 In what I think is a genuinely shocking turn of events, Kamala Harris has announced that she is suspending her 2020 campaign. Now I don't really believe that a lot of people thought that she had what it takes to go the distance but for her to drop out before Iowa and New Hampshire is genuinely shocking to a lot of political observers. Now part of the reason why I think she's dropping out is because the deadline to withdraw officially from the California Democratic Party primary was approaching and she's not pulling too well there so to be a young politician with ambitions for higher office to lose in your home turf that's not a good look for you know the long-term prospects of your career so of course she made the right decision and acknowledged that she can't win this and she chose to drop out and she released this video explaining why she made this choice. 11 months ago at the launch of our campaign in Oakland I told you all that I am not perfect but I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect that I will lead with integrity and I will speak the truth and so that's what I've tried to do every day of this campaign and here's the truth today. I've taken stock and I've looked at this from every angle and over the last few days I have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life so here's the deal guys my campaign for president simply does not have the financial resources to continue and the financial resources we need to continue I'm not a billionaire I can't fund my own campaign and as the campaign has gone on it has become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete in good faith I cannot tell you my supporters and volunteers that I have a path forward if I don't believe I do so to you my supporters my dear supporters it is with deep regret but also with deep gratitude that I am suspending our campaign today but I want to be clear with you I am still very much in this fight and I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about justice for the people all the people so look I've been critical of Kamala Harris but credit to her words do she acknowledged that she can't win and she did the right thing she dropped out that is exactly what you should do if it seems as if you don't have the money needed to sustain your campaign now this announcement comes after a scandal with regard to one of our top campaign staffers who resigned and penned a scathing letter essentially saying that out of all the presidential campaigns that she worked for Kamala Harris treated her staffers the worst and part of the problem was that Kamala Harris had a lot of staffers basically uproot their lives for Kamala's campaign they moved to New Hampshire and then they kind of looked at the way the one was blowing realized that she didn't necessarily have the money to be competitive in other states so she just focused all of her resources on Iowa so that means people who literally moved to New Hampshire and were laid off were essentially their lives were ruined because of this campaign so people are angry and I think rightfully so and that's not a great way to treat your staffers who put their lives on the line for you who dedicated you know the last 11 or so months to fighting for you now as the New York Times explains the decision came after weeks of upheaval among Miss Harris's staff including layoffs in New Hampshire and at her headquarters in Baltimore and disarray among her allies she told supporters in an email on Tuesday that she lacked the money needed to fully finance a competitive campaign quote my campaign for president simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue Miss Harris wrote now the latest trajectory of her campaign made it seem like this really was inevitable I thought that she would at least make it to Iowa nonetheless here we are but when you go back to when she announced her campaign and she launched in Oakland at an event where 20,000 people showed up it seemed as if she would be a force in this primary that she was possibly unstoppable and mind you after that first debate where she called out Joe Biden she surged in the polls to a point where she literally surpassed Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren albeit temporarily but nonetheless that was a huge jolt to her campaign however at that second debate when Tulsi Gabbard went after her that was essentially the beginning of the end of Kamala Harris's campaign and on top of that and part of the reason why she lost is because she backed away from Medicare for all now she acknowledges that there is a war that's going on within the Democratic Party there's centrists versus progressives and she was really trying to walk a fine line and appease both warring wings when really you're not going to appease both sides you either have to you know plant your feet and flag in one side and roll with it but she didn't do that so she initially came to this primary endorsing Medicare for all and then almost immediately she started to back away after saying we should get rid of private insurance she then said well maybe we shouldn't do that and then she completely walked away from Medicare for all by proposing her own version with private for-profit health insurers which is not single payer that's multi payer and that was you know another reason why she started to lose and Elizabeth Warren really should learn from Kamala Harris because what she should take away from this and what future politicians who plan to run for president should take away from this is sometimes when you try to appease everyone you end up appeasing nobody because by coming up with a Medicare for all compromise she pissed off progressives and centrists like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg who were attacking her for supporting Medicare for all still just pretended as if she supported real Medicare for all so she appeased nobody so if you're going to run for president you have to start your campaign with true policy convictions and make the case for them and not waiver in an attempt to appease critics who are never going to accept what you have to offer they're always going to move the goalpost so Kamala Harris I mean she's certainly not one of the worst but it's easy to see why she lost and didn't have the momentum to go the distance because she was trying to be malleable in an attempt to be a candidate that represents everybody but you've got to pick a side like you can't choose to be the candidate for centrists and progressives one side has to win out and the other side has to lose and she didn't acknowledge that and that is her downfall and Elizabeth Warren is now seeing that you know that same failed strategy may very well be her downfall as well now since Kamala Harris isn't the worst certainly not the best but she's not the worst it is sad to see her go before billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer they absolutely should be dropping out before Kamala Harris but I will say you know I am satisfied that an establishment figure like Kamala Harris has dropped out before anti-establishment figures like Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard I don't support them to be clear but it's nice to see that people who don't have the backing of the establishment can have more longevity than someone who obviously is aligned with the establishment and wants to do their bidding so the question is where will Kamala's support go she was pulling at around four to five percent on average so who is going to benefit from Kamala Harris's loss it's really difficult to tell I think that her support will be distributed relatively equally but I think the individuals who will benefit the most probably going to be Elizabeth Warren maybe Pete Buttigieg but what we're seeing is there's this portion of the electorate that kind of jumps from Kamala Harris to Elizabeth Warren to Pete Buttigieg and they're incredibly flexible in their ideology and they just kind of see what the mainstream media is saying about particular candidates and they base their support presumably on that so I'm not sure where that support will go but certainly it'll be interesting to see who gains the most from this but there you have it Kamala Harris after launching her campaign with a really strong showing is now out of the race before Iowa and New Hampshire um I certainly didn't see this coming I think a lot of people didn't see this coming but even though I didn't necessarily believe that she would be dropping out this early at least I could take comfort knowing that CNN was the most wrong who had Kamala Harris at number one in their candidate rankings it just goes to show you that mainstream news analysts don't have their finger on the pulse of America they don't really know what they're talking about but I mean there you have it this race is certainly interesting and we're starting to see it wind down there's still 16 people running but now we're seeing people drop out and I really hope that other people follow Kamala's lead here and acknowledge that if they don't have the financial resources to maintain their campaigns and pay their staffers rather than you know dragging it out and taking up time at the debate they should just drop out and do the right thing if they know that they're not going to win but I mean I'll leave that there Kamala Harris is out