Democratic strategist James Carville said Tuesday on a podcast that Democrats were relieved to support Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, comparing it to removing an “infected wisdom tooth.”
After Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 and endorsed Harris, Democratic lawmakers, pundits and other figures quickly rallied behind her. When asked on “Pod Save America” if he was surprised by the party’s support for Harris, Carville explained that he wasn’t.
“No, I think it was clear that people just wanted something different. [It was] like 72% wanted something different [and] 60% of the Democrats did,” Carville said. “The analogy I would use is that if you have an infected wisdom tooth and they pull it, you feel great. You don’t feel any better than you’d have felt if you didn’t have the wisdom tooth. The fact that the wisdom tooth is gone, you’re like, ‘Gee, I’m on top of the world now.’”
“I think you had some of that effect. Like in the way that — it was 12:45 Central Time almost to the minute when I got the first text. I was listening to, you know, political radio — I forgot what it was. [Within an] hour at 1:45 Central [Time] you knew that it [was] already call[ed], that there was no appetite for anything else,” Carville said.
Show co-host Jon Favreau then asked the Democratic strategist his thoughts on the initial concerns of Harris appearing “anointed” by the Democratic Party and how Harris received no other challengers within the party. Carville stated how Harris has “grown” since her 2020 campaign, adding how the party has so much potential.
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Soon after Harris’ endorsement from Biden, the vice president ended up securing enough support from Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegates on July 23.
“If President Biden would have dropped out June 15th, it might have been a lot of — One of the things that I do believe that the level of talent in the current Democratic party is the highest level of talent I’ve seen a political party in my lifetime,” Carville continued. “I mean, if you look at the potential presidential candidates we had, they’re all like really world-class talent.”
“Harris has kind of proved herself to be a lot better than people thought. The other thing that I would have people tell me that, ‘You know she’s gotten a lot better.’ Like people [who] work in the White House [say] she’s become more confident … you know everybody saw her 2[020] presidential campaign — ooh, man that thing stunk — but she’s grown,” Carville said.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
