Former senior Obama advisor-turned-senior Kamala Harris advisor David Plouffe has deleted his X account after suggesting on Wednesday that Harris’ landslide defeat was Joe Biden’s fault for not dropping out soon enough, and right as a massive campaign debt scandal erupts.
“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough. A devastating loss,” Plouffe posted to X – in what many interpreted as a dig at Biden.
And now, Plouffe and X are no more.
David Plouffe has been unburdened from posts that have been. https://t.co/8YqM0VPGDH pic.twitter.com/K0AolWvWq3
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 7, 2024
That said, was this about more than salty tears?
20 Million In Debt
After raising over $1 billion and left with $118 million in the bank as of October 16, the Harris campaign ended the 2024 election season with “at least $20 million in debt,” according to Politico’s Christopher Cadelago.
Breitbart CEO Matt Boyle says a Kamala campaign staffer “said there is a massive scandal here worthy of an audit.”
Ok so this just got very explosive. A Kamala campaign staffer who saw these posts called me just now and said there is a massive scandal here worthy of an audit.
The $20 million debt thing is real. Rob Flaherty, this staffer said, is currently shopping around the Kamala… https://t.co/7EJ9ruKQzs
— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) November 7, 2024
Boyle’s post in its entirety:
Ok so this just got very explosive. A Kamala campaign staffer who saw these posts called me just now and said there is a massive scandal here worthy of an audit.
The $20 million debt thing is real. Rob Flaherty, this staffer said, is currently shopping around the Kamala fundraising email list to anyone who wants it to try to raise the money back. This includes other campaigns and outside groups.
Flaherty is the deputy campaign manager and reports to Jen O’Malley Dillon.
“Jen blew through a billion dollars in a few months and it was all Jen’s idea to do all the concerts.” — Kamala campaign adviser told me
This source added that O’Malley Dillon did these “concerts,” like Katy Perry, Lizzo, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen et cetera at the expense of “prioritizing and spending money on social media and other campaign priorities.”
Apparently a group in Georgia had to lay off 100 people because they couldn’t pay them.
It’s unclear at this time if the campaign PAID the talent to perform but the cost of production for the events was “immense.”
What’s more, this Kamala campaign staffer said several people who were working for the Kamala Harris for President campaign are still awaiting several overdue payments they were promised for their work. IE, they didn’t pay the staff.
This Kamala campaign staffer said to me of @jomalleydillon
“People didn’t like working with her. Many people on the campaign felt like we lost because Kamala wasn’t allowed to run her campaign. They were running Joe Biden’s campaign instead of a Kamala campaign. Obnoxious and very much a gate keeper and interfering with the vice president’s people who were trying to do their job.”
According to data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Harris campaign had received over $1 billion up until October 16 – including when it was the Joe Biden campaign.
Over the same period, the Trump campaign took in $392 million and spent $345 million.
Democrats spent $1.1 billion on aired advertising and associated reservations, according to AdImpact – a site which monitors the cost and content of ads, Newsweek reports.
According to The New York Times, the Harris campaign spent “six figures” to fly banners over four NFL games in October in an attempt to reach male voters in swing states. The Guardian reported in November that it also spent “a reported $450,000 a day” to have ads displayed on the Las Vegas Sphere in the swing state of Nevada.
Ultimately, the messaging did not appear to hit its mark(s). Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert who teaches at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said Harris “never really landed” her economic message during the presidential election campaign.
“Once again, the Democrats underestimated the appeal of Trump. He turns politics into a soap opera and it keeps many more than his MAGA loyalists tuned in. Allied to that, he offered simple messages: the economy is poor and he can fix it; and America’s troubles start at its borders, and he can fix that too,” said Shanahan. “Harris had too little time to introduce herself to America. She never really landed her messages on the economy with great clarity, and the one area we really thought would boost her, around reproductive rights, really didn’t get the expected cut-through with voters.”
