President-elect Trump's historic victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday has surrogates pointing fingers and blaming the Democratic nominee for the loss even before Harris officially concedes.
Harris Walz's attorney, Lindy Lee, said in an interview with Fox News senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich at Harris' alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., that Harris' team was “preparing for all the chaos.” I wasn't expecting it,” he said.
“The blame game has begun,” said Lee, a member of the DNC's national finance committee and Pennsylvania state commissioner.
Lee said Harris' pick for vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, may not have been the right choice to pit the “blue wall” state against a Trump-Vance ticket.
Trump claims victory, Harris skips party: Biggest surprise of election night
Just before she takes the stage at her final campaign rally in Philadelphia on Monday, Harris watches the event monitor from backstage. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
“One of my top priorities is to select Tim Walz as my running mate,” Lee said. “There's a lot of people out there saying it should have been Josh Shapiro tonight. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been criticized by one surrogate as a possible factor in Harris' loss to Trump. (AP/Paul Sancia, File)
“I think a lot of people tonight are wondering what would have happened if Shapiro had been on the ticket,” Lee continued. “It's not just about Pennsylvania. He's known for being a moderate. So it would have shown the American people that she's not the San Francisco liberal that President Trump said he was.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro toured the state with Harris to drum up support for the Democratic candidate. (Hannah Baier/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File)
Lee added that “we don't know how much Tim Walz contributed to the ticket” as the campaign is forced to “clean up” the governor's “laundry list” of gaffes.
“In the eyes of the American people, he was the governor who oversaw the protests in Minnesota and probably prolonged them longer than necessary, so that's burned into the minds of the American people,” she said. spoke.
“Also, ideally, you wouldn't say on national television that you're a fist-head.” Lee was forced to correct an incorrect statement during the vice presidential debate that Walz was in Hong Kong. I mentioned a moment when I wasn't there. In the spring of 1989, during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests. “I think that’s his very basic content, like Politics 101.”
Harris had not yet addressed the election results as of Wednesday morning. She was scheduled to speak later that day. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Lee said Harris' attempts to present herself as a “unifier” may have “undermined her goal” of winning over Biden voters. They're probably still understandably upset that their leader has been so unceremoniously and basically sidelined.”
Fox News project elects President Trump, liberals rage on social media: “What the hell is going on?''
Lee said Harris' appearance on ABC's “The View” also may have been a missed opportunity to demonstrate how the Harris administration was not a repeat of the four years of the Biden administration.
“She knows she was wrong when she said on 'The View' that she couldn't think of anything different from the Biden administration,” Lee said. “This was an opportunity for her to show the American people that she was going to be tough on the border and that she was going to take drastic steps to reduce inflation. That was her chance.”
President-elect Trump declared victory early Wednesday morning at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
Lee also cited concerns that the leadership of Harris' Pennsylvania team made poor staffing decisions that ultimately led to confusion in the campaign's message.
“(Harris) listened to us. We raised serious concerns about the leadership of the Pennsylvania campaign,” Lee said. “In fact, she installed someone on her own people in the last weeks of the campaign, but I fear it was too late. … We are not out-of-state operatives; You should have someone who deeply understands and intimately understands the contours of the state, moving from campaign to campaign.”
Click to get the FOX News app
Harris did not speak to supporters who gathered overnight at her alma mater. She is scheduled to speak later Wednesday.
