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Democrats Blame Biden, Campaign Strategy, Others For Harris’ Defeat To Trump

Published

1 year ago

November 8, 2024

Democrats are facing a painful reckoning over Kamala Harris’s drubbing at the hands of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, as shock gives way to anger and recrimination in the aftermath of a devastating repudiation.

Lawmakers and strategists looking for someone to blame for Tuesday’s wipeout have so far been more likely to target President Joe Biden than Harris, who is regarded as having done a decent job with the short time she had to campaign.

The election night disaster — Trump’s triumph was accompanied by a Republican “red wave” in the Senate — has proved to be a Rorschach test, with rival factions each offering reasons for the defeat informed by their particular brand of Democratic politics.

The circular firing squad began with progressive senator Bernie Sanders arguing in a scathing statement that a party that had forsaken the working class should not be surprised to “find that the working class has abandoned them.”

That prompted an angry rebuke from Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison, who dismissed Sanders’s thesis as “straight up BS” and posted a long list of Biden’s achievements for low income families.

New York congressman Ritchie Torres hit out at what he sees as smug political correctness on the left, insisting that Trump had “no greater friend” than activists alienating voters with “absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’… or ‘Latinx.’”

– ‘Devastating loss’ –

Harris has escaped the harshest criticism, as she is regarded as having had insufficient time to campaign thanks to Biden’s initial insistence on running again at 81, despite having promised to be a bridge to the next generation.

The aging president’s sluggishness in bowing out after a disastrous debate performance against Trump deepened the challenge, as Harris had to start her campaign in July as a relative unknown, despite being the vice president.

Billionaire former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who feels that Biden’s campaign should never have got as far as the June 27 debate, attacked the president’s team in a commentary for Bloomberg for covering up his shortcomings “until they became undeniable on live TV.”

Other Democrats blamed the ongoing economic reverberations of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused governments to fall across the globe amid anger over soaring inflation.

Biden himself heaped praise on his vice president in a televised White House address Thursday.

“She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran,” he told the nation.

While there is little she could have done about post-pandemic price hikes, many congressional Democrats told reporters behind the scenes that Harris’s team overestimated abortion access as an election winner and dropped the ball on the economy.

Another criticism is that Harris failed to distance herself from Biden once she was handed the torch, despite his approval ratings being underwater at 40 per cent.

This was exemplified in her answer that “not a thing comes to mind” when she was asked on a daytime talk show how she might have governed differently from her boss.

– ‘Bigger tent’ –

Other critics say she picked the wrong running mate in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

But evidence that Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania would have been any more effective in helping Harris win the predominantly white, working-class Rust Belt is threadbare.

Harris has also been criticized for not being clearer in disavowing unpopular leftist views she held in 2019 and explaining transparently why she tacked so dramatically to the centre.

Under this theory, Harris’s outreach to Republicans, and the assurance that “my values have not changed,” were not enough to reassure voters that they were really seeing the real woman and understood what made her tick.

Yet for all the talk of the need to learn lessons, some Democrats were keen for the bloodletting to be over so that the focus could return to opposing Trump.

“Listen, I’m all in for the messaging/strategy biopsy. Need to build a bigger tent; use economic populism as the tentpole; be less judgmental and exclusionary,” Chris Murphy, a US senator from Connecticut, posted on X.

“But folks, (Trump) might not be lying about the roundups and political prosecutions. Job one is to get ready for that.”

AFP

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Trump Warns Of More Strikes In Nigeria If Attacks On Christians Continue

Published

2 days ago

January 9, 2026

Editor

US President Donald Trump has warned that he could authorise additional military strikes in Nigeria if attacks against Christians continue, citing the security situation in the West African nation as a key concern.

In an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, Trump was asked whether the Christmas Day strikes in Sokoto State, which targeted Islamist militants, were intended as part of a broader campaign. “I’d love to make it a one-time strike. But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike,” he said.

Trump’s comments follow his 2025 designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” due to what he described as an “existential threat” to its Christian population. The remarks have drawn criticism from Nigerian officials, who insist that jihadist groups target people regardless of religion. “Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike” are affected, a government spokesperson said, rejecting claims that Christians are being singled out.

When pressed about reports that most victims of jihadist groups in Nigeria are Muslims, Trump responded, “I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians.” Nigeria, with a population exceeding 230 million, is roughly evenly divided between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north.

The December strikes targeted camps run by a jihadist group known as Lakurawa in Sokoto, a largely Muslim region near the border with Niger. Both the US and Nigerian authorities have linked the militants to Islamic State-affiliated groups in the Sahel, although the IS has not formally claimed any association with Lakurawa. Details of casualties from the strikes remain unclear, as neither government has provided official figures.

Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar said the operation was a “joint effort” and emphasised that it was not motivated by religion. He confirmed that the strikes had the approval of President Bola Tinubu and included
participation by Nigerian armed forces. Addressing the timing of the strikes, Tuggar added that they were unrelated to Christmas, though Trump described them as a “Christmas present”.

Headline

Science Discovers Why Hungry, Broke Men Prefer Bigger Breasts

Published

2 days ago

January 9, 2026

Editor

A scientific study has found that men who feel financially insecure or hungry are more likely to find larger female breasts attractive.

The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE and was conducted by psychologists Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovée.

The study examined whether breast size acts as a signal of fat reserves and access to resources, and whether men facing resource insecurity rate larger breast sizes as more attractive than men who feel economically secure.

Researchers carried out two separate studies across Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

In the first study, 266 men from three areas in Malaysia were assessed. The locations represented low, medium and high socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants were shown rotating computer-generated images of women with different breast sizes and asked to rate which they found most attractive.

The findings showed a clear socioeconomic pattern.

Men from low-income rural areas preferred larger breasts.

Men from middle-income towns preferred medium to large breasts.

Men from high-income urban areas preferred smaller to medium breasts.

PLOS ONE study showing how hunger and financial insecurity affect men’s breast size preferences
Cover page of a PLOS ONE study examining how resource insecurity influences men’s breast size preferences. Source: PLOS ONE

As stated in the study, “Men from relatively low socioeconomic sites rated larger breast sizes as more physically attractive than did participants in moderate socioeconomic sites, who in turn rated larger breast sizes as more attractive than individuals in a high socioeconomic site.”

The researchers noted that the lower a man’s financial security, the stronger his preference for larger breast size.

The second study focused on hunger rather than income.

In Britain, 124 male university students were divided into two groups. Sixty-six participants were classified as hungry, while 58 had recently eaten. Both groups viewed the same breast size images under identical conditions.

Hungry men consistently rated larger breasts as more attractive than men who were full.

According to the researchers, “Hungry men rated a significantly larger breast size as more physically attractive than did the satiated group. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that resource security impacts upon men’s attractiveness ratings based on women’s breast size.”

The researchers explained that these shifts suggest attraction is not fixed but responsive to immediate conditions.

They noted that men experiencing hunger or financial pressure may place greater value on physical traits that signal access to resources or stability.

The study added that temporary states such as hunger can shape attraction in the same way long-term economic conditions do, reinforcing the idea that social and environmental factors play a key role in how physical attractiveness is judged.

Headline

Man With Lengthy Criminal Record Shoots Nigerian To Death Inside Bus In Canada

Published

2 days ago

January 9, 2026

Editor

A 40-year-old man with an extensive criminal history has been charged with first-degree murder after a Nigerian national was shot dead on a GO bus at the Yorkdale GO Bus Terminal in Toronto, marking the city’s first homicide of 2026.

Toronto Police, in a statement on their website, said officers were called to the terminal, near Yorkdale Road and Allen Road, at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 4, following reports of a shooting. Investigators allege that both the suspect and the victim boarded a GO bus at the terminal, where the suspect shot the victim before fleeing the scene on foot.

According to the statement, officers arrived to find a man suffering from a gunshot wound, but despite carrying out life-saving measures, the Nigerian was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim was later identified as Osemwengie Irorere, a 46-year-old man from Nigeria, the Toronto police said in a later statement.

Local media reports noted that an eyewitness who was seated just behind the victim said the bus had been dark and crowded as passengers waited to depart when a single gunshot rang out.

“I assumed it was a popped tyre or something, but immediately after, a guy sitting in front of me got up, shoved his hands in his pocket and ran off the bus,” the witness said, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

“Right after, I stood up and I looked at the seat in front of me and I saw a guy, bleeding,” he added, saying he could smell smoke in the air after the shot was fired.

Police said the suspect was located and arrested a short time later near the Yorkdale subway station, and a firearm was recovered.

The accused has been identified as Tyrel Gibson, 40, of Toronto. He appeared at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre on Monday, January 5.

Court documents show that Gibson has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2000, with nearly two dozen charges. He has previously been convicted of offences including attempted murder and firearm-related crimes. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, using a firearm, possession of a firearm with ammunition and possession of an unauthorised firearm and was handed a lifetime weapons prohibition. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017, although it remains unclear how much of that term he served.