Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville argued Sunday that former President Joe Biden staying in the 2024 race until July 21 cost his party the White House, and possibly its direction for years to come.
Carville made the case on his Politics War Room podcast, saying that if Biden had stepped aside earlier, the outcome of the election would have been different.
"So, the reason the Democratic Party is in the shape it is is because Joe Biden wouldn't get out until July the 21st of the election year, all right?" Carville said. "Had Joe Biden gotten out in October of 2023, we would have a Democratic president. Don't kid yourself."
Carville also took aim at members of the party's left wing who, in his telling, stayed silent on the question of Biden's fitness to run for re-election while criticizing the party's broader strategic direction.
"And, by the way, all the people on the left who say the Democrats don't fight hard enough never said a word about Biden running for re-election," he said. "Not any of them. They all fell into line."
CNN senior analyst Ron Brownstein joined Carville in the conversation and acknowledged that Biden remaining in the race reduced the party's chances, even if he was less certain a different candidate would have won outright.
"I'm not as certain that Democrats could have won even if he got out," Brownstein said. "But there's no question that him staying in reduced their chances further."
Brownstein also offered a forward-looking assessment, arguing that the center of the Democratic Party faces a test heading into the 2028 presidential cycle.
"If the center wants to win in '28, they're going to have to show two things: They've learned from the past, and they are committed to fighting the MAGA movement with greater energy," Brownstein said. "I don't think '26 proves that the left is going to win in '28, but it shows that the center is going to have to fight to maintain control of the party."
Carville, for his part, expressed visible frustration with the current state of the party. He has previously described the Democratic Party's association with far-left identity politics as a foul stench that has clung to its reputation. Despite those criticisms of the left, Carville also acknowledged that the party had a broader problem in 2024.
"We lost because people wanted a change election, and we didn't give it to them," he said. "And now they're saying after we did that, 'Fight, fight!' Great, OK, wonderful."
He returned to the central point, the one he said explains the party's lack of power today.
"The flaw in the Democratic Party right now, the reason we have no power, is Biden got out of the race too late. And had there been any kind of choice, my personal view is we would have won the thing, and it wouldn't have been close."
When asked about the rising democratic socialist faction within the party, Carville said he was struggling to process what he was seeing.
"I don't know. I just don't know," he said. "I never thought I'd see this. I'm having a little bit trouble adjusting to it both politically and just personally."
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden for comment but did not receive a response.
