During an interview with PBS’s “Firing Line” that took place on Wednesday and was released on Friday, Democratic strategist James Carville said that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential run featured her going “through some laundry list of idiotic” stuff.
Host Margaret Hoover said, [relevant exchange begins around 14:55] “If you were running this campaign, you would be noticing that Republicans are already honing their attacks against Vice President Harris as too progressive. They’re pointing to her record when she ran in 2020 calling for [the] removal of the filibuster so she could pass the Green New Deal, promising to ban fracking and offshore drilling. She had said she was open to abolishing ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that she was open to providing health care for undocumented immigrants. The hit is going to be from the Trump campaign and from the Republicans that she is dangerously progressive. How do you advise her as a candidate now?”
Carville responded, “Well, first of all, every — I don’t know how many business leaders said that Trump’s economic plans would ruin the economy. I don’t know how to tell you this, but do you want to bet that all kinds of national security people, retired military people, don’t come out and say that Trump is a horrible threat to the security of the United States? I don’t know how to tell you this, he wants to get out of NATO. He has 26 women that credibly accused him of sexual impropriety. The other side gets to play. There’s this whole feeling that the only people that get to play this game are the Republicans, and that the Democrats are just doomed to sit there and get beat up by them. And I don’t think — I hope — I know I’m not going to play that game, and I hope that she doesn’t play that game.”
Hoover followed up, “No, but how should she respond to the attacks that she’s too progressive? Should she run as a centrist?”
Carville answered, “I can’t — do you want me to respond to every one? The fracking thing, there have been more drilling permits issued under the Biden administration than any other administration. I actually don’t know if that’s an accomplishment, but it’s a fact. The crime rate in the United States is down and down significantly since Donald Trump was president. That’s a fact, okay? We can argue anything –.”
Hoover cut in to ask, “So, you’re arguing — she should run as a centrist, then, she should run to the center, not as a progressive?”
Carville answered, “She’s going to have to come up with some proposals. And we can go back and we can find out anything that anybody said at a given point in their life that they wish they wouldn’t have said. That’s easy enough. But I think a lot of it is going to depend on her ability to define herself, and I actually think that she’s going to have to introduce herself, because she’s really not that well known. There’s a caricature of her on Fox News, but most people don’t know a lot about her, and, of course, the Republicans are going to try to introduce her on their terms.”
He added that Harris should run on her background as a prosecutor.
Later, he added, [relevant remarks begin around 24:35] “There’s no doubt, her campaign in 2020 was just God-awful. And I think the problem she had was her stupid strategist said you can’t talk about being a prosecutor or an A.G., so she didn’t have anything to talk about. She was just out there trying to go through some laundry list of idiotic — position. Now, actually who she is is actually kind of helpful. And I don’t think she’s going to have any problem talking about her being a prosecutor, or being a consumer-oriented A.G. But that’s part of the political landscape, but I hope, and the early indications are, that she’s improved. I think human beings can actually grow. I know I’m almost 80. I think, I give myself a little credit in life. I’ve grown a little bit. I’ve learned something. I’ve acquired something I didn’t have before.”
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