand on who he would endorse to take his place.
"There is no singular reason why we lost, but a big reason is because the Obama advisers publicly encouraged Democratic infighting to push Joe Biden out, didn’t even want Kamala Harris as the nominee, and then signed up as the saviors of the campaign, only to run outdated Obama-era playbooks for a candidate that wasn’t Obama," one former Biden staffer told Politico.
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Biden endorsed Harris the same afternoon he dropped out of the race, teeing her up for a likely nomination with just 100 days and change to rally support from voters.
Obama has had a long relationship with Harris, as she was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
"Barack Obama will be a president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country," Harris said during California's Democratic convention in 2008.
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As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, Harris was even dubbed "the female Obama" by some political analysts.
In her second presidential campaign, Harris on-boarded or retained a bevy of Obama orbit allies and former staffers, including: former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe; former deputy campaign manager for Obama's 2012 election Stephanie Cutter; former Obama campaign grassroots strategist Mitch Stewart; and former Obama White House director of communications Jennifer Palmieri.
Harris also tapped Obama’s former attorney general, Eric Holder, to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates, while Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, who worked as Obama’s 2012 deputy campaign manager and Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign chair, was announced as Harris’ campaign manager.
Obama has historically held his presidential endorsements close to his vest, offering his support to Harris the Friday after Biden dropped out as speculation mounted surrounding the coveted Obama endorsement.
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Obama, who was joined by former first lady Michelle Obama in the endorsement of Harris, solidified Harris as the likely nominee before the official virtual roll call vote and Harris flying to Chicago, where she accepted the nomination at the DNC.
"I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible. Because we have the chance to elect someone who’s spent her entire life trying to give people the same chances America gave her. Someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you: the next President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris," he declared from the DNC.
The week before the DNC, Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would join the ticket as her running mate. Two years before winning the Oval Office in 2008, Obama was one of the few high-profile Democrats in the nation to campaign for Walz when he first launched a career in politics.
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Democratic strategist Julian Epstein, who formerly served as chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, took issue with Obama for not "sticking to his guns" this election cycle in the face of left-wing policies.
He commended Obama for challenging "woke" culture ahead of the 2020 election, but said Obama failed to amplify those calls in the coming years. He arguably allowed the left-wing faction of the party to dominate messaging and policy that shifted the party left.
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"This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff," Obama said back in 2019 of "woke" culture. "You should get over that quickly."
"The world is messy; there are ambiguities," he added. "People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you."
Epstein said Obama "backed down" to progressive Dems, while pointing to his comments from October scolding Black men who did not support Harris.
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"For his part, Obama called out woke four years ago only to be shouted down by far-left virtue signalers. But rather than sticking to his guns, he backed down both during the last four years when the progressive left hijacked policy on issues like immigration, but then more recently by suggesting that working-class Black men were bad people if they didn’t fall into line with the Democratic bosses and vote for Harris. It was a very bad look," Epstein said.
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