Democratic strategist James Carville warned that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign will need to learn to "defend and attack at the same time" as Republicans update their campaign strategy.
When President Biden stepped aside under pressure from his own party earlier this month, Harris rapidly ascended to become the presumptive nominee. Harris has since enjoyed a honeymoon period from her party and from some in the media, but Carville warned Democrats the honeymoon will come to an end. Carville warned Democrats that while the GOP was initially caught off-guard, this will be no easy victory for her campaign as Republicans adapt.
"I think that she has a record, she’s going to have to come up with some proposals. But I think a lot of it is going to depend on her ability to define herself, and I actually think she’s going to have to introduce herself, because she’s really not that well known," Carville said on an episode of "Firing Line With Margaret Hoover" PBS released over the weekend. He later suggested that "Republicans are going to try to introduce her on their terms. I don’t blame them. I would do the same thing. And she’s going to have to get good fast."
He added, "That’s all I can say. And I’m not very giddy about this, I’m not cocky at all, I think we have a tough election ahead of us."
When asked by the interviewer how Harris will be able to "sustain this excitement" throughout the rest of her campaign, Carville said that she must have a deep understanding of why her rise was such a relief to her party in the first place.
"That’s the key question. The first thing is to recognize what happened. What happened was that people wanted something different, and that she just projects the fact that she is, you know, excited about the future. And there was no policy that anyone was pushing, there was no particular group that was behind this," he said. "It was just a general feeling that people wanted a different choice than Donald Trump and President Biden, and they got it."
He reiterated his warning that Republicans are preparing a strategy to attack her credibility as a candidate, and her campaign should not underestimate their ability to do so.
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"Look, she’s going to get slaughtered, they’re coming, and this is just part of — no different than it was any other time. And they have got to get up and get ready and they’ve got to be able to defend and attack at the same time," he said. "There’s going to be a time of struggle and definition as to who Vice President Harris is, and we better be ready for that. But I feel like we are in a better position today than we were Sunday morning, and we’re doing this interview on Wednesday. So I will take small victories where I get them.
