The Biden administration announced another $4.28 billion in student loan handouts as President Biden and Vice President Harris prepare to leave the White House.
The massive loan handout will give 54,900 public workers loan forgiveness.
"Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a release on Friday.
The action brings the total loan forgiveness approved by Biden to nearly $180 billion for nearly 5 million borrowers.
"With the approval of another $4.28 billion in loan forgiveness for nearly 55,000 public servants, the Administration has secured nearly $180 billion in life-changing student debt relief for nearly five million borrowers," Cardona said. "The U.S. Department of Education’s successful transformation of the PSLF Program is a testament to what’s possible when you have leaders, like President Biden and Vice President Harris, who are relentlessly and unapologetically focused on making government deliver for everyday working people."
The Biden-Harris administration touted the program for creating an "incentive" for public servants to "pursue and remain" in their careers by forgiving borrowers' remaining balance after they made the 120 qualifying monthly payments.
"The relief announced today includes both borrowers who have benefitted from the Administration’s limited PSLF waiver, a temporary opportunity that ended in October 2022, as well as from regulatory improvements made to the program during this Administration," the release said.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to forgive student loans for millions of Americans if elected, but the president has faced continuous legal roadblocks in his attempt to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
After the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration's first attempt at providing broad-based student loan forgiveness, ruling it was an overreach of the executive branch's authority under the Constitution, the president and his team began to work on other options to provide handouts.
President-elect Trump has not said specifically how he will approach the Biden administration's student loan handout plans, but he has said he plans to rework the entire education system during his term.
Fox News Digital's Audrie Spady contributed to this report.
CONCORD, N.H. – Presidential electors are gathering at state capitals across the country on Tuesday to cast their electoral votes in the 2024 election, a key step in formalizing President-elect Trump’s White House victory last month over Vice President Kamala Harris.
At the New Hampshire Statehouse, the state’s four electors cast ballots on behalf of Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, in a largely ceremonial vote.
Harris edged Trump by roughly three percentage points to carry New Hampshire, the only swing state in New England.
"This is the formal vote for President and Vice President of the United States," New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan, who presided over the procedure, said. "Every state in the country right now is going through this process."
New Hampshire was one of four states, along with Indiana, Tennessee and Vermont, to lead off Tuesday's Electoral College voting.
When Americans cast their ballots in a White House election, they’re technically voting for state electors committed to supporting their choice for president and vice president. The electors are expected to vote in accordance with the outcome of the popular vote in their state.
The electoral votes from the states will be certified on Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress. And Trump will be inaugurated as president two weeks later, on Jan. 20.
The political parties in each state choose their slate of electors ahead of the general election.
Trump convincingly won the presidential election, winning the popular vote for the first time in three tries, and carrying all seven of the crucial battleground states that were heavily contested.
The former and future president ended up winning the electoral vote, 312 to 226, over Harris.
A top aide on Vice President Harris' failed presidential campaign recently called for more cultural voices like the vocal anti-America and anti-Israel Twitch star, Hasan Piker, who previously faced backlash for saying that "America deserved 9/11."
Harris' former deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, said during a recent interview that Democrats are "losing hold of culture" and laid out a strategy for them to develop a "whole thriving system" ahead of future elections.
"We need a whole thriving ecosystem," Flaherty told Semafor. "It’s not just Pod Save America, though I think we should have more of them. It’s not just Hasan Piker. We should have more Hasan Pikers. It’s also the cultural creators, the folks who are one rung out who influence the nonpartisan audience. Those things all need to happen together."
"The reality is it’s not going to be big media organizations. It’s going to be a network and a constellation of individual personalities, because that’s how people get their information now," he added.
Flaherty, who previously served as the director of digital strategy for the Biden White House, is likely to face backlash for calling for "more Hasan Pikers" due to Piker's past controversial comments. Piker, who previously raised more than $1 million for Palestinian aid, has used his platform with millions of followers to downplay and justify terrorist attacks such as Oct. 7 and 9/11 as acts of resistance in recent years.
During a 2019 livestream, Piker praised the "brave f---ing soldier" who wounded conservative U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, while he was deployed to Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL, asking, "Didn't he go to war and, like, literally lose his eye because some mujahideen, a brave f---ing soldier, f---ed his eyehole with their d---?"
He went on to say that "America deserved 9/11, I’m saying it," before later walking it back and saying it was "inappropriate." However, in another stream this year, Piker joked about 9/11 again, saying, "Oh my god, 9/11 2 is going to be so sick" and "give Saudi Arabia a nuke so they can do 9/11 2."
In another stream, Piker broadcast propaganda from the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group in Yemen that has been designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Instead of explicitly addressing the materials as questionable propaganda, the streamer instead expressed sympathy and admiration for the group.
"They do musicals about, like, their f---ing actions all the time," Piker said of the terrorist propaganda. "They love walking over like the American flag and the Israeli flag, side by side."
"They do not care about the heavy missiles … they will literally take the war to them no matter what. … For them, it's an act of resistance. You know what I mean?" he added.
"It doesn't matter if f---ing rapes happened on Oct. 7," Piker said in a May 22 stream. "It doesn't change the dynamic [of Palestinians and Israelis] for me."
During an April 18 stream, Piker also expressed that Hamas was the "lesser evil" next to the Israeli military.
While Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others have been on Piker's platform, Dem Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York wrote a letter this year to top executives at Twitch and Amazon expressing "alarm about the amplification of antisemitism on Twitch at the hands of Hasan Piker" and said Piker has "emerged as the poster child for the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism in America."
"Outside the context of October 7th, Mr. Piker has even joked and mused about men date-raping women on a college campus and has posted an image of a handgun on top of a United States Senator in what appears to be open invitation to gun violence against a sitting elected official," Torres said. "Inviting one’s followers to shoot an elected official, whether it be done in earnest or in jest, is the kind of threat that warrants serious attention from federal law enforcement."
Piker’s Twitch streams regularly hit more than a million views and often have as many as 30,000 viewers at a given time.
Fox News Digital reached out to Flaherty for comment but did not receive a response.
The LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman was one of Vice President Kamala Harris' highest-profile supporters from the business community.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for WIRED25
Reid Hoffman said there's a "greater than 50% chance" he'll receive retaliation for backing Kamala Harris.
The LinkedIn cofounder made the remarks on an episode of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast.
Hoffman was one of the vice president's most prominent Silicon Valley business supporters.
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and outspoken Democrat, said he thinks it's likely that he will face retaliation from President-elect Donald Trump for supporting Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.
"I think that there's a greater than 50% chance that there will be repercussions from a misdirection and corruption of the institutions of state to respond to my having tried to help Harris get elected," Hoffman said on an episode of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast that aired on Monday.
Hoffman said that he hopes any retaliation from Trump would be fairly tame, naming possibilities like IRS audits or phone calls from the incoming president trying to hurt his business prospects.
"It could get much worse, but I don't really want to speculate on it because I don't want to give anybody any ideas," he said.
Any repercussions would, he added, be "undemocratic and un-American."
Regardless, Hoffman said that he has no plans to leave the United States.
Nearly 90 top business executives — including Hoffman — signed a letter endorsing Harris' candidacy ahead of the general election, touting her plan to expand tax deductions for small businesses. The letter said that Harris' White House bid was "the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy."
Hoffman was also part of a cohort of business leaders who put together an initiative to get right-leaning swing voters onboard with Harris' candidacy by stressing her pro-business stances.
On the podcast, Hoffman said he'd spoken to fellow billionaires during the campaign who applauded his political actions but declined to partake themselves for fear of getting "penalized" if Trump won.
"Part of the reason why I think less people were public about it this cycle was because President Trump was threatening personal and political retaliation, and so you had to have a certain degree of courage to stand up — and courage in the public area," he said.
Since winning a second term, Trump has put several Silicon Valley business leaders in prominent roles, from Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk to newly minted AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
Despite his dislike for Trump and many of his policies, Hoffman said that some of the president-elect's deregulation efforts could broadly benefit entrepreneurs.
"I think they're going to reduce regulation across the board for all entrepreneurs, so I think that's helpful for entrepreneurship," he said.
Representatives for Hoffman and Trump did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Vice President Kamala Harris tried to encourage Democratic staffers facing layoffs from the DNC on Sunday, telling them that their "spirit will not be defeated."
Harris made the comments during the DNC's holiday celebration in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. She spoke alongside President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the event, which played host to staffers who were let go from the DNC without severance packages after the election.
"This holiday season, like any time of the year, let us really be conscious of all the blessings we have. Let us celebrate the blessings we have; let us celebrate and advance the blessings we have yet to create," Harris said. "And let us always remember our country is worth fighting for, and our spirit will not be defeated."
"And hear me when I say this, that spirit that fuels the countless hours and days and months of work that you have put into this, that spirit. It can never be defeated. Our spirit is not defeated. We are not defeated. Let's be clear about that. We are strong. We are clear about why we are in this. And because you're here right now. I say again, thank you. Because not only are you clear about all of that, you're willing to put in the hard work and that work must continue," she said.
Biden took the stage after Harris and defended the pair's legacy as they prepare to leave office. He argued that the country is in a "resoundingly" better position today than when he and Harris entered the White House.
"The one thing I've always believed about public service, and especially about the presidency, is the importance of asking yourself, have we left the country in better shape than we found it? Today, I can say with every fiber of my being, of all my heart, the answer to that question is a resounding yes," he said.
He went on to encourage staffers to "stay engaged" in the years ahead.
"You're not going anywhere, kid," Biden said of Harris. "Because we're not gonna let you."
Some DNC staffers had expressed frustration at the post-election layoffs, which are relatively common in Washington, D.C. The DNC union objected to the lack of severance packages and other benefits when the layoffs were announced in late November.
"We find it very cruel that DNC management is trying to claim that layoffs are just part of the job," a DNC union member told Mother Jones. "And we feel strongly that losing an election has not absolved the organization of its responsibility to treat its workers with basic dignity."
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison does not plan to seek re-election to his post, leaving a pool of would-be leaders to vie for the top position.
The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.
The list of candidates seeking to replace Harrison includes Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor, Ben Wikler, who has led the Democratic Party in Wisconsin for five years, and Minnesota Democrats chair Ken Martin.
"I won on the border, and I won on groceries," the president-elect said in an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press."
Trump then drilled down on the high grocery prices that millions of Americans are paying as a key reason for his convincing White House victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Very simple word, groceries. Like almost – you know, who uses the word? I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that," Trump emphasized in his interview, which was recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday.
While inflation has eased significantly since its peak in 2022, grocery prices remain substantially higher than they did before the COVID pandemic swept the globe nearly five years ago.
According to the most recent Consumer Price Index inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are dishing out 22% more for groceries in comparison to what they paid when President Biden took office nearly four years ago.
And voters' frustrations over high grocery prices, as well as other impacts from inflation, benefited Trump as he ran to win back the White House.
Voters said the economy was far and away the top issue facing the country, followed distantly by immigration and abortion, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis of the 2024 election.
And 40% said inflation was the single most important factor in their vote, and they backed Trump by almost two-to-one, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, which was a survey of more than 110,000 voters and 18,000 nonvoters nationwide. An AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 registered voters, had similar findings.
On the presidential campaign trail, Trump railed against the Biden/Harris economy and promised to bring down prices.
"Grocery prices have skyrocketed," Trump said during an August news conference, as he stood by tables stocked with packaged foods.
"When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one," he vowed.
And in his interview on "Meet the Press," Trump pledged that "we’re going to bring those prices way down."
But Trump, in the interview, reiterated that he would follow through on his campaign vow to levy large tariffs on imports from the nation's major trading partners.
During the presidential campaign, Harris argued that Trump's across-the-board tariffs, if implemented, would increase prices on many goods and amounted to a "a sales tax on the American people."
Tariffs are taxes that governments place on goods being imported or exported. They can raise the cost of imported products, making local products more attractive to buy.
Asked in his latest interview if he could guarantee that his tariffs wouldn't force Americans to pay more for items, Trump answered, "I can’t guarantee anything."
Vice President Kamala Harris had no problem raising money during the presidential race.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
The Harris campaign has $1.8 million cash after spending over $1 billion in the 2024 race.
Harris continually raked in money during her 107-day presidential campaign against Donald Trump.
But Harris could not overcome the headwinds against her party, coming up short in the swing states.
After President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee last summer, the party felt an enormous jolt of energy as Vice President Kamala Harris embarked on a 107-day presidential campaign against Donald Trump.
Throughout her campaign, Harris raised more than $1 billion, a stunning figure that mirrored the quick rise of her campaign.
But Trump, now the president-elect, defeated Harris in the general election, with the vice president coming up short in the swing states.
New federal filings show that the Harris campaign had $1.8 million remaining in the bank after spending over $1 billion against Trump in the presidential race.
In the filings, the Harris campaign also reported that it had no debts.
The filings reveal the pace of spending for the Harris campaign, which began with heightened enthusiasm from Democrats and major donors who had grown despondent over Biden's chances after a disastrous debate against Trump raised questions about his ability to mount a robust reelection campaign.
From October 17 through November 25, which included some of the most frenzied stretches of the campaign through the postelection period, Harris raised $160 million and spent over $270 million. The Trump campaign raked in nearly $87 million during that same period and spent $113 million, the president-elect's campaign filings indicated.
Harris held large rallies in swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania throughout her campaign, especially in the immediate weeks leading up to the election. And despite the vice president's financial advantage over Trump, she had to boost her profile to an electorate that had long expected Biden to be the nominee and was uncertain about her positions on various issues — from tackling inflation to her approach to foreign policy.
The new FEC report also seemingly puts to rest any talk that the Harris campaign is heavily in debt, a notion that the campaign rejected last month when it told The New York Times that "there will be no debt" on the filings.
But in the weeks since the general election, Democrats have still received fundraising appeals from the Harris operation. The "Harris Fight Fund" is the postelection operation of the general election "Harris Victory Fund" and is touted as a way to help provide accountability for the Trump administration.
The Democratic National Committee's newest filings revealed that it had over $47 million in cash on hand, while its rival, the Republican National Committee, had nearly $43 million in the bank.
Business Insider reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Former ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski was the best in the business, and that’s supposedly why the Harris campaign picked the ESPN insider to break the news of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, senior writer Chris Mannix reported the Harris campaign had reached out to the beloved NBA insider in August to break the news that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be added to the Democratic ticket alongside Harris.
"Consider: In August, representatives from Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign reached out. They had settled on their nominee for vice president and wanted Woj to break it. Alas, another outlet scooped him before he could," Mannix wrote.
Representatives from the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Wojnarowski announced in Thursday’s interview that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer before he decided to leave ESPN to take a job at St. Bonaventure.
"When you hear cancer, you think about it going through your body like Pac-Man," Wojnarowski said. "Prostate cancer, it generally stays confined to your prostate and is typically slow growing."
While his diagnosis did not force his retirement from ESPN, it did open his eyes.
"It made me remember that the job isn’t everything. In the end, it’s just going to be your family and close friends. And it’s also, like, nobody gives a s---. Nobody remembers [breaking stories] in the end. It’s just vapor."
Since 2016, the closed-captioning company The Captioning Group has compiled the list on behalf of the language platform Babbel, bringing together all the terms that newscasters, politicians, and public figures struggled to pronounce correctly on TV.
Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel, told Business Insider this year's words were a snapshot of the political, cultural, and musical zeitgeist.
Ready to test your pronunciation chops?
In no particular order, here are the top 10 most mispronounced words of the year, according to Babbel's report.
Semaglutide
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Ozempic.
Peter Hansen/Getty Images
There is more to the hype surrounding semaglutide, the active ingredient of the weight loss medication Ozempic, than just its effects.
For those unfamiliar with the antidiabetic medication, pronouncing it can be a challenge.
Pronunciation: sem-ah-GLOO-tide
Pete Buttigieg
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was one of the face's of the Democrats' efforts to win voters for Harris.
Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images
The transportation secretary and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was one of the Democrats' most articulate spokespeople when he took over the airwaves and tried to appeal to swing voters and moderates for Harris.
He's also been known to spar with Elon Musk online.
Pronunciation: peet BOOD-ih-judge
Shein
Shein and other fast fashion companies have come under scrutiny for poor product quality and poor working conditions.
Rodrigo Arangua/AFP via Getty Images
The name of the fast fashion company Shein is frequently mispronounced as "Sheen." The company is reportedly planning to debut on the London Stock Exchange early next year.
Pronunciation: SHE-in
Kamala Harris
The first part of Kamala Harris' name is pronounced like "comma."
Tom Williams/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris has often seen her name being mispronounced, most recently in the run-up to the November 2024 presidential election.
Her nieces, Amara and Leela, helped set the record straight onstage at the DNC in August.
"It's like a comma in a sentence," explained Amara. "Then you say 'la,' like 'la la la,'" added Leela.
Pronunciation: COM-a-la HAR-iss
Zendaya
Zendaya recently starred in "Challengers" and the second "Dune" film.
Taylor Hill/WireImage
Actress Zendaya starred as tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan in "Challengers" and as Chani in "Dune: Part II." Her name is frequently mispronounced "Zen-DIE-a."
Pronunciation: Zen-DAY-a
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!" was a hit this year.
Mary Mathis for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
She has humorously called out those who said [SHA-pel ROW-an] during a live performance, making it clear that it's actually [CHAP-uhl], which sounds like chapel, and [ROHN], which rhymes with tone.
Pronunciation: CHAP-uhl ROHN
SPECULOOS-3b
An artist's visualization of the Speculoos-3 b exoplanet.
NASA
SPECULOOS-3b is an Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits a red dwarf that captured global attention in May when astronomers announced its discovery at a distance of 55 light-years.
Pronunciation: SPEK-yuh-lohss three bee
Phryge
A performer wearing a "Phryge" Olympic mascot costume performs during a parade of French athletes who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on September 14, 2024.
Andre PAIN / POOL / AFP
The phryge, the mascot of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, was chosen as a symbol of freedom and to represent allegorical figures of the French Republic.
Pronunciation: FREE-je
Barry Keoghan
Barry Keoghan attends the 2024 Golden Globes.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
The Irish actor rose to prominence for his role in Emerald Fennell's "Saltburn" last year, though Sabrina Carpenter fans will also know him as the pop singer's boyfriend.
Though the letter "G" is often silent in Irish names, Keoghan's last name has a distinct "G" sound.
Pronunciation: BARR-ee key-OH-gin
Dutch Kooikerhondje
The breed has brightly spotted fur and floppy ears.
Shutterstock
Shohei Ohtani's dog, a Dutch Kooikerhondje, "threw" the first pitch at a game at Dodger Stadium after the Dodgers' pitcher signed a historic 10-year, $700 million deal with the MLB team.
ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith had a simple message for Democrats following the party’s defeat on Election Day to President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Smith said on the latest episode of "The Stephen A. Smith Show" on Monday that Democrats were in the driver’s seat after Trump blew the moment in the weeks after an assassination attempt, but they failed to capitalize.
"It wasn’t just about him winning," Smith said of Trump. "Y’all lost big time because people were calling y’all hypocrites, and they were calling y’all full of it, and they were saying y’all can’t be trusted any more than you say he can’t be trusted. Then, you go out and you prove them right. You’ve got nothing.
"If you’re the Democratic Party, here’s my advice to you – shut up. Wait for him to get pushed into office or to accept inauguration on Jan. 20, and he becomes the 47th president of the United State officially, wait for then and then judge him accordingly. Stop talking about the past.
"The American people have already told you to kick rocks. They don’t care what you have to say anymore as Democrats. You have been squashed, obliterated. Nobody in the White House, you don’t have the House, you don’t have the Senate, and you’re gonna walk around talk about how, ‘Oh, he didn’t get 50% of the vote.’ Well you didn’t either! You lost!
"And every time you bring up something now and every time something comes up, you look even worse. Donald Trump is walking into office looking good … because of you, because of how y’all chose to act, how y’all chose to conduct yourself, how you leaned onto the fringes and got a bit extreme and engaged in culture and identity politics and wokeness and all of this other stuff. You look bad."
He added that President Biden then "put his foot in his mouth yet again" with his reasoning for pardoning his son, Hunter, and there was "no wonder why a healthy portion of America is done with y’all."
The talking-head also teed off on the party over its spending habits during the election season. He took issue with the party’s payments to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and billionaire Oprah Winfrey’s production company for a campaign event as they were going to vote for Harris anyway, showing zero indication of switching their support.
The Harris campaign kicked off in earnest at the beginning of August, after Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity and age. The Harris campaign raised about $1.4 billion across her few months as the Democratic nominee but allegedly faces $20 million in debt, sources told Politico.
"Kamala Harris, her campaign and the Democrats are another matter," Smith said. "Do you have any idea how pathetic y’all look? That you were literally paying people who supported you before they sat down with you and gave you the interview. What would be the incentive to that? Could that be so they didn’t ask you certain questions, and they did ask you other questions? And that you knew the interviews were gonna be all nice and fluffy and cozy inside, was that it? Because it makes no sense."
"With Trump nominating MAGA loyalists left and right, there is nothing more important than making sure we can fight back and hold him accountable," an email from Kamala HQ sent to the New York Post last week read. "That’s why we need you to step up today. Yes, today."
"Our records show that you haven’t pitched in to support our Harris Fight Fund program yet," the email continued, according to the New York Post. "We know the election didn’t turn out as we’d hoped, but we’re not backing down."
Trump was declared the victor in the presidential election last month, ultimately securing 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, and earning the popular vote as well. The election also included the Republican Party reclaiming the Senate and maintaining control of the House.
Weeks after the election, however, emails asking for donations keep hitting the inboxes of supporters.
"Even a quick donation of $50 is enough to help us in this fight," a fundraising email to donors two weeks after the election read, according to Politico. "And with only hours left to hit our goal today, NOW is the best time to rush your support."
"Please do not click away," another email stated, according to the outlet.
The Harris campaign kicked off in earnest at the beginning of August, after President Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity and age. The Harris campaign raised about $1.4 billion across her few months as the Democratic nominee, but allegedly faces $20 million in debt, according to sources who spoke to Politico.
The campaign denied outstanding debts as of Election Day, and won’t report owed debts in reports due to the Federal Election Commission this month, the outlet reported.
The Harris campaign faced scrutiny shortly after Election Day when reports spread the campaign paid $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company for a campaign event, millions of dollars on private jets, $500,000 to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network nonprofit ahead of a friendly interview on MSNBC, and other expenses.
Political candidates ending a campaign with debt is not out of the norm, but some Democrats remarked that repeated emails calling on voters to donate following the election is likely eroding trust.
"I understand that the Harris campaign is in a very difficult position with the debt that they have, and so sometimes you just have to make practical decisions," Mike Nellis, founder of the Democratic digital firm Authentic, told Politico. "But yeah, I think that stuff like that erodes trust."
"Getting fundraising requests after any candidate has lost, when they admit that they are still millions of dollars in debt, having blown through over a billion dollars… is especially galling," Democratic strategist Jon Reinish told the New York Post.
A Harris campaign official told Politico that the post-election fundraising emails do not request donors contribute any more than they did during the campaign cycle, and that some of the fundraising was necessary in order to effectively shut down the campaign while retaining some employees to ensure that mission.
As reports spread last month that the campaign was in debt, Trump trolled the Harris team on social media, calling on MAGA supporters to do "whatever we can do to help them."
"I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over," Trump posted to X days after the election last month.
"Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do," he continued, "We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign regarding the continued donor emails and alleged millions of dollars in debt, but did not receive an immediate response.
President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election with 312 electoral votes.
Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images
In the 2024 election, Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris' 226 electoral votes.
Each candidate sought to present themselves as the better steward of the economy.
But President-elect Trump emerged victorious, sweeping the seven major battleground states.
Headed into Election Day, the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump appeared deadlocked, with polls showing a close race across the seven swing states.
But Trump came out on top, with the president-elect sweeping the battleground states and making critical gains among a broad slice of the electorate, from young voters and Latino men to suburban voters and rural voters.
The president-elect's victory came as he retained his long-standing advantage on economic issues through Election Day.
Here's a look at why the 2020 race between President Joe Biden and Trump was such a departure from this year's contest between Harris and Trump.
President Joe Biden's 2020 win in Arizona was a huge victory for Democrats.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Trump made significant inroads in the suburbs, where the economy was a key issue
Harris was hoping that strong support from suburban voters, especially among college-educated women, would aid her, with her campaign banking that her prosecutorial background would match up well against that of Trump — who has been embroiled in an array of legal issues over his push to overturn the 2020 election results.
While Harris performed well in many of the suburbs that paved the way for Biden's 2020 election, she simply did not win by the margins she needed to overcome Trump's burst in support from white voters without college degrees, as well as the drop-off in support from Latino and Asian voters compared to the president's performance.
This year, Trump won suburban voters 51% to 47%, per CNN exit polling, a four-point edge that allowed him to hold the line in areas where Democrats were hoping to run up the score. And the shift allowed him to flip Maricopa County, and thus, win back Arizona, which had been one of Biden's most impressive victories in 2020.
Similar to other groups, the economy was critical for suburban voters, with inflation and housing costs being paramount. In Arizona, a state dominated by Phoenix and its vast Maricopa-anchored suburbs, the economy was the second-most important issue for voters, only trailing the issue of democracy.
According to CNN exit polling, 42% of the Arizona electorate said the economy was in "poor" condition, and 89% of those voters backed Trump, compared to 10% for Harris. By comparison, only 6% of respondents considered the economy to be "excellent," and 99% of those voters supported Harris, with only 1% backing Trump.
Trump hammered home an economic message centered on lowering costs, forging ahead with new housing construction on federal land, and cutting government relations that he said hampered growth. In western states like Arizona and Nevada, where housing affordability has been a major issue, the issue took on added resonance. Harris had high-profile economic proposals of her own, including a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, but it wasn't enough to swing the race.
Vice President Kamala Harris worked to boost turnout in Philadelphia. But her campaign fell short in its efforts.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Turnout declined in key Democratic areas
After Biden exited the race in July and Harris stepped into her role as the Democratic Party's standard bearer, she was faced with running a 107-day campaign. While Harris had been Biden's No. 2 for over three years at that point, she was still unfamiliar to a considerable slice of the electorate.
Despite Biden's decline in support with groups that had fueled his 2020 victory — which included Black, Latino, and young voters — he was a known commodity. And Harris, in many ways, had to reintroduce herself to millions of Americans who were open to backing her but had reservations about the Biden administration on issues like inflation and border security.
But compared to 2020, turnout declined on the Democratic side.
Four years ago, the Biden-Harris ticket won over 81 million votes, compared to 74 million votes for Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence. So far, Harris has earned just under 75 million votes, compared to a little over 77 million votes for Trump.
Democratic strength in New Jersey and New York fell sharply, with Harris faring worse than Biden in those solidly blue states.
Voters did boost their numbers in several key battlegrounds, though.
Georgia hit a turnout record of almost 5.3 million voters this year, and despite Harris losing the state by 2.2 points (50.7% to 48.5%), she earned more votes in the Peach State than Biden did when he won the state by 0.23 percent (49.47% to 49.24%) in 2020.
Harris won 2,548,017 votes in Georgia this year, compared to Biden's 2,473,633 votes four years ago. But Trump won 2,663,117 votes this year, giving him a 115,100-vote advantage over Harris.
In Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, more votes were tallied between the two major-party candidates this year compared to 2020, but this didn't benefit Harris as Democratic strength declined in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia.
For example, Harris won Philadelphia, the most populous city in Pennsylvania, by a hefty 79% to 20% margin. But in 2020, Biden won Philadelphia 81% to 18%. And while Biden earned 604,175 votes in the city, Harris currently has 568,571 votes there, according to NBC News.
Turnout fell across Philadelphia this year, allowing Trump to post gains in what has long been known as one of the most Democratic cities in the country.
A top aide to Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign recently revealed that internal polls never actually saw her defeating President-elect Donald Trump, but apparently this was not conveyed to those collecting high-dollar donations for her bid.
"That's not what we were told," DNC National Finance Committee member and Harris campaign fundraiser Lindy Li shared with Fox News Digital.
"We were told definitely that she had a shot at winning – it wasn't even a shot. I was even told that Pennsylvania was looking good, that we would win 3-4 swing states."
"And on the night of election night… we were told that we were going to win Iowa."
But Harris senior adviser David Plouffe presented a much different analysis of the vice president's chances at that point in time on "Pod Save America," a show hosted by staffers of former President Barack Obama.
"We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day," he told the hosts in the episode which aired on Tuesday.
"I think it surprised people because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw."
Plouffe, along with other top Harris aides Jen O'Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter and Quentin Fulks, joined the podcast to share why they believed they lost the election.
While the top advisers on the campaign were apparently aware of Harris' polling deficit, this information was seemingly obscured to other relevant parties, including those soliciting capital from donors, such as Li.
According to Li, it is "absolutely not" normal for a campaign to obscure this type of information.
"I've been doing this since I graduated from college more than a decade [ago]. Absolutely not."
She also shared that donors' trust will need to be gained back because of the daylight between what the campaign was telegraphing about its situation and the reality. "But like for some casual donors, they're going to be like, no f---ing way," Li said.
"It's not that he'd beat her that's a shock. It's the extent to which he beat her. It wasn't even close. It was a decisive defeat."
Harris had rivaled Trump and even defeated him in numerous respected public polls across the country, which Plouffe acknowledged in the appearance.
"When Kamala Harris became the nominee, she was behind. We kind of, you know, climbed back, and even post-debate, you know, we still had ourselves down, you know, in the battleground states, but very close. And so, I think, by the end, it was a jump-ball race," he said.
Riley Gaines got in on the viral conversation surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris' surprise video addressing supporters that was released on Tuesday.
Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and conservative influencer, was one of many high-profile users to share the video on X with a message mocking Harris for the unprompted and confusing-to-some video address.
"Now do you understand why she didn't go on Joe Rogan lol," Gaines wrote in her post re-sharing the video.
Harris not appearing on Rogan's podcast was pointed to as a key criticism of her campaign strategy both prior to and after her election defeat. President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and billionaire backer Elon Musk all did interviews with Rogan in the weeks leading up to the election.
Gaines, an OutKick contributor, raised the question about whether Harris' appearance on the show would have been as beneficial to her campaign.
The video, shared by the Democratic Party’s official X account, featured Harris speaking directly to followers discouraged by the recent election.
"I just have to remind you, don’t let anybody take your power from you. You have the same power that you did before Nov. 5, and you have the same purpose that you did. And you have the same ability to engage and inspire. So don’t ever let anybody or any circumstance take your power from you," Harris said.
Many other social media users on X raised concerns and questions about Harris' delivery during the unexpected video, with many criticizing the Democratic Party's decision to post it.
The video reportedly came from a call Harris took with donors and volunteers earlier today, when she addressed her election loss for the first time since conceding to Trump.
Meanwhile, Gaines has used her platform to take aim at multiple figures in the Democratic Party in recent years and especially in the recent election cycle.
Gaines incited a back-and-forth debate with former Harris surrogate and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban over the vice president's handling of the border crisis on Sept. 27. It was a debate that ended with Gaines getting the last word on Cuban.
Gaines also got in on a viral roast session of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. on Nov. 14, after it was discovered the congresswoman removed pronouns from her X bio.
Gaines previously lambasted Ocasio-Cortez for her stance on trans athletes in women's sports. The Democratic congresswoman has been a frequent advocate for transgender rights and trans inclusion in women's sports during her tenure. Ocasio-Cortez recently spoke out against Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware for saying he did not believe trans athletes should play in women's sports, calling the ticket "predatory."
"AOC says it's predatory behavior to not want men competing in women's sports. To AOC, acknowledging biological reality is ‘predatory’ You know what's actually predatory? Sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia," Gaines wrote on X while posting a Fox News Digital article about Ocasio-Cortez' comments.
Gaines leads a lawsuit against the NCAA with other female athletes, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights due to its policies on gender identity.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Lia Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta. It documents a number of races they swam with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth but Thomas, not Gaines, was handed the fifth-place trophy.
Gaines shared her harrowing recollection of her experience being forced to share a locker room with Thomas at a Trump campaign rally on Oct. 23.
"I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a 6-foot-4 man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same, exposing his fully-intact naked male body," Gaines said. "There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt."
Gaines has been a leading figure in holding Democrats to account for their past stances on enabling trans inclusion in women's sports. However, she has also taken advantage of plenty of opportunities to make more light-hearted digs against those figures as well during her ascendant rise on social media.
A runoff election for the state Supreme Court in Mississippi is too close to call between state Sen. Jenifer Branning and incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens as of Wednesday morning.
Although Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels, Branning had the endorsement of the Republican Party, while Kitchens had several Democratic Party donors but did not receive an endorsement from the party.
Branning, who has been a state senator since 2016, led Kitchens by 2,678 votes out of 120,610 votes counted as of Wednesday morning. Kitchens is seeking a third term and is the more senior of the court’s two presiding justices, putting him next in line to serve as chief justice. Her lead had been 518 just after midnight Wednesday.
Around midnight Wednesday, The Associated Press estimated there were more than 11,000 votes still to be counted. In the Nov. 5 election, 7% of votes were counted after election night.
Branning had a substantial lead in the first round of voting with 42% compared to Kitchens' 36%. Three other candidates split the rest.
The victor will likely be decided by absentee ballots that are allowed to be counted for five days following an election in Mississippi, as well as the affidavit ballots, according to the Clarion Ledger.
Voter turnout typically decreases between general elections and runoffs, and campaigns said turnout was especially challenging two days before Thanksgiving. The Magnolia State voted emphatically for President-elect Donald Trump, who garnered 61.6% of the vote compared to Vice President Harris’ 37.3%.
Branning and Kitchens faced off in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border.
Branning calls herself a "constitutional conservative" and says she opposes "liberal, activists judges" and "the radical left." The Mississippi GOP said she was the "proven conservative," and that was why they endorsed her.
She has not previously held a judicial office but served as a special prosecutor in Neshoba County and as a staff attorney in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services and Regulations, per the Clarion Ledger.
Branning voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem and supported mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime, according to Mississippi Today.
Kitchens has been practicing law for 41 years and has been on the Mississippi Supreme Court since 2008, and prior to that, he also served as a district attorney, according to the outlet.
He is endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Action Fund, which calls itself "a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond." Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., also backed Kitchens.
In September, Kitchens sided with a man on death row for a murder conviction in which a key witness recanted her testimony. In 2018, Kitchens dissented in a pair of death row cases dealing with the use of the drug midazolam in state executions.
Elsewhere, in the state’s other runoff election, Amy St. Pe' won an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. She will succeed Judge Joel Smith, who did not seek re-election to the 10-member Court of Appeals. The district is in the southeastern corner of the state, including the Gulf Coast.
"It was my understanding that you guys wanted to do a bunch of the larger, more popular, not specifically political podcasts," Pfeiffer said.
He asked why that may not have happened, citing "Hot Ones" as an ideal fit for the vice president.
"Never in time has there been a candidate better suited for a podcast than Kamala Harris on 'Hot Ones,'" he said.
The show, which has over 14 million YouTube subscribers, involves celebrities eating increasingly spicy wings as they discuss their lives and careers.
Recent guests include Bowen Yang, Paul Mescal, and Jimmy Fallon.
Stephanie Cutter, who spearheaded the campaign's media strategy, said: "I think if I remember correctly, on 'Hot Ones,' they didn't want to delve into politics."
She later elaborated, saying: "'Hot Ones,' which is a great show, they didn't want to do any politics, they weren't going to take us or him," referring to now-President-elect Donald Trump.
BuzzFeed, the owner of First We Feast, which produces "Hot Ones," declined to comment.
In its history, the show has never featured a political candidate.
Trump appeared on Rogan's podcast in October and talked with him for three hours.
Harris campaign officials said that Rogan wanted to conduct the interview in Texas, but logistically it was too difficult to make it happen in such a short race.
"What's clear is we offered to do it in Austin, people should know that," Plouffe said on the podcast. "It didn't work out."
This year's presidential election shone a light on a growing trend: politicians moving their fight to new media battlegrounds, everything from podcasts and gaming streams to Substacks and TikTok debates.
Trump pursued an unorthodox media strategy, which involved sitting down for many podcasts and YouTube shows as a way to target a key demographic — undecided and politically disengaged young men.
Controversial "squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has explained where she thinks the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., went wrong.
According to Omar, the campaign's choice to embrace the endorsements of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was "a huge misstep."
This was especially true in battleground state Michigan, she told the Minnesota Star-Tribune, because it was where the Uncommitted Movement maintained a stronghold.
The Uncommitted Movement specifically withheld support from President Joe Biden — and then Harris — because of its disapproval of their handling of the war in Gaza. Particularly, a large population of Arabs and Muslims in Michigan believed the U.S. was not holding Israel accountable for death and destruction in Gaza.
"You have the one name for my generation and generations younger than me that is synonymous with war," Omar said of Cheney.
"It does say something about where your priorities are, even if those are not your priorities."
As part of the Harris-Walz campaign's strategy to attract disaffected Republicans, they advertised former Rep. Cheney's endorsement and even hosted an event with her and Harris in battleground state Wisconsin.
She also explained why she thought Harris lost the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which is home to a large Arab community. The congresswoman pointed to the fact that President-elect Donald Trump met with the Democratic mayor, but Harris and Walz were only willing to send staff.
"I think that personal touch for that community made the difference," Omar said. "We could have had that personal touch."
Despite her past record of criticism of and opposition to Trump, Omar claimed she'd be open to collaborating with his administration. She maintained that she would still be opposing "hurtful" policies towards her constituents, though.
With Trump returning to office, Omar said she is afraid that Israel will get the "green light" to "finish their genocidal war."
The Harris-Walz team did not provide comment in time for publication.
A federal judge in Kentucky rejected expanded protections implemented by the Biden-Harris administration for foreign farmworkers who come to the U.S. under H-2A visas.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves granted an injunction siding with Kentucky farmers and Republican attorneys general in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Alabama who argued that the new rules constituted granting foreign farmworkers collection bargaining rights. Reeves said that Congress, not the Biden-Harris administration, would have to determine whether to allow H-2A visa-holders the right to unionize.
Those new rules, implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor in April, expanded protections for H-2A visa-holders, including requiring employers to ensure they would not intimidate, threaten or otherwise discriminate against foreign farmworkers for "activities related to self-organization" and "concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aide or protection relating to wages of working conditions."
"In perhaps its most blatant arrogation of authority, the Final Rule seeks to extend numerous rights to H-2A workers which they did not previously enjoy through its worker voice and empowerment provisions," Judge Reeves wrote. "The DOL justifies this attempted regulatory expansion as an effort to prevent the alleged ‘unfair treatment’ of H-2A workers by employers to protect similarly situated American workers."
"The Final Rule not so sneakily creates substantive collective bargaining rights for H-2A agricultural workers through the ‘prohibitions’ it places on their employers," Reeves wrote. "Framing these provisions as mere expansions of anti-retaliation policies, the DOL attempts to grant H-2A workers substantive rights without Congressional authorization."
Under a prior preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Georgia, the new rules had already been blocked in 17 states. Reeves' decision does not apply nationwide.
Congress created the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program in 1986 through the Immigration Reform and Control Act, allowing employers to hire foreign farmworkers on a temporary, seasonal basis, when there is a shortage of U.S. workers to fill the needed positions. It includes protections for American workers, including setting a minimum wage rate for foreigners coming to work under the program.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman argued that the Biden-Harris administration rules could have caused "serious and irreversible damage to farmers who are just trying to get by and bring food to Kentucky’s dinner tables."
"We should be working to help Kentucky’s farmers, not put them out of business. This unlawful and unnecessary rule from the Biden-Harris Administration would have made it harder to get farmers’ products to grocery store shelves and would have increased already high prices for families," Coleman said in a statement. "We will continue to do what’s right to stand up for Kentucky’s farmers."
The union representing members of the Democratic National Committee launched a GoFundMe to raise money for staffers who were abruptly laid off last week – prompting backlash from those still on the DNC payroll who have described the cuts as a "betrayal" of party values.
Members of the DNC staff union said on the fundraising page that the abrupt wave of layoffs had included two-thirds of DNC staffers, who were let go with little notice and with "no severance."
In a public statement, the union blasted DNC leadership for the layoffs, which they described as "callous" and "short-sighted" – and which they noted extended to employees who were previously told their positions at the DNC would be safe after Election Day.
"We are heartbroken to see our colleagues – who dedicated countless hours to electing Democrats up and down the ballot – depart under these circumstances, and we are furious with DNC leadership for failing to provide severance to those affected," DNC staff union organizer Jill Brownfield wrote on the GoFundMe page.
DNC union officials said the relief fund will "directly aid" staff members hit by the layoffs, including single parents and workers expecting children, and will be "distributed equally to any laid-off member who opts in to receive funds."
"We hope these funds can soften the economic blow for those impacted."
The fundraising effort comes less than a week after the DNC announced its wave of layoffs Wednesday night.
The cuts were met with scathing criticism by current DNC employees and union members.
"The DNC’s senior leadership has chosen to leave loyal staff scrambling to cover rent, medical expenses and childcare costs," the union’s statement read.
They also called on Democratic Party leadership to offer severance to every permanent employee who was laid off, and to address the remaining staff "honestly and transparently" about how to move forward.
The DNC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment as to what, if any, efforts the DNC has made to respond to the union request or otherwise ease the transition process for some of the affected employees.
As of this writing, the fund had raised $15,453 out of its total goal of $25,000.
Just weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris’ overwhelming loss to President-elect Trump in the 2024 presidential election, the White House released a memo that hailed the Biden-Harris administration as one of the most successful in history.
The memo shared on Monday highlighted how President Biden and Harris took office during the COVID-19 pandemic and a "reeling" economy, before going on to call their administration "one of the most successful administrations in history" which "will be leaving behind the best economy in the world."
"Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, 16 million jobs have been created, and we’ve gotten women and people of color back in the labor force at record rates," the memo stated. "A record 20 million new business applications have been filed, and inflation is down to near pre-pandemic levels."
The White House added that "our success" in these areas was due to "passing and implementing legislation that rebuilt our nation’s infrastructure, made the largest investment in climate action in history, lowered prescription drug costs, and spurred a manufacturing renaissance."
The memo quotes unnamed "business leaders" calling the U.S. economy "among the best performing economies" in decades.
The latest jobs report released earlier this month, however, appears to show a different story.
The Labor Department report shows that just 12,000 jobs were created in October, far below estimates of up to 120,000 and were the lowest in four years. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, in line with expectations.
The cumulative effect of inflation has continued to weigh on many Americans.
The Labor Department’s inflation report for October found that the consumer price index — a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost — was up 2.6% from a year ago for the U.S. as a whole, in line with expectations as inflation ticked higher amid a broader cooling trend.
Days ahead of the presidential election, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued that "this jobs report is a catastrophe and definitively reveals how badly Kamala Harris broke our economy."
On Election Day, the will of the American people was reflected in the vote totals and appeared to show a referendum on the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
