“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 and supported Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had resigned in January instead of July, we would have been in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, increasing international support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion, and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will impact communities for years to come.

But after just one term, Biden, who ran against Trump four years ago to “revitalize the soul of the country,” will replace his predecessor, who weathered two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has promised to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these accomplishments,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the short term, I don’t know if he can escape the legacy of being the president who defeated Donald Trump and ushered in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

The president was absent for the second straight day on Wednesday, making congratulatory calls to Trump and Democratic lawmakers who won the downvotes. Biden invited Trump to a White House meeting, and the president-elect agreed.

Biden will give a Rose Garden speech about the election on Thursday. He released a statement shortly after Harris gave her concession speech on Wednesday, praising Harris for running a “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

Some senior Democrats, including three advisers to the Harris campaign, expressed deep disappointment that Biden failed to recognize early in the election cycle that he was not ready for the challenge. The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign in July, weeks after a disastrous debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and toughness to serve as a credible candidate.

But polls taken long ago showed that many Americans were concerned about his age. In August 2023, nearly 77% of Americans said Biden was too old to be effective for another four years, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

The president resigned July 21 after receiving not-so-subtle prodding from Democratic Party forces, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Biden endorsed Harris and handed over the campaign operation to her.

Yang argued that Democratic Party leaders also deserved blame for taking too long to disable Bident. With a few exceptions, most notably Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Democrats have avoided speaking publicly about Biden’s age.

“Why wasn’t this coming from any Democratic leaders?” Yang asked. he said. “It’s a lack of courage and independence and extreme careerism. If I keep my mouth shut, we’ll move on.”

The campaign has also been hampered by anger among some Arab Americans and young voters over Israel’s handling of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Senator Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that Democrats had lost the thread on the concerns of the American working class.

“Can the big capitalists and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” said the Vermont independent. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation experienced by tens of millions of Americans?”

Harris managed to create much greater enthusiasm than Biden did among the party base. But he struggled to discern how his administration would differ from Biden’s.

Harris, who appeared on ABC’s “The View” program in September, could not come to a decision that would separate herself from Biden. “There’s nothing I can think of,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a solid quote that was repeated throughout Election Day.

Strategists advising the Harris campaign said the compressed campaign schedule made it more difficult for Harris to separate herself from the president.

If Biden had stepped aside earlier in the year, they said, that could have given Democrats enough time to hold a primary. Stepping into an intraparty contest could force Harris or another candidate to more aggressively pursue differences with Biden.

Widespread dissatisfaction among American voters over rising costs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and widespread concerns about the U.S. immigration system are weighing heavily on the minds of voters in key states, strategists acknowledged.

Still, they said Biden left Democrats in an untenable position.

Harris senior adviser David Plouffe called it a “devastating loss” in a post on X. Plouffe did not make accusations and said the Harris campaign had “climbed out of a deep hole, but it wasn’t enough.”

During the vice president’s concession speech on Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had had more time to present to American 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.

Republicans are poised to control the White House and the Senate. Control of the House has not yet been determined.

Matt Bennett, vice chairman of the Democratic-aligned Third Way group, said this was the most devastating moment the party had ever faced in its lifetime.

“Harris was dealt a really bad hand. Some of it was Biden’s doing, some of it he may not have done,” said Bennett, who served as Vice President Al Gore’s aide during the Clinton administration. “Would Democrats have been better off if Biden had backed down sooner? “I don’t know if we can say for sure, but it’s a question we’ll be asking ourselves for a while.”

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.