Democratic strategist James Carville on Thursday said that it doesn’t really matter who presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden picks as his running mate, even if it were 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, because he just wants “to win this thing.”
Carville’s comments come as Biden has said he will pick a running mate by Aug. 1.
“He’s not a very gimmicky kind of person, and I don’t think people are looking for a gimmicky president,” Carville said while discussing the possible vice presidential picks. “I’ve said before in a kind of exaggerated way, I don’t care. Pick Sarah Palin. I’ll be for her too. I just want to win this thing.”
The former vice president has double-digit leads in a number of national polls and leads in the RealClearPolitics average of polls by more than 10 points, having more than doubled his lead in the past month amid nationwide protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 and continued concerns over President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 125,000 Americans.
“I want it to be whoever Joe Biden is comfortable with, and I don’t know Vice President Biden well,” Carville told Brian Williams of the veep pick. “I’ve known a lot of people around him very well, and he’s somebody that picks people and sticks with them. He picks who he’s comfortable with. He has earned the right. The Democrats in the United States overwhelmingly ceded to him to pick.”
“If the country calls you, you answer the call,” Carvill continued. “And I hear that from Sen. [Elizabeth] Warren, Sen. [Kamala] Harris, across the board. And whoever he calls, whoever he calls, then that is going to be who I’m with. And I have no doubt that he’s going to pick someone he’s comfortable with.”
Biden’s shortlist as his running mate includes Warren (D-Mass.), Harris (D-Calif.), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D).
It was also reported earlier this week that Biden was vetting Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Carville added “there’s no chance” President Trump will be reelected, though he made a similar prediction about a “sizable” Hillary Clinton victory heading into the 2016 election.