SAUNDERS: Trump wins. Harris, Beltway insiders and media elites lose

What happened?

In June, President Joe Biden fumbled through his one debate with Donald Trump. Then Biden stopped running for re-election and handed the reins to his vice president without a single primary vote in her favor.

Kamala Harris showed that she didn’t have the necessary spine when she chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, when she should have drafted the more articulate and less liberal Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Donald Trump ran for his party’s nomination and won overwhelmingly. Then he chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate. Clearly, Trump was not afraid that Vance, a Yale law graduate and author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” would eclipse him.

Harris’ pose as a hard-core border prosecutor might have convinced the D.C. press corps, but voters know a Bay Area progressive when they see one.

Harris sought to make the race about Trump. Problem: Voters know Trump. They lived through four years of his presidency, and they were better off. They didn’t know Harris, and Harris deliberately avoided tough questions that attempted to shine a light on her far-left record. And even the softball interviews she sat down for couldn’t distract voters from the four-year Biden-Harris record and the national sentiment that the country is on the wrong track.

While Democrats spent the year branding Trump as racist and fascistic, Harris underperformed with Latino voters. NBC News reported that Trump won 45 percent of the Latino vote surge over 2020. Clearly, many Latino voters want more border enforcement. Are they racist too?

All the tricks Trump haters used to highlight the 45th president’s crude language and sharp elbows, well, when Biden dismissed Trump supporters as “garbage” it was a moment of regrettable honesty that exposed his view of the American people.

“Garbage.” It was a deplorable thing to say.

For some unknown reason, Democrats thought that trotting out Liz Cheney and other GOP Never Trumpers would attract independent votes. But really, every Republicans for Harris signature put the spotlight on Trump’s willingness to tussle with D.C.’s permanent class.

And the “Pass the Grey Poupon” snobbery of Republicans for Harris, I don’t think that won over a lot of working-class voters.

The pro-Harris ad that urged wives to secretly vote for Harris, while letting their husbands think they voted for Trump, exposed the left’s disdain for both genders. And it brought out male voters for Trump.

The left’s best argument against Trump — his supporting role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — might have resonated with voters more if New York and federal prosecutors had not thrown the book at Trump over and over again. If only left-leaning prosecutors were that eager to prosecute dangerous, violent criminals.

Trump’s rich but ragtag band of surrogates defied the old GOP stereotypes. Trump celebrated his victory at Mar-a-Lago, his pride-and-joy resort, with Elon Musk in the room and shared the stage with Dana White, Joe Rogan, Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard.

The irony of Kennedy’s support was not lost on Trump, who crowed, “Bobby, leave the oil to me.”

And: “Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold.”

Trump is no Sierra Club hiker, but Kennedy is an outdoorsman. Their alliance shows that Trump can draw unique figures into his orbit. His victory might even help Republican Sam Brown win the Nevada Senate seat occupied by Democrat Jacky Rosen. Few saw that coming.

The mainstream news media got so much wrong. Beltway scribes and talking heads were sympathetic to Harris even during the early weeks of her campaign when she gave no interviews. She and her team apparently believed Harris was not ready for a robust debate.

Throughout 2024, the Biden-Harris footprint softened. Like Harris, Biden largely avoided reporters who wanted to ask him the vital questions. Like: Was Biden up to the job?

There have been no daily media briefings this week. Trump’s White House also got quiet after he lost in 2020.

Republicans should not get too big-headed about the outcome. If Democrats had staged a new primary or open convention after Biden stepped aside, and they had chosen someone like Shapiro or Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar or Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who challenged Biden in the Democratic primary, the outcome might have been different.

Only time will tell how much of the outcome was pro-Trump and how much was anti-Harris.

A previous version of this column incorrectly reported the state Dean Phillips represents.

Contact Las Vegas Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.