Republican Pollster Spots How Harris Cost Herself the Election

GOP whisperer Frank Luntz stated that Kamala Harris’s biggest weakness was her proximity to President Joe Biden.

“In the end, she decided not to differentiate herself,” Luntz said on CNN Wednesday afternoon. And you can be supportive of someone and still say, ‘I’m something different. I don’t look like him. I don’t sound like him. We have complementary points of view, but they’re not identical.’ And then she could’ve gone off and differentiated herself. Once again, it was her choice to align with Biden that tightly. Was she loyal? Absolutely. Did it hurt her in the campaign? Absolutely.”

For many, the most damning moment for Harris was her appearance on The View last month where she told the hosts that there was “not a thing that comes to mind” in regard to what she would do differently from President Biden.

Luntz may be on to something, as the vice president was politically tethered to one of the more unpopular presidents of the modern era. Biden has been criticized for lingering too long, for not setting up the next generation of party leadership for success, and not announcing sooner that he would step down after one term like he alluded to during his 2020 campaign.

On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump posted a photo of the entire family clan at their estate in Mar-a-Lago, including all of the president-elect’s children, their spouses, and several grandchildren. But the photo was missing his wife, Melania, and, for some reason, included billionaire Elon Musk.

The photo was clearly meant to be celebratory, coming after Trump’s election win was confirmed, so it’s conspicuous that the former and future first lady was absent. It’s telling that Musk, who juiced the Trump campaign with millions of dollars in the past few months, is, quite literally, in the picture.

The billionaire tech CEO spent election night with Trump, showing that he is now a part of the president-elect’s inner circle. He’s already been promised a major role in the Trump administration to improve government efficiency, claiming that he can cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. Such cuts would almost certainly have negative consequences in the lives of many Americans, especially since Social Security would likely be targeted.

Musk, the world’s richest man, stands to be even richer during Trump’s presidency, with less scrutiny from government regulators and favorable treatment from his new best friend. The stock in his electric car company, Tesla, has skyrocketed in the past day. The billionaire has promised to continue his political efforts through his America PAC, meaning that Trump and his MAGA friends will have Musk’s dollars at their disposal for some time to come.

The photo perhaps is a look at who will be the public faces of the next first family. Trump’s wife, while not invisible during his first term, spent a lot of time in Trump Tower in New York and wasn’t very active during his 2024 campaign. Maybe Musk is now an honorary part of the Trump family thanks to his money and support, and maybe Melania Trump is going to focus on herself this time around. She already published a new book in the past year and disclosed a hidden support for abortion rights. Perhaps she doesn’t want the same kind of attention that she got in Trump’s first term.

Kamala Harris delivered a speech to supporters Wednesday conceding the election to Donald Trump, the last coherent speech Americans may hear from a major politician for the foreseeable future.

In her afternoon address at Howard University, her alma mater, Harris promised to assist Trump and his team with their transition, and to “engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”

“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny,” Harris said. “And anyone who seeks the public trust should honor it.”

Trump notably has not honored that important principle, as he falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and has yet to admit he lost the race. Tuesday night, the president-elect gave a particularly dark, unwieldy victory speech, and thanks to 72 million Americans, we will likely hear similar speeches for the next four years.

“We owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States. And loyalty to our conscience, and to our God,” Harris said.

“While I concede the election,” she continued, “I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”

She urged her supporters to continue fighting for women’s bodily autonomy and against Republicans who would see it handed back to the states and legislated into oblivion. She also called on supporters to continue the fight against gun violence, in schools and on the streets.

“Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win,” she said. “Don’t ever give up.”

Watch her full speech here.

Donald Trump and his authoritarian vision for the country swept to power on Tuesday. While several demographics played into the Republican takeover, a survey of 120,000 voters conducted by the Associated Press found that young men played a critical role in his win, voting decisively for the MAGA leader.

Men between the ages of 18 and 29 turned away from Democrats in droves, shattering illusions that Gen Z—a cohort that statistically reads fewer books, comprehends less information, and predominantly gets their news from social media—skews more progressive than previous generations. The key demographic of young men has shifted nearly 30 points to the right since 2020, when they voted for President Joe Biden by a margin of 15 percent, according to the AP.

Millennial men also continued the growing trend of deference toward Trump at the ballot box. In 2020, men between the ages of 24 and 39 voted for President Joe Biden by a margin of 20 percentage points, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Even that result was a radical shift from the demographic’s politics four years earlier, an increase of eight percentage points in Trump’s favor from 2016.

Young women also veered in favor of the “grab ‘em by the pussy” rapist, though less so than men. The Associated Press data found that women ages 18–29 shifted to the right by 14 percentage points on Tuesday, voting for Harris by a margin of 18 percent (down from 32 percent for Biden in 2020).

The most ardent Trump supporters among women remained white women, with a majority of the voting bloc—52 percent—casting their ballots for the convicted adulterer, Jeffrey Epstein confidante, and proud abortion rights destroyer.

Steve Bannon told us he was feeling “empowered” after his release from prison last week. It’s quite obvious he means it.

Hours after Donald Trump’s victory, the former Trump campaign official and self-described “political prisoner” went on an angry rant, during which he revealed what very well may be the first targets in Trump’s second term.

“You stole the 2020 election.… This entire phony thing is getting swept out,” Bannon said. “Biden’s getting swept out. Kamala Harris is getting swept out. MSNBC is getting swept out. The Justice Department is getting swept out. The FBI is getting swept out. You people suck, OK?! And now you’re going to pay the price for trying to destroy this country.”

Bannon went on to say that Democrats and their institutions “don’t deserve any respect, you don’t deserve any empathy, and you don’t deserve any pity.… You deserve what we call rough Roman justice, and we’re prepared to give it to you.”

These chilling threats come from a man who was just released from a Connecticut federal correctional institution Tuesday after serving four months for contempt of Congress. In 2021, Bannon refused to comply with the House January 6 committee’s probe into the insurrection, failing to produce requested documents and to comply with a subpoena. He was convicted in 2022.

Bannon still faces criminal charges in New York state court, where he allegedly scammed donors who pledged money toward constructing the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The trial is set for December. The 70-year-old has pleaded not guilty.