Veteran journalist blames Harris’ failure on 'corporate puppets' who 'stand for nothing'

06 November 2024

President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to enter a second term after routing Vice President Kamala Harris in nearly all battleground states and currently leading in the popular vote tally. As pundits try to determine what went wrong, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist isn't holding back in assigning blame to Democratic Party elites.

In a lengthy tweet, Chris Hedges — who won the 2022 Pultizer Prize as part of the New York Times investigative team that reported on al-Qaeda — blasted Harris and the Democratic Party along with "the establishment wing of the Republican Party, which allied itself with Harris" for losing in a blowout to Trump. Hedges opined that it was a blunder for the party to deny its base a primary, process, saying that the vice president was "anointed by party elites and never received a single primary vote."

The former Times journalist was particularly incensed with Harris' decision to embrace former Vice President Dick Cheney's endorsement, whom Hedges described as "a politician who left office with a 13 percent approval rating." And he lamented that the "smug, self-righteous 'moral' crusade against Trump" became a "national reality television show that has replaced journalism and politics."

"It reduces a social, economic and political crisis to the personality of Trump. It refuses to confront and name the corporate forces responsible for our failed democracy. It allows Democratic politicians to blithely ignore their base," Hedges tweeted, pointing out that "77 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents support an arms embargo against Israel."

"The open collusion with corporate oppression and refusal to heed the desires and needs of the electorate neuters the press and Trump critics. These corporate puppets stand for nothing, other than their own advancement," he continued. "The lies they tell to working men and women, especially with programs such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), do far more damage than any of the lies uttered by Trump."

Hedges' point is underscored by exit poll data showing that the vast bulk of Trump's voters in 2024 were primarily motivated by issues pertaining to the economy. And while President Joe Biden's administration oversaw a period in which real wage growth (adjusted for inflation) outpaced price increases, a persistently low unemployment rate that hovered at or near 4% for the longest period in decades, the best post-pandemic economic recovery of all G7 countries and a stock market that hit multiple record highs, the economy was still tenuous for many working-class Americans.

In 2023, PBS NewsHour reported that chronic homelessness hit an all-time high. More than half of Americans who rent homes said earlier this year they feared they would never be able to actually own a home. And 86% of renters say they would like to buy a home but are unable to afford one due to sky-high home prices.

Aside from housing costs, millions of Americans are also unable to afford healthcare costs, even with insurance. 48% of insured American adults told the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) earlier this year that they worried about being unable to afford their monthly premiums. And large swaths of Americans with health insurance rated their coverage as "fair" or "poor" given the cost of premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

"About three in four adults say they are either 'very' or 'somewhat worried' about being able to afford unexpected medical bills (74%) or the cost of health care services (73%) for themselves and their families," KFF reported in March. "Additionally, about half of adults would be unable to pay an unexpected medical bill of $500 in full without going into debt."

Click here to read Hedges' post in its entirety.

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