All six Democratic presidential candidates on next month’s debate stage will be white after Kamala Harris sudden exit on Tuesday from the 2020 presidential campaign — a fact that is causing panic and angered the Democratic party and its supporters, reports The New York Post.
Harris announced that she was suspending her candidacy amid sinking poll numbers and fundraising. In a recent interview Harris suggested that “America” is not “ready for a woman of color to be president”
Liberal pundits started blaming dwindling campaign funds, saying they felt enraged that two white, male billionaires had bought their way into the 2020 race and sucked the oxygen out of Harris’ once-promising campaign.
“It’s really f–ked up that straight white male billionaires (plural) are going to qualify for the next debate while Kamala Harris is leaving the race. Like, immensely,” wrote Adam Nathaniel Peck from the Center for American Progress policy institute.
“Very fitting that Kamala would drop out and the myriad of rich white dudes whose names people can’t even remember are staying in,” journalist Laura Bassett added.
Corey Booker expressed his anger on MSNBC “we’re spiraling towards a debate stage that could have 6 people with no diversity whatsoever.”
Her departure leaves only six candidates on the debate stage: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and billionaire Democratic donor and latecomer billionaire Tom Steyer, who entered the race in July, qualified for the debate on Tuesday morning. This week Michael Bloomberg overtook Harris in the polls after launching his presidential campaign just one week ago.
Both men have pledged to spend vast amounts of their personal fortunes on advertising and campaigning. Other liberals took swipes at Buttigieg, with political commentator Sally Kohn who tweeted:
“Obviously I’m no centrist but it’s downright effed up that smart, compelling, *very* experienced, centrist Democratic candidates of color are floundering while a smart but wildly inexperienced, centrist white mayor of teeny tiny city is surging,” referencing Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, population 102,000.
“Bad look, Democrats,” she added.
Julian Castro, Democratic presidential wannabe waded into the debate on Tuesday afternoon, sharing Nate Silver’s tweet criticizing the party’s whiteness and caucus process.
“If the Democratic Party wants a field that’s representative of its members and its voters, it probably shouldn’t have two states as white as Iowa and New Hampshire vote first every year.”