[ad_1]
Vice President Kamala Harris‘ choice as leader of her presidential campaign has raised questions among some online commentators as Democrats appeared to unite in support of her candidacy.
Harris has chosen Jen O’Malley Dillon, who served as chair of the Biden-Harris campaign before President Joe Biden announced he would leave the race on Sunday.
The choice faced criticism on social-media site X, formerly Twitter, with some users saying that O’Malley Dillon had run the Biden campaign poorly and should not have been picked for Harris’ bid. However, O’Malley Dillon also ran Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign.
Harris is not yet the official Democratic candidate for president, but a survey of delegates conducted by The Associated Press (AP) has found that the vice president has enough support to secure the nomination.
Ronald Klain, former White House chief of staff, praised Harris for choosing O’Malley Dillon in a post on X on Monday. “Good news for Dem ticket: @KamalaHarris announces that she’s putting the incomparable @JOD46 in charge!!”
Nate Silver, statistician and founder of polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight, responded critically to Klain’s post. “It’s not good news for Democrats to put the people who ran the Biden campaign into the ground in charge,” Silver wrote on X.
Newsweek has reached out to the Harris campaign via email outside of business hours for comment.
Jonathan Chait, writer for New York magazine, responded to Silver: “I can think of a lot of problems Biden had, and I can’t think of a single one iId lay on her doorstep. Which ones are you thinking of here?”
“They were down ~3-4 points in the tipping point states even before the debate disaster, they were poll deniers and they were Way Too Online, and they thought they could get away with selling a clearly dysfunctional candidate if they worked the refs hard enough,” Silver replied.
Responding to a question about the quality of the Biden-Harris campaign, Silver added: “I think it’s been one of the worst campaigns of the modern era including to think they could get away with propping up Biden like they tried to do.”
Kostas Moros, an attorney with Michel & Associates representing the California Rifle & Pistol Association, responded to Silver’s initial post, writing: “Yep. Her first major decision being this is good news for Repubs.”
“Can’t imagine a worse choice for a campaign that needs to differentiate itself and wash its hands clean of Biden’s weaknesses in the next 100 days,” wrote X user Spencer Hakimian, founder of Tolou Capital Management.
However, other social-media users were less critical of O’Malley Dillon and the Biden campaign.
“By your own argument, these are the same people who carried a weak candidate that far. Certainly, capable of soldiering on in challenging circumstances,” political economist Konstantin Sonin wrote in response to Silver’s post.
“I mean Biden got too old, I always thought his team was pretty solid,” wrote X user Justin Woolhandler.
Separately, Emmy Ruiz, White House political director, praised O’Malley Dillon. “I’ll say it again: Jen O’Malley Dillon is the best. AND, when we win we will owe her a debt of gratitude for getting us across the finish line,” Ruiz wrote on X.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
[ad_2]
Source link