A neck-and-neck US election goes to show that Democrats need to do some soul-searching, billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya says

• The neck-and-neck US election goes to show that the Democratic Party needs to do some soul-searching, the billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC on Wednesday.
• "Just the idea that you can even be calling such a close election after all that's happened in the last four years just goes to show you that Donald Trump is a vessel," he said.
• "I think in many ways the Democratic Party has shot themselves in the foot," because even if Joe Biden wins, it would not be definitive, Palihapitiya said.
• Here's the live 2020 US presidential election tracker.

The 2020 US presidential election is close, which is very telling and shows that Democrats need to do some soul-searching, the billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC on Wednesday.

Democrats "have a lot of soul-searching to do, because this should've been a walk in the park," Palihapitiya said.

He said the COVID-19 lockdowns and an overemphasis on "cancel culture" instead of "thinking about just common, everyday problems" had hurt the Democratic nominee Joe Biden's chance of winning.

"Just the idea that you can even be calling such a close election after all that's happened in the last four years just goes to show you that Donald Trump is a vessel," Palihapitiya said. "He's a vessel for giving an incredibly important message, which is that there are tens of millions of Americans that just don't agree with the priorities of coastal elites."

He added, "I think in many ways the Democratic Party has shot themselves in the foot," because even if Biden wins, it would not be definitive.

National and state polls had found Biden with a reasonably comfortable lead over Trump before Tuesday. By early Wednesday, there was still no clear winner.

Read more: Iconiq Capital, which counts some of the world's most influential families as clients, broke down the investment implications of the US election. Here are the highlights of its 23-page presentation.

The Social Capital CEO said Trump's path to the White House depended on capturing Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, where vote tallies may take days.

He said that while the debate in the stock market is about whether all stocks or some stocks would go up, they would mostly go higher. Palihapitiya previously said stocks would go higher over the next four years regardless of the election outcome.

Trump grabbed four major wins in the key battleground states of Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. But as of Wednesday morning, a substantial number of votes had not been counted in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Read more: Bond king Jeff Gundlach predicts a Trump win, but with 'far less conviction' than in 2016. He and famed economist David Rosenberg share their picks for the best and safest areas to invest in a post-election world.