James Carville doubles down on not normalizing Trump: 'You can't let him up'
Democratic strategist James Carville doubled down on Monday about not normalizing Donald Trump and suggested President Biden keep him "front and center" in his campaign.
Democratic strategist James Carville doubled down on Monday in warning the Biden campaign that Donald Trump should remain at the center of the president's messaging because it's not a "normal" election.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki asked Carville about the debate surrounding whether news networks should air Trump's speeches.
"Do we show speeches?" Psaki said. "Do we talk about all the crazy things he’s doing? And I have the view, we have to talk about the crazy things he’s doing, even if we are tired of it, because that’s how people will know how crazy he is, and what November presents. But what do you think?"
Carville warned against just voting for "the person," when presented with Biden's positions and Trump's positions.
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Democratic strategist James Carville joined MSNBC's "Inside with Jen Psaki" on Monday to discuss the possible Biden-Trump rematch. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
"This is not normal. This is not what you're used to. This is an entirely different thing. The man has been adjudicated by a jury of his peers, as a sexual assaultist, or a rapist, in terms of the words of the judge," he said. "You can’t let him up. You can’t normalize him, you can’t let him off the canvas, not for one second."
A federal jury in New York City found last year that Trump was not liable for rape but was liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The former president was initially ordered to pay advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $5 million and, following a second federal defamation trial that concluded in January, was ordered to pay Carroll over $80 million.
Carville continued, "And it might not be the most fun thing to do in a campaign. It might not be what I want to be doing in my 80th year. But it’s what is necessary. We don’t get to do what you want to do. We do what we got to do. And that’s where we are right now. We have to keep the foot on this guy, right on his neck, take our heel, and twist it."
Psaki then asked Carville why Biden doesn't go after Trump on his legal troubles. "You and I both know well, there are lots of levers in the campaign. There is the candidate. There’s paid media, there’s campaign spokespeople. How should they be approaching this and going after Trump on these legal issues, and how should that be the same as what the president is doing or separate then?"
"I would tell the president and his campaign just, we got your back, dude. We are going after him with a meat cleaver, okay? A rhetorical meat cleaver, if you will, but that's what we're going to do" he replied.
"The president can go out, talk about what he's doing on infrastructure, tremendous progress, making thousands of new projects around the country. They can talk about other things. But he doesn’t — we can handle this. We can do this at a little bit of a lower level. And we have to keep the heat on. We have to remind people of what’s at stake here. And we have to let the president and his campaign go about doing the things that they can do," Carville said during his media appearance.
Democratic strategist James Carville during a recent appearance on "Real Time." (Screenshot/HBO)
Psaki also asked him about what advice he would give the president on talking about the economy.
Carville suggested Biden should talk about how the U.S. is not in an economic recession as many predicted.
"But if you try to argue and you tell people you have a great economy and they don’t feel it, they get mad at you. But you are certainly doing a lot better than projections. And you can talk about things like prescription drug costs, and you can talk about the subsidies for health insurance that are coming up," Carville said.
However, he emphasized, it's "equally important that we keep Trump front and center in this. Don’t let him escape. Don’t let him be normalized. That's how we can lose this."
President Joe Biden speaks during the United Auto Workers union conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Carville told MSNBC on Wednesday that this was not a "typical election." He also said that there was a chance Trump could win.
"What I am obsessed with is, stop treating him like he is a normal candidate," Carville said, emphasizing that Trump is not like other Republican politicians or past GOP nominees Bob Dole or Mitt Romney.
"But if you look at this, there is a chance that Trump could win this election," he continued. "And the way that he wins is he is treated as a normal candidate."
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Fox News' Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.