Democratic National Committee women’s chair and Kamala Harris surrogate Lindy Li unloaded her frustrations to Fox News on Saturday, saying the Harris campaign was a “$1 billion disaster” and pinning the blame for it on Joe Biden.
Li, a donor to Harris, told Fox News host Will Cain that the problems began with Biden’s swift endorsement of Harris on the day he left the presidential race.
“I actually think President Biden, the whole endorsing her 30 minutes after he dropped out, I think that was a big, ‘F you’ to the party. ‘If you don’t want me, here’s somebody you may not like, deal with it,’” Li said.
Cain asked if she meant Biden was “sticking the party with Kamala Harris?”
“Kind of like sticking it to the man,” Li replied.
Li cited the delay by Michelle and Barack Obama to endorse Harris as a sign that Democrats were stunned by Biden’s fast endorsement. The former president and first lady waited three days to endorse Harris. “It was the silence heard ’round the world.”
Biden’s endorsement came after widespread discussions among party leaders and members of the media about the idea of some sort of open mini-primary, but the president’s quick backing stymied that idea.
Li added, “The truth is, this is just an epic disaster, this is a $1 billion disaster. Actually, it was 1 billion, 18 million, I think, right? They’re $20 million or $18 million in debt. It’s incredible, and I raised millions of that. I have friends that I have to be accountable to and to explain what happened, because I told them it was a margin of error race.”
“I was promised, [Harris campaign chair] Jen O’Malley Dillon promised all of us that Harris would win,” Li said. “She even put videos out saying Harris would win. I believed her, my donors believed her, and so they wrote massive checks. I just feel like a lot of us were misled.”
You can watch the full Fox News segment with Lindy Li in the video above.
