While Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged her loss to Donald Trump, she blamed her boss, Joe Biden, as some of his allies struggled to make sense of his defeat.

“The biggest responsibility for this loss falls on President Biden’s shoulders,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020 before endorsing Harris.

Biden, elected in 2020, sought re-election this year despite relatively low approval ratings and concerns about his advancing age.

The 81-year-old dropped out of the race just months ago following the disastrous televised debate against Trump and mounting pressure from his own party.

Top Democrats, including former president Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had encouraged him to resign.

He has rejected calls to resign for several months, saying he is ready to challenge for the presidency even though polls show voters think he is too old for the job.

“If he had resigned in January instead of July, we would have been in a very different place,” Yand said.

Top Democrats, including three advisers to Harris’ campaign, expressed disappointment that Biden did not leave sooner.

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Officials who spoke anonymously said Harris, who took over the campaign just 107 days before the election, had little time to separate herself from Biden as she hit the campaign trail.

They said the party could have held a primary for a presidential candidate if Biden had resigned earlier.

According to party members, this would allow different candidates to compete for the presidential candidate position, differentiating themselves from each other and laying the foundations for a stronger campaign.

Polls released after the vote showed that many members of the American public were concerned about high inflation and the immigration system, and blamed the Biden government for rising costs under his administration.

In a post about X, Harris senior adviser David Plouffe did not place the blame on Biden but called the election results a “devastating loss.”

He said the Harris campaign “climbed out of a deep hole, but it wasn’t enough.”

Harris supporters who attended Wednesday’s concession speech also said they wished she had more time to pitch to voters.

“I think it’s going to make a huge difference,” said Jerushatalla Pallay, a Howard University student who attended the speech at the center of her campus.

Biden will give a speech on the election results on Thursday. He had previously praised Harris for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

The president has led the United States through the Covid-19 pandemic and counts increasing international support for Ukraine and the signing of a $1 trillion infrastructure deal as some of his key accomplishments.

Republican rival Trump will take office for a second term, four years after he left in 2020.

Trump has vowed to roll back many of Biden’s priorities and radically reshape the federal government over the past four years.

Party poised to control White House and Senate after winning more electoral college votes in key swing states.

Trump on Wednesday became the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years after managing to gain broad support, especially among Latino voters.

It also increased its margin among young voters and women.