'Collapsing around them’: James Carville tells MSNBC that the GOP’s problems go way beyond Trump losing in November

Earlier this year — when it was still unclear whether the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee would be former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or someone else — James Carville was sounding quite pessimistic and feared that President Donald Trump had a good chance of being reelected. But Biden is now the presumptive nominee, and Carville is very bullish on his campaign. Appearing on MSNBC’s “The 11^th Hour” on Thursday night, July 23, the veteran Democratic strategist not only predicted a landslide victory for Biden in November — he also stressed that the 2020 election underscores the dysfunction of the Republican Party in general.

The 75-year-old Carville told host Brian Williams, “The situation is deteriorating by the day…. The Republicans are attacking AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and (Rep.) Liz Cheney at the same time. It makes no sense….. I have never seen anything even remotely like this…. They’re seeing the whole thing collapsing around them.”

Williams noted that during the Summer of 1988, there were polls showing former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis defeating Vice President George H.W. Bush in that year’s presidential election — which Bush went on to win decisively in November 1988. And Williams asked Carville is he thought that any of Trump’s lines of attack against Biden might ultimately work — for example, claiming that Biden is anti-police. But Carville maintained that Trump has too many things working against him, including “cutting health care during a pandemic.”

Carville told Williams, “It’s not like Biden isn’t a known entity” and added that Republicans are “in a tough spot.” The Democratic strategist argued, “I think the Democrats are looking very strong in Alaska — in states they never thought about before….. There’s a real crisis coming in the Republican Party.”