James Carville has been warning Democrats for weeks. He insists the American people want someone new instead of President Biden. But Carville also tells them not to get too confident about their new choice.
Biden stepped aside, and Kamala Harris quickly became the presumptive nominee. Many Democrats felt a sense of honeymoon excitement. But Carville warns it's not time to celebrate yet.
"I have to be the skunk at the garden party. This is too triumphalist, OK?" Carville said on MSNBC. "Everybody’s giddy. I look at the coverage, and it’s great. If I had to write a play about what I think, it’d be entitled, ‘The Icepick Cometh,’ OK? Get ready, they’re coming. All right? And it’s good. Everybody should feel good and liberated and everything else. But if we don’t win the election, we haven’t done anything."
"This kind of giddy elation is not going to be very helpful much longer," he continued. Carville, a veteran strategist, insists Democrats must work hard to beat Trump.
Known for Clinton's 1992 victory, Carville used a boxing analogy. He said Harris needs a good "cutman" in her corner. "I think the Vice President... needs a really good cutman on the corner because she’s getting ready to get cut," he said.
Carville noted Harris is doing better in polls. But he cautioned not to rely too heavily on them. "It’s still the same country. All right? It might be a different mood... but still, when you go out there, you’re facing Alabama," he said.
He stressed Republicans will get their act together. "They got caught off guard, but they’re going to get their sea legs," he warned. Democrats need a whole campaign ready.
Carville’s message is clear: don’t get complacent. "All I’m doing is saying watch out people, don’t get too far out there," he argued. "If we don’t win this, all this good feeling is going to evaporate."
He spoke similarly on The Don Lemon Show about Harris’s campaign. He said Harris is doing well now. But he warned the best day of her campaign is behind her.
"This is the best day that she’s going to have... they’re coming," he said. "They were hit real bad... but they’re getting un-confused now and Democrats have got to get ready."