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When President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the 2024 election, most top Democrats projected unity.
But some longtime allies of the president weren't on script, sounding angry and betrayed.
Some went so far as to accuse the party's donors and most powerful members of forcing Biden out.
These figures "pushed out the only candidate who has ever beaten Trump," wrote Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff, disparaging what he saw as "political fantasy games."
Although his message went on to promote Vice President Kamala Harris, the note of hurt was unmistakable.
Klain, according to NBC News, was among those the Biden confidants urging him not to quit over the weekend.
According to The New York Times, those urging Biden to stay on insisted there was still a path to victory despite alarming polling data in the wake of Biden's confused performance in the latest debate against Donald Trump.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, co-chair of Biden's campaign openly wept as he discussed Biden's decision to withdraw.
"This was a very difficult decision. And one that I think reflects the very best of who Joe Biden is," he told CBS News on Sunday.
Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic Rep. from Texas, said the Democratic Party was responsible for the crisis, which saw it without a formal nominee only months before the presidential election.
Biden himself and other top Democrats Harris to take on Trump, and she seems to have few viable rivals for her party's nomination.
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"I hope the geniuses that pushed the most consequential President of our lifetime out have a plan," said Crockett on X.
"Joe wasn't the problem… dems were," she continued.
Crockett also supported Harris to be the new nominee, saying she would refuse to campaign if anybody else was chosen.
Axios reported, citing unnamed sources, that Biden himself felt isolated, frustrated, and betrayed as he reached the decision to withdraw.
"It was fury for a while. Then he surrendered to reality. He's a professional," an unnamed friend of the president told the outlet.
Biden said for weeks that he wouldn't quit, but relented on Sunday, saying it was "in the best interest of my party and the country"
Those who media reports name as having urged him to quit or reconsider included former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Even before Biden announced he was quitting the race Sunday, allies were criticizing what they characterized as a campaign by party elites to oust him.
One critic, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that it may have been a double blow for Biden.
To that source, recent events felt like a rerun of 2015, when Biden was persuaded not to run in the 2016 election and Hillary Clinton secured the nomination.
Clinton crashed to a shock defeat by Trump.
Biden defeated him in 2020, and the Democrats outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterms.
"Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump," a source close to Biden told NBC News.
"In 2015, [Barack] Obama, [Nancy] Pelosi, [Chuck] Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary [Clinton]; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now."
The decision throws the party into turmoil just months before the presidential election.
