James Carville: Kamala-Gras

All right, guys, we are going to give you a full episode today. I'm so excited to have James Carville with us and in honor of Carville and in honor of Carnival, we'll maybe have a little bit of a different intro music for you today.
But before we get to James, a quick reminder that I'm going to be in Dallas, Texas with Adam Kinzinger and Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell and Sonny Bunch, and it's going to be a great time. And, you know, maybe we're going to have a little Carnival of our own a little mardi gras of our own now we've had a vibe shift in our politics so make

sure to get your tickets come on down to texas come hang out with us if you're not down there

make a little weekend out of it go to the bulwark.com slash events to get your tickets today

we would love to see you in dallas up next, the Mardi Gras, well, it's kind of the time Everybody's drinking wine All right, guys, we got some big news since yesterday. Many of the big names in the party have rallied around Kamala, including nearly all of her most realistic challengers.
J.B. Pritzker just announced a couple of minutes ago.
Though I do think Charlie XCX posting Kamala is brat is probably her biggest endorsement yet. She's also raised over 60 million and counting.
And to hear to talk about it all is veteran Democratic strategist, co-host of the Politics War Room, James Carville. James, where chaos we were promised james everybody told me everybody told me if joe bion said everybody told you they're like james you can't do this there'd be chaos where's the chaos james there is none and by the way you know we're from new orleans i see a parade is coming i grab i grab a whistle a baton and a hi-hat and i throw the baton in the air because there's a parade it's called the kamala harris parade and we're all marching yeah that's it that's it that's it they can do whatever they want but this train has left the station eat her dust me and uh bill crystal yesterday were talking about this and and he said at the time you know he's like look the train gone in four hours, could be gone in 12 hours, or there could be a conversation.
And clearly in the intervening time, there's no really realistic challenge that's going to emerge, right? As you know, I've been dealing with this for a long time. It's kind of personal painful.
I think at the end of the day, what really swayed the president was he couldn't get any politicians to show up.

I mean, he goes to Michigan and you can hide the polls from him.

You can be sure he gets good news. You can adjust who he talks to.

You can control who comes in and out, the information flow.

But when he goes to Detroit and the governor, neither is Democratic Senate nor a Democratic Senate candidate shows up, he knows that.

That cannot be hidden.

Thank you. When he goes to Detroit and the governor, neither is Democratic Senate nor a Democratic Senate candidate, shows up, he knows that.
That cannot be hidden. And I think he had a growing sense of isolation.
No one was going to go to the convention. He wasn't going to be able to march on the front row at a Labor Day parade with all the guys, you know lefty and shifty and you know whatever it just wasn't gonna work out that way and i think i think he figured it out yeah it's sad when you put it like that but it's good on him for doing it i feel like i should have mentioned this yesterday look we've been on his ass you've been on his ass longer than i have but uh it's still hard to do it it's hard to step aside and we're looking at the other side when you look at the other side oh you know so this is not saying what was the biden online don't compare me to the almighty compare me to the alternative he's not the almighty but if you look at the alternative these guys been propping up a fucking rapist criminal for a decade now you know and so having one so that's nice my favorite my favorite is dan jones and even even the dan ables both of whom i like okay i know i'm talking about how trump's changed man what in the fuck are you if anybody says that there should be a lifetime ban from being on anything okay i mean that is just a a ignorance of what people are like and particularly donald trump i mean it just i love that he was a changed man i'll tell you what ed bro yeah my god he's found god yeah right sure absolutely he'll pet every fucking felon you can imagine parading around the convention floor indeed do you ever have any felons at any of the conventions you ran james do you ever have any speakers fly straight from jail to the stage none that i know of probably some you know subsequent to but that used to be i remember a time in politics where it was a mark against you if you were convicted of a felony but well maybe it still is what do you think now turn into kamla to forward looking so this is this is what I think, Tim.
Yeah. First of all, people don't know her.
And she's got to understand that. And the Trump people know that people don't know her.
So in the next, somebody told me it was 38 days to the convention. I'm pulling that out of my ass.
I think somebody told me that. I think it was 28.
It's a battle for definition. And usually summers are not the most exciting times about presidential politics.
I think this one is going to be a little bit more. And they need to hurry and get some definition of her.
Of course, they're going to hit her pretty hard because – and they hurt. It was like yesterday when they got the phone call.
Oh, God, shit. We've got to change everything.
And you're a pilot, and you're getting ready to land a plane, and everything is, your whole mind is set on landing, and then they say there's a plane to run away, you got to do a go-around. You got, oh, shit, you have to think, we think your whole mentality.
No, they're trained to do that, where political people are not. Yeah, the mentality shift is noteworthy.
I want to talk a little bit about what comical can say but let's look at the trump side of this first because obviously your your claim to fame it's the economy stupid tim alberta pointed out that the trump

people had a frame that they were sticking with which was strength versus weakness

and the debate and the assassination attempt both played right into that frame in a way that was

like in a way that you could only dream about in a campaign frankly and he wrote yesterday alberta

Thank you. assassination attempt both played right into that frame in a way that was like in a way that you could only dream about in a campaign frankly and he wrote yesterday alberta really cannot overstate how problematic this is for the trump operation everything they built was customized for that contest strength versus weakness with biden i mean everything and you can see that a little bit i mean it's only been 24 hours but they seem to be flailing a little bit and they're going to attack around immigration they'll come up with stuff to attack her on but they have they have lost their North that a little bit.
And it's only been 24 hours, but they seem to be flailing a little bit.

And they're going to attack her on immigration.

They'll come up with stuff to attack her on.

But they have lost their North Star a little bit, don't you think?

I do.

Let me say this.

Till and Bert is one of the better reporters we have today.

I mean, he's a very, very good reporter.

And, you know, again, I go back to my analogy. They were all prepared to land land the airplane they had the wheels down they had the flaps in the right place they had the towel okay and then hey we got to go back up and that they're fighting the controls now and i think that that what tim says that fits pretty well with my early analogy yeah i want to play for you just because you deserve a little bit of pain this morning, James.
You're riding a little high. So I want to play for you the voice of Stephen Miller.
Here's him last night on Fox talking about the state of play. They held a primary.
People, they had ballots. They filled out circles.
They went to the voting booths. They spent money on advertisements.

And as President Trump said, the Republican Party spent tens of millions of dollars running against Joe Biden.

Now they just woke up one morning and said, never mind.

We're canceling the entire primary.

We're getting rid of our candidate.

And we're pretending the election has never even happened.

And we're going to let donors handpick a new nominee oh poor little nazi i always knew that guy was odious i never had to listen to a clip that long oh my god oh you could you could see the you see the fear on their face. The Democrat Party is a coup.

That's how hard they've been hit.

That's the depth of the argument.

Yeah, you can see why he takes it out on immigrants.

So now he had to have a tough time in the cafeteria with that voice and face.

Oh, God.

You know, in high school.

You think anybody wanted to hang around him in high school?

I don't think.

No, no. I don't think we need a professional psychologist to figure out what's happening.
No, no, no. What about their other message that they're going to try to do with the coup thing is that the Biden should resign.
Biden must resign. There's been a cover up.
I mean, look, as somebody who's been talking about the Biden age problem for a while against interest, what do you think is the efficacy of that message? Well, what they're probably going to say is that Harris knew he was declining and didn't say anything and put the country in jeopardy. And she's going to, I'm sure she's got a very good answer for it.
She's got to pull it up and use it for sure. you know right now they haven't settled on anything they're you know they're just picking up the machine gun and you know somebody's coming up but harris they have to be very aggressive right now in definition they they need to worry less about organizing and more about getting out there the harris team you mean or the trump Trump team? The Harris team.
And they need to start doing some things in fast. You know, they can go to, want some more of my ideas, go to Carlisle Army War College.
You know, you got all kinds of people write a national defense foreign policy speech. I think part of her campaign, and remember, she was a successful DA, attorney general, and she couldn't talk about it in 2020 because of the assininity and democratic campaign coach in 2020 wouldn't allow you to talk about that so she looked like an empty vessel she looked like a because the real reason yeah she didn't have the story i mean she couldn't tell people the real truth.
Well, now the real truth kind of helps her. Right.
Yeah. Okay.
It's just how much it changes. And the one thing that people believe, mark this down, they believe these companies are rigging prices, fixing prices, talking to each other to screw them over.
And she has a consumer background to say,

I'm going to have Attorney General establish this task force

to see if we're in violation of any trust laws or whatever.

Then you're using that experience to something that they can't say

that people really do care about and they really do think.

They will say in focus groups, I can't tell you,

a number of people say, Joe Biden hadn't caused inflation.

He's too old to cause inflation.

Okay, these companies are doing it, but he's too old to stop them.

So you want a little populist from Kamala.

I took on the big banks.

I took on these big corporations.

I'm going to go out there and do that.

But most of all, you're taking on price fixing.

Yeah, price fixing.

Because if you try to, I took on this and I'm'm gonna do away with the capital gains tax and we'll tag you get you get lost yeah we'll allow them to make a profit is their time to but not to make unreasonable predatory profits at the expense of american people that's not what i would say you're hurting my former republican free market soul with this message change that it seems smart though that seems like good politics politics, maybe. I think it is good politics.
And by the way, you know, Adam Smith, you know, really believed in antitrust laws, really didn't believe in price fixing. Okay, that's the most violating thing you can do to capitalism.
Grocery stores aren't, you know, monopolies. But Kraft Foods is a monopoly, you know.
The largest egg companies are. And what they have is if the top three are talking to each other, capitalism loses what it's supposed to be about, competition.
I mean, I would argue my argument should fit right into your earlier laissez-faire capitalist instincts. Okay.
Okay. All try to blend them we'll blend okay i'm for that but the prosecutor thing also goes to she had that tweet that she sent out about the bail fund which is gonna hurt her but you know she has a record of being strong on law and order she's a record of going after corruption she's going after corrupt politicians and companies like that's where she's got to start right like that frame with trump or do you think that's a little too remember there's one more thing falling crime rates and not just falling a little bit yeah all right yeah and i think she made a mistake when she didn't take crime as her portfolio as soon as she came into the office of vice president.
But, you know, best time planning over three, 25 years ago, second best now. Under the Biden-Harris administration, we took over Donald Trump.
He's down 25 percent of whatever it is. Pretty good message.
I agree with that. Obviously, the abortion message is stronger.
Biden was... I want to interrupt you.
I keep hearing this. No, go ahead.
What happened to the Democratic Party? How did the Democratic Party fall apart? I was reading something. I might understand to that.
By this guy, Tyler Coward. He's kind of...
He's an economist. I've got George Mason.
I got news for you. The Democratic Party is not falling apart.
It wins elections. Yeah.
Okay. So it hasn't lost an election in two years.
We winning every senate race yeah every senate race that people had a problem with the fact that biden was too old the problem is and of course the democratic party is always convoluted and cosmic but the democratic party has not fallen apart it's a much stronger party if you count elections which that's a pretty good barometer and true among some democrats that the whole thing is going to hell in the handbasket and the party's you know irretrievably damaged and that's just not true at all we kept saying this on all the polls democratic senator candidates were all winning there's no evidence of any issue and that michigan poll where biden is down seven that was yesterday morning and and i said, I bet your schlocking is up. Look.
And he said, well, yeah, she is up. And that was everywhere.
People actually want to vote Democratic. It's a hard thing to say because it's always dims and disarray.
But I think this is a pretty defining moment. I really do.
I want to do VPs, but first, all that happy talk. You know, I like to be rain cloud, James.
So what worries you about Kamala? What worries me is this. You think of the great politicians.
You think Reagan, for sure, Clinton, for sure, Obama. I guess going back, Eisenhower, a little older, but whatever.

They were all very competitive, but you know what they all had in common?

They never looked like they were trying too hard.

And once you look like you're trying too hard,

and that's something that Harris has got to understand,

the line where you look too aggressive.

You look like you're Bobby Jindal.

You don't want to be Bobby Jindal.

You don't want to be Bobby Jindal.

And sometimes I'll look at clips of her, if I were her campaign manager,

and say, Madam V, let's take about 20% off of that.

And I think one of the things that women come up in politics they probably feel like they don't get heard and so they have to be aggressive yeah no i she would say that she would say that i think that uh you know because i my criticism of her in the past is that sometimes she gets in her head and i think the people say like because of the way women are treated because the abuse you get because of like the like like the, you know, that you overthink things like, you know, a little bit.

And when you're overthinking, when you're in your head, then you come off as a little more like you're trying, you know.

I would say let's try less, less harder.

Let's be ambitious as ever, but don't give the people that you're trying too hard because it's not a good sales tactic.

Yeah.

I don't know what you think about this. My advice to the team would be and has been she should let it rip if i was her i would just try to go out there and be like i can't be worried that they're going to take some clip out of context right like i just got to be me and do me and and maybe that'll be better but i don't know once you start thinking they're going to do that then you think of every word that you say and then you end up not saying anything and i would really really coach self confidence you know you know you know what to say and you're right yeah but they'll take anything and yeah we do it and rework it and i'm looking for self-confidence like i'm i'm gonna win this goddamn thing.
You understand? And I thought her answer was, I'm going to work hard to earn a nomination. I thought this is stupid.
MSNBC, if you don't nominate her, this is a front to women of color in the intergalactic system and you cannot do this. That's a dumb message, right? To her credit, she said, I plan on competing for the nomination.
By saying that, no one's going to run against you. If you say I'm entitled to the nomination, somebody's going to run against you.
It was actually the smart political thing to say. So far, so good, but we ain't going very far.
Okay, one more thing you just popped in my head before VPs on the confidence thing. Man, I think the Republicans got to have some regrets that they're a little overconfident right now.
I look back at that convention and the pick of J.D. Vance, just the whole vibe of it was like that they felt like this was a coronation and Trump's rightful return to the throne.
And all that looks like that was kind of a miss now in retrospect. I don't know.
Do pick jd vance if you knew they were going to do this well what's interesting is so let's fast forward thursday the 22nd of august in in chicago and by harris so it's harris her husband her kids and i don't know it's an andy vashir i don't think okay of joshua a 45ish guy with three kids and a wife, and they're on the podium and the balloons are dropping. That's, you see, that signals change.
Now, they can't do that with J.D. Vance, and I'm just saying I'm not being, I'm just telling you what time it is.
You know this, I know this. His wife is Hindu, is an Indian.
Apparently was clerked for two supreme court justices out of the finish but and they are attacking her right now on the right the right is and so they can they bring jd vance's wife and kids and i don't know that's that but they y'all built that stinky shit house that you live in go ahead and live in in it. I don't give a fuck.
But you know how these people are. Yeah.
Usha took some shit from the right, no doubt. And I just think that also, J.D., just like him and Trump sitting next to each other, just take the families out of it.
Kamala sitting next to her VP, Trump and him, he just looks like, he looks sad. He's like this little kind of, you know, he's got his baby fat still on his face.
And he's got to say, yes, sir, Mr. Trump.
Yes, sir, Mr. Trump.
And like, you know, he's been very extreme on the issues. I don't know.
Talking about presidential vice presidential pick, if they want somebody to go after Trump in advance, defend her. Yeah.
That's somebody three times better than all the rest of them put together. Who's that? Mr.
Landrieu. All right, get Mitch out there.
The best attractive defender you could imagine. Do you worry a little bit about Mitch and Kamala having to carry all the Biden baggage? You know, they're going to make you carry it.
They're going to make you carry it no matter what. But a little bit.
You know, if you had Bashiriro look if you if you wanted a kind of can-do message in a swing state then you go to Josh yeah if you want a real kind of youth message to teal to middle America or something then you go with Andy I mean it depends on what you're looking for at the end of the day but you got but the thing is you lot of good choices. I like the Mitch idea.
I should have mentioned it yesterday because it had come to my mind and I forgot. Do you think that's conceivable that he'd be in the conversation? I think it would be conceivable.
And what are you doing when you're looking at your potential vice president? You have a lot of things that you're going to look for. The one thing that he excels in is attacking and defending.
So I was talking with Liz Smith about this, my friend who did Pete's campaign is now helping the DNC. We were just talking about it behind the scenes.
And her point, and with Pete, there's gay stuff that potentially is like, are we going a little too far with a black woman and a gay man? I don't know. There's maybe some concerns there.
which is right in line with yours is in this day and age especially you know given what the democrats have had in a lack of messaging and the biden harris ticket like picking somebody that can sit in a tv studio that can do video youtube videos that can just be constantly on the attack delivering messages is like a super valuable trait in modern politics more so than when you only had to go on the nightly news. And it's sort of a small list.
I mean, Pete can do it, obviously. Shapiro, I think, can do it well.
Mitch could do it. Once you get past that, maybe like a Chris Murphy could do that.
Chris Murphy, if I were putting parlays or something, if I had like 25 to one shot, I definitely would Chris Murphy. Because he generates, if not that, way older than he looks.
And he's got the one issue that's really potent that Democrats do not exploit. And that's the whole gun issue.
Yeah. So I think that you were smart to mention Chris's name.
what we finding out is what people like you and I knew all the time is just so fucking much talent in a Democratic Party. Well, you start talking about to use this guy.
We can do this. What about that? Yeah.
I mean, it's kind of a fun game, but but there's a lot of people walking around out there that can fill a lot of bills right now. Okay, there's two of the top candidates really quick, then I'll let you go.
Shapiro, this is basically a Shapiro porn podcast at times, so I think he's done a great job. I worry the Israel issue, Israel-Gaza has been off the table for a while for Democrats.
It was obviously a huge problem in the spring. He was vocal, rightly, by the way, speaking about against anti-Semitism on campus.
He is Jewish. Do you worry about that, like becoming a distraction? Very little.
And when you have the Republican senator at a Trump rally trying to run with you, the Democratic governor, that's a good sign. Let me tell you that.
Which something that happened for Shapiro. Yeah, something that happened for Shapiro.
That's how popular he is. And his whole reputation is can-do stuff.
I think, regardless of the reasons that people feel very intensely about this whole issue on either side, I just don't think it's going to be that big of a voting issue. I mean, some of the young, college young, you know, a percent of people under 30 go to Ivy League schools and can't count them so small.
It's kind of nice, actually, to not have that baggage, potentially, just as far as turnout in Madison and Ann Arbor and stuff is concerned, maybe. I mean, they mean they bring you a lot yeah all right last one mark kelly people floated him astronaut great bio arizona swing state some concerns though that you know i guess a democrat would have to could appoint his replacement katie hobbs but then then it's up in 26 and you know maybe chuck doesn't like that maybe isn't quite as compelling his the most compelling story between him and gabrielle but maybe not as compelling like verbally as some of the other people we've talked about what do you think about kelly look he's a very hot pick among the kind of more elite chattering chattering class i'm not in a in my only thing i would say about senator kelly is

he's a little old yeah ideally i'd like to have somebody under 55 because you want to be able to

troll that old ass motherfucker he's the oldest candidate ever now that's enough it's our issue

now it's our issue right right right but i just think we want to we want to project generational

change youth vigor and there are a lot of people we got that can do that with okay i agree with that all right finally to close well actually have one more thing before we close what do you got back there what do what's your favorite bottle back there you got you got your whiskey cabinet behind us you got something you got a favorite you want to show us if we want to have a victory sip this weekend this is a little bit old but This is a Weinbach Riesling, which is a hell of a good freaking wine.

People own it. Show us if we want to have a victory sip this weekend.
This is a little bit old, but this is a wine, this is a Weinbach Riesling, which is a hell of a good fricking wine. People don't understand how good a wine that Riesling can be.
Okay. They really don't.
And this is something, I don't even know what this is. Somebody gave it to me.
Vancouver Island Seaside Gin. I love gin.
Okay. I'm gin guy I don't I don't think there's any such thing as a vodka martini a little Vancouver Island seaside gin martini I might I might need a seaside gin martini myself this weekend there you go I wanted to have that because I wanted to have a toast to you because I gotta tell you this I know you've taken some shit over the past year or two and you don't need to you don't want to to be patting yourself on the back.
But I got to say, for about a year now, James Connerville and David Axelrod, who were the strategists behind the last two successful Democratic presidents before Joe Biden, were out there saying repeatedly, this is a problem. He's too old.
There's an iceberg ahead. We should turn before we get to the iceberg and a bunch of

idiots who don't know anything that the midas touch podcast are like black night 10 on twitter are like random people have never been on campaigns all these people like are out there like hey hey actually what i think we should do is press on the gas and speed right into the iceberg you know and every day yeah yeah and jay these old fuckers don't know anything and i just we got the speed straight into the iceberg and i just i gotta say maybe we should have just listened to people who know a thing or two and have been around politics maybe there's something to be said for that that's all i'm gonna say because it seems like it's the election isn't won yet, but just vibes-wise, it seems like things are turning out a little okay. I don't know.
One man's opinion. Thank you.
All for the greater glory of LSU. Go Tigers.
James Carville, thank you for coming on. Go Tigers.
We've got the number one recruit in the country coming next year, Bryce Underwood out of Michigan. Life is good.
Kamala is brat.

Tigers are king.

Thank you to James Carville.

We'll be back tomorrow with another edition of the Bulldog Podcast.

See you all then.

Peace.

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I get money and you're not to kiss the back side

Yeah, I know your little secret put your hands in

It's the Warriors, I'm your number one

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