By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s Name wasn’t on the ballot but history will probably remember Kamala Harris His defeat resonates like his loss.

As Democrats collect the pieces After being elected president Donald Trump’s decisive victorySome supporters of the vice president are expressing disappointment that Biden is set to seek re-election by this summer, despite voters’ longstanding concerns about his age and uneasiness about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border. The surrender of the White House.

“The biggest responsibility for this loss falls on President Biden’s shoulders,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and supported Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had resigned in January instead of July, we would have been in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after saving the United States from the worst pandemic in a century and will subsequently increase international support for Ukraine. invasion of Russia and passing by $1 trillion infrastructure bill This situation will affect societies for years to come.

But after just one term, Biden, who ran against Trump four years ago to “revitalize the soul of the country,” will replace his predecessor, who weathered two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has promised to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these accomplishments,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the short term, I don’t know if he can escape the legacy of being the president who defeated Donald Trump and ushered in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

Biden on Thursday avoided directly addressing voters’ apparent rejection of his presidency. Instead, he noted, Americans will feel the effects of the administration’s signature legislative efforts for years to come.

“Remember everything we have accomplished,” Biden said in a brief Rose Garden speech that was attended by Cabinet members and top aides but not by Harris. “It has been a historic presidency; Not because I am president, but because of what we have done. What have you done?”

Harris issued a statement shortly after giving her concession speech on Wednesday, praising her for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Democrats were caught up in a wave of anti-incumbency in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended governments in democracies around the world, regardless of ideology. He did not directly respond to questions about criticism that Biden waited too long to bow to.

“He believed he made the right decision,” Jean-Pierre said at his daily briefing.

Only 4 in 10 voters in the 2024 presidential election approved of how Biden is handling the presidency, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters. Nearly 6 in 10 disapproved, and Donald Trump won a strong majority of voters dissatisfied with Biden.

Some senior Democrats, including three advisers to the Harris campaign, expressed deep disappointment that Biden failed to recognize early in the election cycle that he was not ready for the challenge. The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign in July, weeks after a disastrous debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and toughness to serve as a credible candidate.

However, surveys conducted long ago showed that: many Americans are concerned about his age. In August 2023, 77 percent of Americans said Biden was too old to be effective for another four years. a survey By AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

Minister He resigned on July 21 After receiving not-so-subtle prodding from Democratic Party forces, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Biden endorsed Harris and handed over the campaign operation to him.

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, one of several Democratic lawmakers who publicly pressured Biden to step aside this summer, said on CNN on Thursday that the Democratic Party “would be in much better shape” if Biden had left the race sooner.

Yang argued that Democratic Party leaders also deserve blame for taking too long to oust Biden. With a few exceptions, most notably Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Democrats have avoided speaking publicly about Biden’s age.

“Why wasn’t this coming from any Democratic leaders?” Yang said. “This lack of courage and independence and extreme careerism; if I keep my mouth shut we’ll move on.”

The campaign has also been hampered by anger among some Arab Americans and young voters over Israel’s handling of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Senator Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that Democrats had lost the thread on the concerns of the American working class.

“Can the big capitalists and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” said the Vermont independent. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation experienced by tens of millions of Americans?”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison pushed back on Sanders’ criticism on social media Thursday, saying Biden is “the most professional labor President of my lifetime.”

Harris managed to create much greater enthusiasm than Biden did among the party base. But he struggled to discern how his administration would differ from Biden’s.

Harris appeared on ABC’s “The View” in September. I couldn’t identify It’s a decision that will distinguish him from Biden. “There’s nothing I can think of,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a solid quote that was repeated throughout Election Day.

Strategists advising the Harris campaign said the compressed campaign schedule made it more difficult for Harris to separate herself from the president.

If Biden had stepped aside earlier in the year, they said, that could have given Democrats enough time to hold a primary. Stepping into an intraparty contest could force Harris or another candidate to more aggressively pursue differences with Biden.

Strategists acknowledged that widespread dissatisfaction with rising costs in the wake of the pandemic and widespread concerns about the U.S. immigration system are weighing heavily on the minds of voters in key states.