Democratic strategist James Carville warned that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign needs to learn to “play defense and offense at the same time” as Republicans update their election strategy.
Harris quickly emerged as a front-runner after President Biden resigned under pressure from his own party earlier this month. Harris has enjoyed a honeymoon period with the party and some in the media since then, but Carville warned Democrats that the honeymoon will end. He warned Democrats that while Republicans were initially caught off guard, it won’t be an easy win for Harris’ team as Republicans adjust.
“I think she has a track record and she’s going to have to make a proposition. But I think a lot of it depends on her being able to define herself, and I think she’s really going to have to present herself, because she’s not very well known,” Carville said on an episode of PBS’ “Firing Line With Margaret Hoover” that aired over the weekend. He then suggested, “Republicans are going to try to present her on their own terms. I don’t blame them. I would do the same thing. And she’s going to have to get good quickly.”
He added: “That’s all I can say. I’m not getting carried away about it, I’m not being cocky at all. I think we’ve got a tough election ahead of us.”
When asked by the interviewer whether Harris could “maintain this excitement” through the remainder of the campaign, Carville said he had to deeply understand why Harris’s rise came as such a relief to the party in the first place.
“That’s the key issue – first of all, recognize what happened. What happened was people wanted something different and she simply projected the fact that she expected the future. There was no policy that anyone was pushing, there was no particular group behind this,” he said. “There was a general sense that people wanted a different option than Donald Trump and President Biden, and that’s what happened.”
She reiterated her warning that Republicans are preparing a strategy to attack her credibility as a candidate and that her campaign should not underestimate their ability to do so.
“She’s going to be defeated badly, they’re coming, and this is just part of it. It’s no different than any other time. They’ve got to be up and prepared and be able to defend and be on the offensive at the same time,” he said. “There’s going to be a time of conflict and definition of who Vice President Harris is, and we’d better be prepared for that. But we feel like we’re in a better position now than we were on Sunday morning, and we’re doing this interview on Wednesday, so I’m going to take the little victories.”
