Veteran US political strategist James Carville says he believes Democratic candidate Kamala Harris can win the presidency partly because her campaign is better organized and also because Trump is ‘stone-ass nuts.’
Carville, 80, steered Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992 with a campaign best remembered for his pithy motto: it’s ‘the economy, stupid.’
This time around, Carville infuriated Democrats by loudly insisting for months that President Joe Biden was too old to run again – until the party suddenly agreed with him, and Biden stepped aside.
‘I think she’s going to win. She’s got more money, more energy, has a more united party, has better surrogates and he’s stone-ass nuts,’ Carville said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday.
Veteran US political strategist James Carville says he believes Democratic candidate Kamala Harris can win the presidency partly because her campaign is better organized and also because Trump is ‘stone-ass nuts.’
‘I think she’s going to win. She’s got more money, more energy, has a more united party, has better surrogates and he’s stone-ass nuts,’ Carville, 80, said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday
Carville also called out The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post newspapers over their decisions not to endorse Harris.
‘I mean, when you start talking about lining up a political opponent with nine people in a firing squad and then you have the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get involved in this,’ this is dirty politics. It’s unbelievable,’ he said.
‘Joe, it’s unbelievable. We’ve been around the world once or twice and we’ve never seen anything like this.’
Carville currently serves as the senior advisor for liberal American Super PAC and opposition research group American Bridge 21st Century and has aired why he believes Harris will win the White House.
‘My reason is 100 percent emotional. We are constantly told that America is too divided, too hopelessly stricken by tribalism, to grasp the stakes. That is plain wrong,’ Carville wrote in a piece for the New York Times.
‘If the Cheneys and A.O.C. get that the Constitution and our democracy are on the ballot, every true conservative and every true progressive should get it too. A vast majority of Americans are rational, reasonable people of good will,’ Carville said.
Carville believes Kamala Harris will win because she has ‘more money, more energy, has a more united party.’
Carville described Trump as being ‘stone-ass nuts’ and hopes a win for Harris will send Trump ‘into a prolonged remission’
Veteran strategist James Carville steered Bill Clinton to the White House with a campaign best remembered for his pithy motto: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’
‘I refuse to believe that the same country that has time and again overcome its mistakes to bend its future toward justice will make the same mistake twice. America overcame Mr. Trump in 2020. I know that we know we are better than this.
‘We not only have a chance to elect Kamala Harris as president, but a chance to bring finality to the sordid career of Donald Trump and drive MAGA into a prolonged remission.’
Carville believes Harris can win the election by again following his famous motto, and becoming ‘more aggressive’ with attacks on Donald Trump’s economic record.
‘As usual, Trump is offering people snake oil and stuff that’s never worked — like tariffs, which is a really historically dumb idea,’ Carville said of the Republican presidential nominee.
‘We don’t have to be as good as Bill Clinton’ in delivering that message, said Carville, referring to his silver-tongued former boss as ‘the greatest who ever lived.’
But ‘you can’t separate human life from economic life. We find that out more and more every day,’ said Carville.
Carville, a staunch Democrat has been married to Republican strategist Mary Matalin, 71, for 41 years
The current Democratic administration has been hamstrung by soaring inflation.
But price rises have recently cooled, and other economic indicators like stock markets are near all-time highs.
And experts, including the head of the International Monetary Fund, have warned that Trump’s plans for fresh import tariffs risk pushing consumer prices up, hitting lower-income families hardest.
‘Some people may think the economy could be better for them. They always do,’ said Carville.
But while ‘Trump says you have nothing to lose… I think we’re certainly at a place where you have something to lose,’ he said.
‘Record numbers of Americans are working. Record numbers of Americans have some money in the stock market… we’ve got to talk about it in ways that are relevant to people.’
Political consultant James Carville is no longer inside the Democratic war room, but his influence remains outsized
Carville was heavily criticized for an interview in March in which he said the Democratic party had become ‘too feminine,’ and dominated by values like ‘don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers… Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet.’
But Carville believes there has been a quiet but necessary scaling-back of ‘identity politics’ in his party.
‘No one talks like that anymore… it didn’t work,’ he said.
But despite his legendary status among political strategists, Carville insists he is ‘not very good at predicting elections.’
‘I don’t ever think about who’s going to win,’ he said. ‘Because every minute of thinking about who’s going to win, I’m not thinking about how we can win.’
