Clinton adviser tells Bernie Sanders: ‘No-one wants a revolution’

Veteran consultant helped Bill and Hillary Clinton win White House in 1992

Andrew Naughtie
Wednesday 04 March 2020 16:53 GMT
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James Carville.
James Carville.

Veteran political consultant James Carville has said Bernie Sanders should drop out of the Democratic presidential primary, arguing that the senator and his supporters are out of step with the rest of the party’s base.

Interviewed on MSNBC in the aftermath of Super Tuesday, Mr Carville was asked why Joe Biden did not understand that the Sanders movement does sincerely want a political revolution. In reply, he said that their priorities were more marginal than they realised.

“I understand that you do, you just don’t have a majority of the Democrats that are in on your revolution.

“And I’m sure that they’ll continue, but I think you’re gonna see a lot of people saying ‘why are we doing this? To what purpose?’”

Elaborating, Carville explained that the narrowness of the Sanders campaign’s revolutionary message would make it harder for the Democrats to defeat Donald Trump should Mr Sanders become the nominee.

Mr Carville was one of the architects of Bill Clinton’s first election campaign in 1992, which gave the Democrats their first presidential victory since 1976. He has since then advised a number of presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton.

Speaking of the Sanders campaign, he dismissed the idea that calls for a revolution resonate with the electorate at large.

“I travel round the country, I speak to people. And Democrats are not interested in a revolution. They’re interested in getting this guy out of power just as fast as they possibly can.

“Let Senator Sanders run, he ran in 2016. But I think you’re going to start seeing some backlash here.”

Mr Carville’s words echo those of Joe Biden, who recently told CNN that the American people are “not looking for a revolution, they’re looking for results”.

Super Tuesday saw Mr Biden defeat Mr Sanders in all but a few states, proving that his campaign has returned to health after nearly being written off just weeks before. He and Mr Sanders are now considered the only two viable potential nominees.

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