DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Democratic strategist James Carville on Wednesday outlined the major missteps he believes led to Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to former President Donald Trump.
Trump clinched an election victory early Wednesday, fueled partly by stronger support from Hispanic and black men. Carville, on “James Carville Explains,” pointed to President Joe Biden’s “late” July exit from the race, Harris’ failure to distinguish herself from him, and “a sense of disorder” as the factors that sunk her presidential bid.
“I think there were a couple big, big mistakes and something overreaching. First of all … by Biden staying in so late, we didn’t have any process,” Carville said. “We had all of this unused cordwood sitting on the sideline, OK? And I mean really good, really good, unused—you know, that if we’d had some kind of an open process and it would have been much better … It could have been worse, but it sure could have been a lot better.”
Harris secured enough backing from Democratic delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee in July, despite receiving virtually no primary voter approval.
“She didn’t separate herself from Biden. But what killed the Democrats, and what killed Biden, was a sense of disorder. And part of the sense of disorder was the unfortunate events of what I would refer to as the woke era,” he added. “We got beyond it, but … the image stuck in people’s minds that the Democrats wanted to defund the police, that they wanted to empty prisons. You know, the immigration stuff, obviously, again, a big mistake, but more importantly, it created to the perception of disorder.”
“The Afghanistan withdrawal—while I think Biden was 100% right in getting out—it was disorderly. Inflation was a sign of people’s sense of disorder, that there wasn’t anyone in charge,” Carville said. “And, you know, if we learn anything from this, it’s change is what wins elections, particularly, you know, people were pointing out, it’s a 65% wrong-track country. And in a 65% wrong-track country, we were offering people the same track.”
The vice president told “The View” on Oct. 8 that nothing “comes to mind” when she fielded a query regarding how she would govern differently from Biden.
“And, you know, you can say it’s easy in hindsight, but the basic fundamentals of politics were not being paid attention to. And you’re right, the campaign didn’t—except for that one answer, which was the whole, which was the money question, by the way—just say that one question. But that one question became the whole definition of the campaign,” the Democratic strategist asserted. “And, you know, if you answer 99 questions really well, but you get the big one wrong, the outcome is going to be wrong. And, you know, it’s easy to say in retrospect, but the reason it’s easy to say is because truisms in American politics showed themselves to be, well, what they are—truisms.”
Radio host Charlamagne tha God on Wednesday asserted that economic factors and safety were key driving forces behind Trump’s victory, disputing the notion that he won solely due to bigotry.
“I don’t think it’s fair to just chalk up Trump winning to racism, sexism, homophobia, or antisemitism. Yes, he tapped into all of the worst things America has ever had to offer, and there are a lot of people who agree with his rhetoric and voted for him because of those reasons,” he said. “But I truly believe most people voted for him because they want more money in their pocket and they want to feel safe.”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
