James Carville says Kamala Harris has to answer for past far-left policies: 'Bad answer would hurt her a lot'

Democratic strategist James Carville said Thursday on his "Politics War Room" podcast that Vice President Kamala Harris needed to explain her past far-left positions during her first interview as a presidential candidate. 

"She’s going to have to answer for it and I hope she has an encompassing answer that takes every one of these things. Because it is an absolute truism of American politics that anybody that ever listens to a single thing that the identity left ever said has lived to regret it. It’s just a fact, and she’s said some things she’s going to have to answer for. I think she can. I don’t think it’s fatal. I think a bad answer would hurt her a lot," Carville said. "But she’s got to answer it. There’s no doubt about it."

Harris has flip-flopped on multiple far-left positions she took during her ill-fated presidential campaign in 2019, including on immigration, fracking and private health insurance.

Carville's co-host Al Hunt noted that the one thing he felt was missing at the Democratic National Convention was that Harris did not address her 2019 campaign.

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"She no longer believes some of those left-wing positions she took, she no longer believes doing away with private health insurance, minimal border control, banning fracking. She made clear that she doesn't hold those views anymore, she heartily embraced a bipartisan, tough border bill. She's for expanding the Affordable Healthcare Act rather than Medicare for all, but she needs to explain these changes," Hunt said. 

He added that Harris "learned a lot" as vice president and her policies were now more realistic, which she would have the opportunity to explain in her interview on Thursday.

Harris and Walz are speaking with CNN's Dana Bash in their first joint interview as a ticket. Harris has not sat down for a solo interview with a reporter since emerging last month as the Democratic White House candidate.

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Carville has repeatedly sounded the alarm on far-left policies and the Democratic Party's messaging. He previously suggested "preachy females" were to blame for Democratic messaging problems and the party's lack of support from males.

"A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females. Don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers. This is not good for you — the message is too feminine," Carville said. "If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election. I’m like, well, 48 percent of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?"

Carville also said the left was to blame for President Biden's inaction on the border early on in his presidency. 

"Every time you listen to the left, you're screwed," Carville said during Donny Deutsch's "On Brand" podcast in June. "They came in, and they took this and that, and they wouldn't do the policy at the beginning. Then, of course, as always the case, the Western left is wrong."