Democratic strategist James Carville has argued that former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama should play a role in choosing the party’s nominee to succeed Biden if he gives up on reelection.
Carville is New York Times Op-ed He said Monday that he expects Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, saying it will take time for the president to cave in to pressure from Democrats and public and private polls. The sooner this happens, he wrote, the better.
But Carville said Democrats should not choose to automatically nominate Vice President Harris or another prominent Democrat to replace him.
“We need to do it openly, which is the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do,” Carville said. “For the first time in his life, Trump is praying. To improve their chances of winning the White House and avoiding the orange jumpsuit, Democrats need to get it wrong in the coming days, which means making it look like they’re rigging the nomination for a losing president, the sitting vice president, or any other potential successor.”
Biden remains adamant that he has no plans to withdraw, despite public and private calls for him to do so after last month’s debate with former President Trump. The public calls have come so far from a handful of Democratic officeholders.
Mr. Carville, who helped Ms. Clinton win the 1992 presidential election, said he wanted to expand on the “mini-primaries” called for by Rep. James E. Clyburn of Colorado and Times op-ed columnist Ezra Klein. He said Democrats should hold four town halls — one in each region of the country — between now and the start of the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
He said Clinton and Obama were “the most obvious and best-placed people in the world to facilitate substantive discussion.”
“They may not represent every faction of our party, but they care about democracy as much as our nation’s first president did, they understand what it takes to be president, and they know how to win,” he said.
Noting that he sees Vice President Harris as a “formidable challenger” to Trump, Carville said the two former presidents should select eight strong candidates to run, including Harris, and may even ask the 23 Democratic governors to consult with them to make the process more democratic, he added.
“The town hall will allow Americans to see Harris through new eyes and introduce her to a deep slate of smart, dynamic and proven leaders,” he said. “And Democratic delegates will further grill and stress-test these leaders in public and private meetings before the full House votes at the Democratic Convention.”
Carville said he believes the delegates, whom he describes as “practical patriots” who care about their communities, can reach a majority decision through this open and substantive process. He said he’s not worried about the delegates, Democratic talent, money, time or Democratic opponents.
The answer, he concluded, was an “extra-democratic process” – the exact opposite of what Trump wants.
