James Carville, the centrist Democratic political strategist who guided Bill Clinton to the presidency, said Democrats should embrace “autocracy” ahead of the November election.
Carville said not everyone should have “a seat at the table” during an interview with POLITICO’s Playbook Deep Dive podcast on Friday.
“I would always tell people in campaigns: If you want a democracy after the election, you have to have an autocracy before the election,” Carville said.
“It’s been always, I think, a shortcoming of Democratic politics that everybody has a seat at the table, and everybody can be heard,” said the longtime strategist.
In an op-ed for MSNBC, Democratic New York representative Joe Morelle criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican party broadly for spreading misinformation about the legitimacy of US elections.
Morelle expressed concern that recent comments by Johnson – who suggested the 2024 election’s integrity may be questionable – are part of a broader strategy to undermine trust in the electoral system. Morelle wrote:
Speaker Johnson’s recent comments are simply his latest effort in a pattern of misinformation and disinformation, questioning the results of an election that has only just begun.
“The lies being spread by Trump, Speaker Johnson, House Republicans and extreme right-wing conspiracy theorists about noncitizen voting have been repeatedly debunked,” he said. “Yet they have persisted in a clear attempt to generate anxiety in the minds of voters, and to serve, come November, as the foundation for false claims of election fraud.”
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Joe Biden’s call at the NABTU conference lasted roughly 10 minutes.
Labor union members are a key voting bloc for Kamala Harris, the vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate.
The majority of union leaders over generations have endorsed Democratic candidates.
But in 2016, exit polls indicated that voters in union households supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump by only eight percentage points, a stark drop from 18 percentage points in 2012 when Barack Obama was on the ballot.
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Joe Biden also told union members: “When unions do well, the study shows all Americans, all union and non-union, do better.”
“It’s a big reason why our economy is the strongest in the world,” he added.
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Joe Biden is delivering virtual remarks at the North America’s Building Trades Unions Tradeswomen Build Nations conference.
“My predecessor promised infrastructure week, every day for four years, and he didn’t build a damn thing, literally,” he said after he dialed in.
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The embattled North Carolina lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, was burned on Friday night during an appearance at the Mayberry truck show in Mount Airy.
Robinson was treated at Northern regional hospital in Mount Airy for second-degree burns, according to his campaign.
Many Republicans have distanced themselves recently from Robinson after a bombshell report from CNN revealed the lieutenant governor allegedly posted strongly worded racial and sexual comments on an online message board.
A dozen staff members on his campaign or in the lieutenant governor’s office have quit in the fallout.
Read more about the injury here:
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After Harris’s speech focused on immigration yesterday, the Democratic senator Chris Murphy said the Democrats’ goal of new pathways to citizenship will take a back seat.
“The priorities have to be getting the border under control,” Murphy told NBC News. “The numbers are very low right now, but you can’t guarantee that that will remain the case.”
“You also can’t be assured that the courts won’t ultimately strike down the executive orders that the administration has taken,” he added.
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The Harris campaign announced the launching of Athletes for Harris, an effort to organize athletes and coaches to campaign for Kamala Harris as the next president.
“Athletes are among the most trusted voices for key voting blocs, especially young men,” reads the campaign’s statement, “making them uniquely qualified campaigners for Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz.”
“Sporting events and games are also key moments that draw in large and politically diverse audiences, audiences that are increasing their reach with gen Z and younger men,”
Harris announced the effort as Tim Walz heads to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he’s expected to attend the University of Michigan Wolverines v University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football game and speak with students about the importance of voting.
Trump to deliver remarks focused on immigration in a western Wisconsin town just a day after Harris attacks her rival during a speech, while Walz visits Michigan football game
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is slated to speak at an event in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a town of about 5,000 people, on Saturday. The former president is expected to focus on immigration and crime a day after Kamala Harris accused her rival of “playing political games” on immigration.
Meanwhile, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Tim Walz, is heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to attend a football game between the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota. Walz will meet with young voters before the game this afternoon. Walz’s appearance in Michigan comes days before he is scheduled to debate Donald Trump’s running mate, Republican senator JD Vance of Ohio.
Vance will deliver remarks at a rally in Newton, Pennsylvania, at 5.15pm ET, where he’s expected to home in on energy policies, fracking and the economy.
Here’s what else is going on:
North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, Republican Mark Robinson, received burns on Friday night while attending a truck show as he was campaigning for governor, his campaign said.
Kamala Harris has stretched her lead over Donald Trump in the US presidential election race, the latest polling averages from the Guardian show, even while the two candidates appear to be running neck-and-neck in most battleground states.
Pennsylvania steelworkers are wooed by Harris and Trump, but they still remain skeptical of both candidates, Tom Perkins reports.
