Who really won the 2020 Democratic presidential primary? No, this isn’t a claim the nomination was stolen or obtained through cheating. It just seems like an appropriate question to ask when we learn that Elizabeth Warren staffers who ended up working in Joe Biden’s administration ended up convincing Biden to enact a policy he previously opposed and that Warren enthusiastically endorsed.
The Washington Post has the behind-the-scenes story of how Biden came around on the large-scale version of forgiving student loans:
President Biden had doubts. In private conversations with White House staffers and allies in Congress this spring, he said he worried that voters who’d never gone to college could resent a move to cancel huge amounts of student debt, according to four Democratic officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private talks. Biden also said that the federal government should not be bailing out Ivy League graduates, and that his children should not qualify for help, two of the officials said.
…Aiming to unify the Democratic Party after the bruising 2020 primary, Biden endorsed the cancellation of at least $10,000 in debt per borrower after he won the nomination. When he took office, Warren allies secured key administration posts in economic and education policy: Julie Morgan, a Warren aide who developed the legal rationale for debt relief, became a deputy undersecretary at the Education Department. Richard Cordray, a former Warren adviser at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was appointed the chief operating officer in the Office of Federal Student Aid. Bharat Ramamurti, Warren’s 2020 head of economic policy, joined the White House National Economic Council as deputy director.
…Ramamurti in particular would later prove crucial in persuading Biden to get behind debt cancellation amid skepticism from other parts of the administration, as part of a team led with Rice and other senior White House officials Carmel Martin and Brian Deese.
“Working with the Biden transition to get key people throughout the White House and in places like the Department of Education set the stage for many allies to be in the room as this was being discussed,” said Adam Green, a Warren ally.
If Democratic primary voters voted for Joe Biden because he was somewhat less progressive than Elizabeth Warren . . . well, they fell for a bait-and-switch, because they ended up with a Warren-administration staff anyway. In the primaries, Biden won 51.7 percent of the overall vote, while Warren won 7.69 percent.
I’m sure Elizabeth Warren would prefer to work in the Oval Office, fly around on Air Force One, and hear “Hail to the Chief” played when she enters the room. But if you can’t be president, having the president carry out your policy agenda is an awfully nice consolation prize.
Personnel is policy.