19 hours ago
1
Democratic strategist James Carville ripped his party on Thursday for abandoning a contested primary election following former President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race.
Discussing a new book claiming former President Obama wanted Democrats to have a primary following Biden's exit, Carville declared that the party effectively killed any chance of victory.
"The more that we find out about this disaster of 2024, the more we are going to come to the reality that it was a self-engineered defeat. It did not have to happen. Not at all," he said during the latest episode of his "Politics War Room" podcast.
JAMES CARVILLE OFFERS LOVE ADVICE TO YOUNG PROGRESSIVES FOLLOWING ‘LOVE IS BLIND’ POLITICAL BLOW-UP
Democratic strategist James Carville ripped the Democratic Party over reports it warded off former President Obama's attempts to establish a mini-primary following former President Biden ditching his re-election bid. (Mark Von Holden/WireImage)
Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, reporters and co-authors of "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," appeared on MSNBC this week to detail their book’s excerpt about Obama allegedly pushing for a primary, but getting shot down by other party leaders.
"President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama. And he also didn’t want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden. He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats, and he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary, or an open convention," Allen told the network.
Allen, an NBC News senior politics reporter, added that Obama called Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., to discuss a potential mini-primary, but the lawmaker headed him off by endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Clyburn thought to himself, ‘This guy is going to try to rope me into the open convention thing, I better get my endorsement of Harris out there fast, so this is a short conversation,’" Allen said. That same day, Biden endorsed Harris, and the party fell in line.
Obama would eventually endorse Harris for president five days after Biden did.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
According to a new book, former President Barack Obama wanted to have a Democratic primary following President Biden withdrawing from the 2024 election. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Further, Allen and Parnes' book alleged that Biden met with Harris and instructed her to protect his legacy while on the campaign trail. The co-authors wrote that Biden "had no interest in giving her room" to differ from him on policy.
Carville cited both claims as evidence of the Democratic Party shooting itself in the foot during the race and ultimately losing.
"I’m just saying the Democrats of the United States were not served well by this process," he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"They stayed there until – right until the very end, and then they wired it up where you couldn’t have any contested election, you couldn’t do anything. And then they wired it up where the candidate could not break with the president, who – we were in a 70% wrong track country," the strategist added, referencing the majority of Americans who said that the country was on the wrong track near the end of Biden's term.
Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
