James Carville thinks Trump will lose 2020 presidential election

After working for Bill Clinton during the long-term Clintons presidential campaign in the early 1990s, Democratic political strategist James Carville gained a reputation for being a clever and salty political strategist. And he's basically been on TV ever since, says Today explained host Sean Rameswaram.

So what does a 70-year-old white man think about the three 70-year-old white men vying for the presidency now? Should Democrats Change Online Strategy To Win 2020 Election? And in the Carvilles dream scenario, which, according to Rameswaram, is clearly a Biden nomination, who does he think would be the best vice-presidential choice?

Listen to the full episode of Today explained Daily explanatory podcast of Voxs to hear the answers. Below is a slightly edited transcript of Carvilles' conversation with Rameswaram.

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Sean Rameswaram

It seems that what you were asking in your conversation with our colleague Sean Illing was for the Democratic Party to pull together and rally around a moderate candidate who could win the election.

James Carville

This word, this word that people throw away. In other words, if you are not Bernie Sanders, you are part of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. It's a bullshit word. I don't consider myself moderate. I consider myself a liberal. But that doesn't matter because it has just become a practical way to describe anyone who is not Bernie Sanders. And the Democratic Party has taken what would historically be fairly liberal positions for this race.

Sean Rameswaram

Do you think there is something to be said that Bernie Sanders, being such a progressive, could have excited a younger base and perhaps

James Carville

No, no, it's the equivalent of climate denial or creationism. You are not going to change the participation model. It is never done and it is not going to be done.

Sean Rameswaram

So weren't you impressed with Bernies' California win?

James Carville

No, I mean, Bernie can't. It has no connection with the most important constituency of the Democratic Party: African-Americans. The most recent and most exciting demographics of a Democratic party are these white college graduates, especially women. It has no relation to them. They went out and voted against him en masse. He got a third of the Democrats in California. I am sorry. I am simply not impressed.

Lets talk about Joe for a minute here. An intelligent man once said, this is the economy, stupid. The economy was in pretty good shape until these recent Covid-19 declines. How does Biden cope with Donald Trump in a race where Trump plans to brag about how well he has done with the economy?

James Carville

So he inherits from a country. It has a growth of 2%. It showcases a trillion dollars of stimulus, gives the green light to all polluters. And what do we get? Drum roll, please … 2.1. Trump got 46.1 in 2016. Republicans got 44.8 in 2018. His approval for FiveThirtyEight is 43.4. Whatever he did, he didn't do it.

55% of the country doesn't want to be for this guy. It is a large number. We must do our best to maximize this number. Political parties do not exist to argue. They exist to win elections. Without power, there is nothing. It's a whole bunch of people sitting around talking to each other in the cities.

Sean Rameswaram

I understand your reasoning. But Trump, of course, lost the popular vote in 2016 and still won the Electoral College. So in the states that count here, do you think people feel like the economy is good and so maybe we should just vote for the incumbent? Or do you think they are suffering and therefore Joe Biden has a strong argument?

James Carville

All the evidence I see is that people don't want Trump to come back. But we had to conduct a strong persuasion campaign in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida. We cannot go with this urban strategy as we are the growing party. Eighteen percent of the country elects 52 senators. Take this, urban strategy. The party must have a majority instinct. We need to be qualified enough to excite our most important voters, African-Americans, to come out with our own exciting new demographics, these women college graduates, and also to reduce the margins in the most rural and small cities in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, places like that. And I think we can do it.

Sean Rameswaram

What do you think could be the strongest argument that Vice President Biden can make in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin?

James Carville

I want to get Trump out of there. You're not going to live like this anymore. You know, you're not going to wake up with tweets. And, the people who try to inspire young people should not have that as an example; were going to put competent people to lead the government.

Sean Rameswaram

But, I mean, the Democrats are hoping that Biden will convince those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 to cast their vote back to the Democratic Party. Is the argument we got to get Trump out of there as strong as an argument that could draw more things that affect their lives personally?

James Carville

What you are doing is talking about things that personally affect their lives. Do you think they think Trumps did something about prescription drug prices? Do you think they think his tax cut went to anyone but the wealthiest people in the country? You think people are not so stupid that they know that Donald Trump went to Davos and while he was in Davos, he said that he was going to cut insurance- illness after being re-elected?

And it probably ruined the morale of the diplomatic corps. They've been trying to dig the CDC and the NIH, I don't know. It doesn't seem very good to me. Weve added a trillion dollars of debt to a functioning economy, which I think is not a very good idea at all. We have abandoned all environmental regulations. We have just become, the government has become a help center for the fossil fuel industry. We pitted one American against another American. Weve told citizens of the United States that they should return to their country of origin. It is the most disgusting thing anyone can say about anything in this country. I think it's just a violation of everything. None of us need to come back anyway, you're here.

Sean Rameswaram

What do you think it indicates that he's got almost record approval ratings with the Republican base?

James Carville

It is a cult of personality. The Republican voter wants Donald Trump very much where he is. And the way to handle this is to defeat Republican politicians, then gain power and regain the Senate. And, you know, look where you got a seat in the Senate. You have to win in North Carolina. You have two in Georgia. You have to hold Alabama. You have a chance in Texas. You should win Arizona. You should win Colorado. You now have a chance in Montana. Believe it or not, you had a chance in Kansas. You are probably ahead in Maine. You have to hold Michigan. This is the reality of politics. It is an opportunity that you don't see very often in politics. I mean, we have a chance to get in if we were smart, we have a chance to lead the table in November.