Democratic strategist James Carville listed out three “imperatives” he said Vice President Harris should do to boost her chances of winning in November.
“We have an incumbent vice president running against a former president in a change election,” Carville wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times published Tuesday.
“From Labor Day to Election Day, to clinch victory and drive a nail into Mr. Trump’s political career, there are three imperatives Ms. Harris must drive at successfully to become the certified fresh candidate at the ballot box in November,” he added.
Carville, who served as a senior adviser to former President Clinton’s campaign, said Harris’s “greatest political advantage” is that the public opinion on former President Trump is “settled.”
He went on to list three things the Democratic nominee should do to help win the election: Help Trump “hurt himself” in the debate, break from President Biden’s policy and show a “clear growth mind-set from the 2020 Democratic primaries.”
The first debate between former Trump and Harris will be moderated by ABC News on Sept. 10. Carville wrote that Trump “must be a train wreck” during this debate, noting that it’s up to Harris “to lay the tracks.”
“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,” he wrote. “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,” he continued. “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.”
He added that distancing herself from Biden’s policy stances would show that she is the “certified fresh candidate.” While he did not offer specific examples, he suggested that Harris should break from the president, who stepped aside from the race in late July, “on a set of policy priorities she believes would define her presidency.”
The third imperative Carville advised her to do is demonstrate that she has learned since running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, where he said Harris and other candidates favored “more exotic positions” within the party.
The vice president faced heavy criticism over her policy stances during the 2020 presidential primary and some critics have suggested that she has changed her positions.
“It’s vital that she give the same answer every time to these attacks. The retort can be simple: I learned from my time governing in the White House. These are my positions. Take it or leave it,” Carville wrote.
Harris has closed the gap with Trump across many national and swing-state polls since Biden ended his candidacy and endorsed her. According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling average, Harris has a 4-point lead over Trump — 49.4 percent to 45.4 percent.
