Kamala Harris expected the entire Democratic Party to be loyal to her.
She hoped that all of them would be committed to defeating Trump.
But one Democrat went rogue and demolished her campaign.
Democrats have had much more party unity than Republicans in recent history, showing total loyalty to whoever their nominee for president is no matter the circumstances.
Of course, there is good reason Republicans haven’t always had this unity, as their various nominees over the years have frequently taken positions that are not very conservative.
But Kamala Harris was certainly hoping Democrats would line up behind her without any issues, and for the most part that has happened.
One leading Democrat, however, was not so keen on just doing whatever Kamala Harris told him to do.
He knew the truth about Harris, and he wanted to make sure the American people heard it too, even if it had the effect of seriously damaging her campaign.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is not someone who shies away from confronting his own party, and he had some things to say about Harris that she is going to be very unhappy about.
According to Breitbart, “On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s ‘Situation Room,’ Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) said that he’s unclear on the finances behind the economic plans of 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and while he worked well with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) when he was in Congress, he’s unsure if Walz has ‘moved too far left.’”
At a time when Harris and Walz are trying to pander to middle-of-the-road voters by pretending they are moderates themselves, this is the last message they are going to want getting out.
The fact that Manchin said it on CNN, in front of voters who Harris cannot afford to lose, makes it even worse from her perspective.
It would be one thing if Manchin said these things on Fox News, where he would be effectively preaching to the choir.
But he could do some real damage to Harris’s campaign, and perhaps even ruin it completely, if he convinces CNN viewers not to support her.
Here is what Manchin said when asked what it would take to get him to vote for Harris: “I want to see if people recognize the debt that we’re carrying right now, how do you get your financial house in order, recognize there’s 35.4 trillion, unprecedented debt [more than] we’ve ever carried before. What we’re doing — no matter what you’re saying you want to do and all of these programs, you want to give so much for this and so much for that, new homes and businesses, What’s the bill? What’s it going to cost? Let’s be realistic. People want — people don’t live in this la la land. They have to worry about their finances every day.”
Harris does not appear to have any answer for this.
And if she can’t get one, she can expect to hear much more from Joe Manchin between now and election day.