Democratic political strategist James Carville called for an audit of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign spending on his podcast Politics War Room on Thursday.
The Harris campaign, with the help of the Democratic Party, raised over $1 billion, during this year’s election cycle, according to the Associated Press. Despite her remarkable financial backing, which was accumulated in a few short months after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Harris lost the November 5 election to President-elect Donald Trump. Groups affiliated with Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC), meanwhile, raised just over $1.8 billion, according to the Financial Times.
Now, Carville wants to know: “Do you have any idea where the money went?”
Carville’s question, which wasn’t geared toward anyone in particular, was asked during the latest episode of his podcast which Carville hosts with renowned journalist Al Hunt.
Carville has been seen on multiple television networks, sharing his analysis as a notable figure in Democratic politics, and first rose to national prominence after he helped elect former President Bill Clinton in 1992.
During Thursday’s episode of Politics War Room, Carville said that “the resistance,” a political movement against Trump, will now have trouble fundraising, adding that “the damage that the 2024 campaign has done—the damage that this decade has done to a Democratic brand is almost unfathomable.”
The political strategist called for an audit of “everything.”
“We’re going to audit the campaign. We’re going to audit Future Forward. We’re gonna audit the DNC [Democratic National Committee],” Carville said.
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign, the White House and the DNC via email as well as Future Forward via online form for comment late Friday afternoon.
Future Forward is a super political action committee (PAC) that supported Harris’ campaign. The super PAC, along with an affiliated nonprofit group, raised $700 million during this year’s election cycle, The New York Times reported in October.
The newspaper reported at the time that Future Forward was “in the middle of an unparalleled spending spree,” spending more money on TV ads in the last weeks of the presidential race than the Harris and Trump campaigns combined.
It seems that the $1 billion that Harris and the Democrats raised wasn’t enough to cover their debts as the AP reported earlier this month they are still asking donors for more money after the election.
Meanwhile, Politico’s California bureau chief Christopher Cadelago wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on November 6 that the Harris campaign “ended with at least $20 million in debt,” citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Newsweek could not independently verify Cadelago’s reporting.
The Democratic Party is sending near-daily emails to small-dollar donors, those that contributed hundreds of dollars or less, according to the AP. Meanwhile, Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist from Michigan, told the AP that they are also calling larger donors for help.
“The Harris campaign certainly spent more than they raised and is now busy trying to fundraise,” Hemond told the AP, adding that he was asked by the campaign after Harris’ loss to help with fundraising.
