Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on former House speaker Nancy Pelosi blaming Biden for the Democrats' loss

Days after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the US presidential election, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Joe Biden for not leaving the race sooner.

Pelosi suggested that there could have been an open primary to determine Biden's replacement if he'd stepped aside earlier, and she claimed Biden's decision to endorse Kamala Harris four months from the election foreclosed that possibility.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says the Democrats have been pointing fingers to determine what went wrong last week - but he's got a theory as to what went wrong.

"I think the Democrats underestimated a majority of the country. I think they were focused on what we call the left and the right coasts out here - California and New York - and they forgot the heartland of America, the Midwest and parts of the south." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb a big week in UIs politics to talk through
with the latest time, joined by UIs correspondent Dan Mitchinson.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hey, Dan, Hey, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has come out
strongly against the Democrats and Joe Biden.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
For the loss oh she has, and this was something
I think when we got together last time, we were
sort of talking about there was a lot of finger pointing,
and there's even more so now post election. And what
she's saying is that the Democrats could have done a
lot better if President Biden had stepped aside as a
candidate sooner. So there may have been other candidates and

(00:45):
maybe we would have had an open primary that would
have involved a number of different people debating over months.
But parties here, both Republican and Democrat, typically don't hold
a primary when they're in control of the White House.
So Democrats didn't even think about any other candidate because
Biden announced he was going to seek reelection.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I mean, they do need to do a really thorough
debrief for me. They might not want to do it,
but they've got a really dag and look at things,
don't they?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I think they do. And you know, I think Republicans
would be doing the same thing if they were in
this situation, but obviously they're not. And it looks like
they're going to be controlling all parts of the federal
government at this point in time, even though we still
don't know who's going to take over the House of Representatives.
But you know, they clearly had a strong turnout, and

(01:31):
I think the Democrats underestimated the majority of the country.
I think they were focused on what we call the
left and the right coasts out here California and New York,
and they forgot the heartland of America, the Midwest and
parts of the South. And we saw a lot of
people who had voted Democrat last time that voted Republican.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Dan do we know when we will get the results
full account for the House of Representations.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Not at this point, I mean right now. The Democrats
I think as of last night, which were the latest
numbers that came down, they had one hundred and ninety
nine seats of Republicans had two twelve, and you need
two eighteen for control. So at this point in time,
We're still waiting on a number of races to be
called in a number of different states, So it could
be in the next couple of days, it might not

(02:15):
be for another week or so.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
When it comes to the transition, selecting candidates were the
most important jobs, and Trump's administration is probably top of
his list. How's he going to make his selection? What's
he looking for?

Speaker 3 (02:28):
I think he's looking for loyalty, which is something that
he did last time. And it was interesting because the
first official hire was coach chair Susan Wiles, who is
going to be his chief of staff. And she is
the first and this was something I didn't even give
any thought, but she's the first woman that's ever been
elected to this position in presidential history right now, and

(02:50):
she is somebody that Trump respects and that kind of
guided this campaign. And he's one of the few people
I think that actually can put Donald Trump in his
place when he needs to and actually somebody that will
be listened to. So we've got that person. We've got
the attorney general that's a critical and there's a number
of different people. The Texas Attorney General right now is

(03:12):
one of the people they're they're considering and also an
activist who clerked for the Supreme Court. You've got Homeland
Security that's going to be another big position, and then
Secretary of State. Right now, it looks like, even though
nothing's been officially said, that Marco Rubio, who was, you know,
one of the people considered for the vice president role

(03:32):
before J. D. Vance came on board, it looks like
he's being a name that's that's floated for that cabinet
post as well.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Elon Musk seems to have incredible access to President Trump.
What roles is he going to play in its administration?

Speaker 3 (03:46):
You know, it's it's interesting because when I hear a
lot of these people on television, a lot of these
talking heads saying about what position Elon Musk is going
to take, I have to laugh and say, he's not
going to take any position. I think he's going to
act in more of an advisory role because he's he's
not going to move across country to take a job
that pays a few hundred thousand dollars when he's worth
you know, hundreds of millions billions of dollars and he's

(04:06):
running SpaceX and Tesla and Twitter, so that's a lot
much I think that's more powerful, and an advisory position
would probably suit him. I guess if you're Donald Trump
a lot better. But you're right, he's he's certainly got
the presidenc Here.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
A lot of concerns about Trump repealing Biden's policies, fulfilling
his campaign promises. What potential changes is the everyday American
most sort of concerned about?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Boy, that's a good question. I mean, I think there's
a lot of scenarios that people are concerned about. Obviously,
he's raised questions about what would happen if, you know,
unlawful order, if political employtes inside the department don't agree
with the president. I think there's border issues. I think
the gay and lesbian community are concerned about a repeal

(04:56):
of rights. So there's also I mean the military too.
I mean there's a lot of people concerned because last
month he said the military should be used to handle
what he called I think it was the enemy from
within and the radical left lunatic. So I think there's
concern about that too. But when all is said and done,
I mean, this has at least to this point, been
a very peaceful transition, unlike the last election, where there

(05:19):
was a lot of Donald Trump saying this was not
fair and this was not balance. And I think Joe
Biden when he spoke the other day, I think he
gave probably one of the best speeches in recent memory.
You know, he was saying that this is going to
be a calm, peaceful transition, that we're going to go
along with this, and that even though we're down and
we being the Democrats, he says, we're not out. So

(05:40):
I was very impressed. And I think if Joe Biden
had been speaking more like that earlier in the year,
that maybe Kamala Harris would not have been forced into
the position that she was put into.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Finally, what might Kamala Harris do?

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Now?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
What options does she have?

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Oh my gosh, there's so much that I think she
could do at this point in time. I think she
could obviously prepare for for twenty twenty eight and as
sad as it is to say about this, with our
election process over here going to be talking about names
in about eighteen months, she could have a prominent role
in the Democratic Party. She could write a tell all book.
I think she could follow on the footsteps of Hillary Clinton,

(06:16):
who wasn't really that active after twenty sixteen in politics,
and she was more focused on her personal life. But
she could go back to the Senate. I mean, there's
a number of things that I think she could do
at this point in time. But right now, I think
she's going to have to sort of collect her.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Thoughts, probably gonna have the day off or two.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I would. I would say that she just looked
towards the end, she and Donald Trump to the everyone.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Looks yeah, yeah, yeah. Always good to catch up, Dan Mitchinson,
thank you for your time.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
For more from the Sunday session with friend Jessica Rudkin,
listen live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio