It was the night of June 27, 2024, and Lindy Li could feel her whole body shaking.
uncertain
body → feel → June
She wasn't sure if it was intense hunger after a stressful day with no food, or the shock of seeing one of her heroes crumble in front of the entire nation.
asserted
one → see → nation
The 81-year-old President, Joe Biden, had just put in a devastatingly shambolic debate performance against Donald Trump – the moment his attempt at a second presidential term tanked.
asserted
attempt → put → term
Li, a prolific Democratic Party fundraiser, claims to have been one of the first people with whom he spoke on his arrival at the location where party loyalists had been watching the president's dismal showing on big screen TVs.
uncertain
loyalists → claim → TVs
'I was shaking... like, I cannot believe this happened.
asserted
this → shake → ?
I knew he was slowing down, that's no secret, but I didn't know he was going to face plant,' Li told the Daily Mail.
asserted
Li → know → Mail
'I didn't know it was going to be an outright collapse.
asserted
it → know → ?
It was just embarrassing [and] painful to watch.'
asserted
It → watch → ?
As an avowed Democratic Party insider, Li, 35, had a front row seat to the implosion of Biden's campaign for re-election and the subsequent ascension of his Vice President Kamala Harris to the ticket, only for her to suffer a crushing defeat to Donald Trump.
asserted
her → have → Trump
Speaking to the President afterwards, she felt sorrow at the diminished figure before her.
asserted
she → speak → her
'I had so much compassion for him, I didn't mention the debate -- I consoled him,' she told the Daily Mail.
asserted
she → have → Mail
'[I felt] love and pity – actual pity – and that is not the feeling you want to have for your President.'
asserted
you → feel → President
Now, when Li thinks back on what she recalls as an excruciating time, her overwhelming feeling is not compassion and sadness, but anger and guilt about all her friends and contacts who opened their wallets and gave her millions of dollars for what she claims the Democrats always knew was a losing cause.
uncertain
Democrats → think → what
As she exposes in her new book - Unburdened: A Former Democratic Insider's Shocking Account of Political Power, Betrayal, and Party Collapse, out on Tuesday – the former Liberal fundraiser not only lost faith in her party but switched sides entirely.
asserted
fundraiser → expose → sides
So disenchanted was she by the millions she claims she saw squandered in behind-the-scenes excesses, the 'cult'-like mentality she alleges was fostered and the Biden family's and closest advisors' seeming desperation to cling to power.
uncertain
she → claim → power
She writes that Biden was 'shamelessness in human form,' while Harris is dismissed as the 'Cackle Queen.'
asserted
Harris → write → Queen
Lindy Li, a prolific Democratic Party fundraiser, claims to have been one of the first people President Joe Biden spoke with after his disastrous debate in 2024
'
uncertain
Biden → claim → 2024
I consoled him,' she told the Daily Mail.
asserted
she → console → Mail
'[I felt] love and pity – actual pity – and that is not the feeling you want to have for your President'
asserted
you → feel → President
Li had a front row seat to the implosion of Biden's campaign for re-election and the subsequent ascension of his Vice President Kamala Harris to the ticket
The former Liberal fundraiser not only lost faith in her party but switched sides entirely
But perhaps what bites the most is the extent to which she feels she played a part in the deception she said she witnessed behind closed doors:
asserted
she → have → doors
'[People] were donating to the campaign because of their faith in me, and that propelled my need for accountability afterwards, because I felt like it was a personal betrayal.
asserted
it → donate → accountability
Today, Li doesn't hold back on the blame.
asserted
Li → hold → blame
Some of the most shocking claims in her book relate to what she alleges Democrats – and specifically Harris – spent in donor money on fripperies such as the Vice President's hairstyle, celebrity endorsers and frivolous gift baskets.
uncertain
Democrats → relate → hairstyle
Breaking the code of loyalty and openly criticizing the Democratic Party in the aftermath of the November 2024 election defeat, Li switched her allegiance to the Republican Party in December 2024.
asserted
Li → break → December
Li has earned herself plenty of enemies for such a polarizing move, but she feels like her life has toughened her to the blows she has faced in the past year.
asserted
she → earn → year
Li was born in China, but when she was two weeks old her parents left her with her grandmother to move to Sheffield, England.
asserted
parents → bear → Sheffield
She joined them when she was three years old in 1994, spending two years in the UK before relocating again to the United States.
asserted
she → join → States
After moving around for her father's job in academia, they settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when Li was nine.
asserted
Li → move → Philadelphia
Her father transitioned into real estate, making good money and catapulting the family into the upper echelons of Philadelphia society.
asserted
father → transition → society
'I went to college with billionaires,' she said.
asserted
she → go → billionaires
Despite parents who Li said 'very much wanted me to be a traditional East Asian wife,' she was instead drawn to politics.
asserted
she → say → politics
She studied philosophy at Princeton where she was class President for each of her four years at the university.
asserted
she → study → university
After graduation, she joined Morgan Stanley as a wealth manager but quit in 2015 at age 25 to run for Congress in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary.
asserted
she → join → primary
Even though she describes herself as socially conservative, she was swept up in the optimism of the first Obama administration, and it was an automatic assumption among her liberal peers at college that she would join the Democrats.
asserted
she → describe → Democrats
'I was told the other side consisted of Nazis, so it didn't even compute,' she said.
asserted
she → tell → Nazis
Her first attempt to run for office in 2016 failed when the signatures for her Pennsylvania candidacy were deemed invalid.
asserted
signatures → run → candidacy
Her opponent in the race had challenged her nominating petition, alleging she did not receive the required 1,000 signatures due to invalid signatures – the notary, Li said, had stamped but not signed them.
asserted
Li → challenge → them
She withdrew from the race.
asserted
She → withdraw → race
'I take full responsibility,' she said at the time.
asserted
she → take → time
'I understand it is my job to make sure that it's done correctly.
asserted
it → understand → ?
…and 45 more, not listed.
The Aporia
