CHRIS CRUCIAL: Kamala vs Joe 🧨

PLUS: An accidental announcement for governor 😲

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1. The Democratic blame game

(Happier days/Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Even as official Washington is focused on the first days of the second presidency of Donald Trump, the knife fight between the top two Democrats in the party over what their 2024 loss meant and who is really to blame for it continues to get nastier.

This, from the Wall Street Journal is 👀:

Vice President Kamala Harris has told close allies and family members she is disappointed in President Biden’s recent contention that he would have won the 2024 election, according to people familiar with the conversations, straining relations between the two during their final days in the White House.

Harris has been reluctant to distance herself from Biden or criticize him throughout her vice presidency. Even as several top Democrats pushed her to break from the unpopular president after she replaced him atop the ticket, Harris refused. She vocally supported Biden after his halting debate performance in June, when several Democrats were calling on him to step aside, and when a special counsel report on Biden’s handling of classified documents amplified concerns about his mental acuity.

Her fraying relationship with Biden comes at a challenging time for Harris, who is dealing with a crisis in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where wildfires have caused broad destruction, as she transitions out of her public role. Harris has expressed deep sadness to people close to her over losing the election and Biden’s comments, some of those people said.

This is the most predictable thing ever. Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan and all that.

Let’s unpack this a bit.

It is absolutely true that Biden believes he would have beaten Donald Trump had he stayed in the race — even after his disastrous June 27 debate performance.

“It's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” Biden told USA Today’s Susan Page in an exit interview earlier this month about the prospects of him winning a 2nd term over Trump.

“I would have beaten Trump, could have beaten Trump,” Biden told reporters a few days later.

To quote Joe Biden: You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.

And the facts are these: In the wake of his debate performance, not only was Biden cratering in the polls — states like Virginia, New Mexico and Minnesota suddenly looked like Trump pick-up opportunities — but the president was functioning as an anchor around the feet of vulnerable downballot Democrats as well.

Biden could not have won. He could not have come close to winning. These may be uncomfortable facts for Joe Biden. But they are facts nonetheless.

So why does Biden keep saying it? And why does it piss Harris off? Because they are attempting to do two very different things with their futures.

Let me explain.