The Harris campaign did “unfathomable damage” to the Democrat cause by spending billions of dollars, according to veteran party strategist James Carville.
Carville was appearing on the Politics War Room podcast this week when he laid in to the Harris campaign and questioned what Harris’s record-breaking campaign spend actually achieved.
In particular, Carville predicted that future campaigns would have a hard time raising money.
“The resistance is going to have trouble raising money,” Carville said.
“These fundraisers are burnt.”
He went on to say, “The damage that the 2024 campaign has done, the damage this decade has done to the Democratic brand is almost unfathomable.”
Carville then called for a full audit of the Harris campaign to find out exactly how the money was spent.
“Do you have any idea where that money went? Does anybody have any idea where that money went?”
In total, the Harris campaign spent $1.2 billion, a record amount, compared to Donald Trump’s more modest $750 million. Despite this record spending, the campaign ended up $20 million in debt.
Among Harris’s many extravagances was the construction of a copycat studio for her Call Her Daddy appearance, at a cost of $100,000.
The set was built in a hotel room in Washington DC, so that Harris wouldn’t have to go to LA.
She also spent nearly $4 million to recruit social-media influences, $9,000 on ice cream and $15,000 in food-delivery. Travel on private jets cost the campaign $2.6 million.
Actual Democrat spending on the election was far more. Estimates suggest that, when payments from affiliated PACs and the DNC are taken into account, the total figure raised is more in the region of $2.3 billion.
By contrast, Trump, his PACs and the RNC raised a total of $1.8 billion.
A combined spend of $3.5 billion makes 2024 the most expensive election campaign in history.
Despite spending considerably less, Trump still managed to hammer Harris, winning the electoral college and the popular vote, and probably control of both Houses.
Between July and election day, the Harris campaign and its affiliates spent $654 million, whereas Trump spent £378 million, 57% less.
As the full scale of the defeat sinks in, the recriminations have already begun, with aides and staffers expressing disbelief at how so much money could be spent to no avail.
“How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f***?” said a former Biden staffer, according to The Daily Mail.