History According To Lindy Li

Lindy Li is a puzzle. She's been highly visible in the press since the election, characterized as a Prominent Democratic National Committee powerhouse fundraiser who has turned on the party following Harris's November loss, spilling what purport to be insider secrets. I'm not sure about this at all.

Matt Margolis echoes the received line at PJ Media:

Democratic donor and operative Lindy Li hasn’t held back in her critiques of the party. For weeks, she’s been relentless, taking aim at Kamala Harris for squandering a billion dollars, criticizing her selection of Tim Walz, and calling out her embrace of radical positions. Li has even provided intriguing insider details about how Joe Biden was ultimately ousted, and what Pelosi and Obama really think of Kamala. Now, she’s dishing on Joe Biden’s mental decline.

The reference to "what Pelosi and Obama really think of Kamala" carries a link to another Margolis story at PJ Media:

In a candid interview with NewsNation’s Natasha Zouves earlier this week, Li shed light on key figures in the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and what they really think about Kamala Harris.

. . . When asked directly, “Do you agree that Obama and Pelosi did not want Harris?” Li didn’t mince words. “I know they didn’t,” she replied. “I have a lot of friends in Obama World, and actually, I'm friends with Speaker Pelosi, and I spoke with her before. . ."

But Li pkept on playing coy, until the interviewer began to lose patience:

Pressed on who Pelosi and Obama were backing, Li painted a nuanced picture. “I don’t think Pelosi was hoping for anyone in particular, or not that I know of. I do know that Obama was carefully vetting Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona. I know there were other names on his list.” She also noted, “I’m not saying that Kamala Harris was necessarily at the top of [Obama’s] list, but he was definitely considering other candidates. I don’t think she was ruled out.”

So, er, what did Obama and Pelosi actually think about Harris? Li winds up telling us absolutely nothing, except maybe they were thinking about other candidates, who presumably didn't make the cut. Then there's this odd quasi-tidbit:

Li added, “And Obama and Pelosi were both hoping for a primary instead of a coronation, so to speak.”

This is nothing new; Pelosi had already said this herself:

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the New York Times in comments published Friday [November 8].

“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”

But this is disingenuous in the extreme. The Democrat National Committee exerted maximum effort to forestall any primary campaign against Biden starting in late 2023, first denying ballot access to Bobby Kennedy Jr, then doing the same to Dean Phillips. This could not have been done without the tacit approval of both Obama and Pelosi, but mainly Pelosi.

Why would the DNC be opposed to a serious 2024 primary season? Because neither Biden nor Harris did well in primaries in 2020; Harris in particular suspended her campaign even before the Iowa caucuses. If Biden were to drop out as a candidate at any point in 2024 that might have allowed for any sort of primary contest, Harris would have been quickly eliminated. By letting Biden stay in the race so long, it had the effect of making Harris the heir apparent without any sort of primary uncertainty.

This can only have been the intended outcome. Pelosi's hopeful words about an "open primary" are nothing but crocodile tears, and it's a little peculiar that Lindy Li, teasing what she claims to be insider information about what Obama and Pelosi really thought, simply repeats Pelosi's already-published remarks.

But this brings me to another question -- exactly who is Lindy Li, and how did she achieve the powerhouse Democrat insider status she claims to have? According to Wikipedia, she was born December 14, 1990 (age 34) in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. She must be some sort of prodigy, huh, having clawed her way to power and influence starting as a humble immigrant? I'm not so sure. She

immigrated with her family to the United States when she was five years old. She spent much of her childhood in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Li attended the Agnes Irwin School, a private college-preparatory day school for girls, graduating in 2008. Her father is a real estate executive.

According to Data USA, Malvern, Pennsylvania's median household income was $115,743 in 2022. This is higher than the median household income in Pennsylvania ($73,170) and Chester County ($118,574). According to the same source, median household income in Beverly Hills, CA is $116,771. Annual tuition at the Agnes Irwin School for 9th - 12th Grade is $46,250.

Living in an affluent community and attending an exclusive private school are key class markers, even more so than an Ivy degree. However, Li also went to Princeton. As I've often noted here, the Ivy admissions process is highly secretive, but we do know that the offspring of major donors are in fact given preference, as are the alumni of exclusive "feeder schools" like Agnes Irwin.

We know little of Li's family background other than that her father is a "real estate executive". Real estate where? It sounds as though the family may have brought some part of their wealth with them from China, but at the moment, we know very little. For that matter, whose money was involved in Li's fundraising efforts? She seems to have spent only a token amount of time in her own business career -- how did she get all those contacts? Just whose money was this?

Bottom line: I don't believe a word of this whole Lindy Li saga. Somebody else is pulling those strings.