CNN contributor and Former Obama advisor David Axelrod He asked analysts to have a “clear view” about “racism” and “sexism” as reasons for Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss to former President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Trump was declared the winner over Harris by most outlets early Wednesday, After a historic political comeback He will return to the Oval Office in January.
In analysis the night after the election, Axelrod was hesitant to attribute Harris’s defeat solely to bias, but said that anyone who does not thinks that “racial bias” or “sexism” influenced the outcome , that is “wrong”.
“There were appeals to racism in this campaign, and there is racial bias in this country and there is sexism in this country, and anyone who thinks that it won’t have an impact in some way on the outcome of this race is wrong, ” Axelrod said.
“I’m not saying that was the main reason why Kamala Harris lost and Donald Trump won,” he said. He said Trump ran an “honest, strategic” and “very smart campaign.”
Axelrod said, “Ultimately it was a rational, well-conceived and well-executed campaign for an often illogical candidate, and he overcame that to sell his message or the message he felt he should sell to the country.” “
“But don’t get confused about what it was and what it wasn’t,” he said. “Let’s have a very clear view of this.”
Co-panelist Van Jones echoed Axelrod’s disappointment, explaining that there were limitations for candidates of color.
“There’s a license that [Trump] I just had to play dumb, just be an obnoxious ass to everybody,” Jones continued, adding that for candidates lacking “that phenotype,” such behavior is unimaginable.
Jones suggested that despite Harris’s qualifications as a prosecutor, senator, and Vice President, her defeat reflected society’s bias.
“She’s not Oprah or Beyoncé,” he concluded.
