Democratic strategist James Carville has some advice for Vice President Kamala Harris if she wants to win in November.
In a Tuesday guest essay he wrote for The New York Times, Carville begins by ranting and raving about former and potentially future President Donald Trump, acknowledging that the Republican nominee is well known.
One of Carville's most telling pieces of advice includes "Break from President Biden on policy," despite how he also acknowledged that Harris is part of the Biden-Harris administration in that there's "an incumbent vice president running against a former president in a change election."
Carville goes on to sing President Joe Biden's praises, though he reminds that "Mr. Biden’s not in the race," and offers how Harris can "be the certified fresh candidate," something she should not get to do as the sitting vice president. As Carville offers, she "must clearly and decisively break from Mr. Biden on a set of policy priorities she believes would define her presidency."
As he explains further:
Here’s an idea: Do it one day in a swing state, just a hair after the debate. Hold a rally. Put out a broad list of “new way forward” policies that detail why she is breaking from the sitting president on the given issues and what change would deliver to the American people. And after that rally, do a news conference on it, so media organizations stop cranking their clamshells about a lack of access. Don’t run from your differences with the president. Embrace them, respectfully and honestly.
For Ms. Harris to break from Mr. Biden more explicitly than she has done so far would not be an insult to his legacy, just as Mr. Biden’s objectively more progressive policy agenda was not an insult to Mr. Obama’s. Rather, it shows even more sharply that she is passionate about her own ideas and represents change rather than more of the same.
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We're exactly two months away from the election; it was a little more than two months when Carville's piece was published. Biden endorsed Harris as his replacement over a month ago, and she made her DNC acceptance speech two weeks ago. The time for her to put out that "broad list of 'new way forward' policies" has been here for a while now, yet she lacks a policy section on her website.
Many of the policies that Harris has announced she had copied from Trump or his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). Her original policies, like price controls, are communist in nature. Rather than a list of policies, as Carville suggests, Harris' swing state rallies have more so been defined by the vice president's changing accents.
Another memorable piece of advice included "Help Mr. Trump hurt himself in the debate(s)," which shows that Carville acknowledges there may be only one debate between Trump and Harris, next Tuesday hosted by ABC News. It's not Trump who has been difficult about the debate rules, but rather the Harris-Walz campaign.
The Harris campaign finally accepted the debate rules for the Tuesday debate, but they did so on Wednesday after Carville's piece was published. Harris and her campaign also continue to complain about and gaslight the American people when it comes to the rules. The rules are the same as they were between Trump and Biden for that June 27 debate, rules that the Biden campaign insisted on.
Carville doesn't acknowledge the issues of how the campaign has handled the debates, but rather seems to be of mind that the microphones should not be muted, as they were during the June 27 debate, which Harris and her campaign are specifically taking issue with.
As Carville wrote [Emphasis added]:
In the Sept. 10 debate, Ms. Harris must enable exactly what his campaign is scared to death of: letting Trump be Trump. She should let him talk over her. Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election. She should use her sense of humor at key moments to get under his skin and show he’s not getting to her. And she should welcome the personal attacks as a badge of honor. And each time, no matter how many times he does it, respond with this refrain: It’s the same old tired playbook, and I’m focused on a new way forward.
Carville had also written a guest essay for The New York Times on July 8 about the process Democrats should go about replacing Biden, regarding it as a given that the president would drop out of the race. Biden did not do so until July 21 and endorsed Harris as his replacement later that same day.
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