As the sun set on Howard University in Washington DC, a group of women gathered on a grassy patch in the centre of campus.
They held hands in a wide circle and sang hymns, many wiping tears from their faces.
They had just watched a concession speech given by Kamala Harris.
Many had been at the university the night before, hoping to witness America electing its first female president.
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“I don’t think she could have done anything differently,” one said, “she ran a good campaign, I just think misogyny and racism is deep-rooted in America.”
Another lay the blame at the door of President Biden.
“Unfortunately I think if he’d have gone sooner, she would have had more chance to tell her story and establish herself,” another said.
In Democratic Party circles, the inquest had begun even before Harris spoke.
Not only had she been defeated in all seven of the key swing states, the map showed rightward shifts across the country. Questions about what went wrong for the campaign and the Democratic Party are at a fever pitch.
Some of Ms Harris’s supporters were in tears at her concession speech. Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
David Plouffe, a senior campaign adviser for Harris, posted on X: “It was a privilege to spend the last 100 days with Kamala Harris… We dug out of a deep hole but not enough.”
Many are reading that deep hole as one left by Joe Biden, who some say didn’t leave his vice president enough time to make her pitch to the nation known. Mr Plouffe has since deleted his entire X account.
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Harris fans despair as she concedes
Others wondered whether President Biden’s ego had led him to cling to power too long. Had the man who once pledged to be a transition candidate been so intoxicated by the heady heights of the Oval Office that he couldn’t bear to step aside?
Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen told Sky News she didn’t “think this was so personal towards Kamala Harris”.
Harris arriving at Howard University in Washington, DC on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
She said: “The campaign miscalculated the importance of the economy as a central message.
“I think they thought it was going to be a referendum on Donald Trump and a referendum on abortion. And those two calculations, I think, had them underplay what we know voters’ key issue was, which is the economy.”
President Biden spoke in the Rose Garden, paying tribute to Ms Harris’s campaign and promising a peaceful transition of power to president-elect Donald Trump.
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But his speech will probably be remembered as much for what he didn’t say. There was no introspection about the loss, no answers offered for why it was such a bruising defeat.
Brett Bruin, former White House director of global engagement who worked under Barack Obama, said: “I can’t help but think back to what President Obama said after his first defeat at the congressional level. He acknowledged it was a shellacking.
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“We didn’t hear that from President Biden. This has been part of the problem throughout his presidency, it’s part of the reason why Biden and Harris were so unsuccessful when it came to unpopularity is that they didn’t acknowledge the problems, they didn’t address the problems.
“I wonder when the Democratic Party are going to say, ‘we have to change’.”