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Harris arrives to deliver a concession speech.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP

‘Broken Since the Beginning’: What Went Wrong Inside the Harris Campaign

Campaign leadership installed when Joe Biden was running is facing fierce internal criticism. “I’m amazed that we even got close,” said one official close to the team.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

In early October, Kamala Harris was supposed to film fundraising videos for her campaign, which in a month’s time would be defunct and in debt.

Going over the script ahead of time, Harris read, “We missed our fundraising deadline.” Then she stopped and told aides, “We can’t lie to people” by saying they missed their fundraising goals, according to four people with knowledge of the conversation.

One junior level aide later had to tell Harris’ campaign chief of staff, Sheila Nix, the truth: The campaign had missed its fundraising goals.