James Carville has a message for Joe Biden: Make up your mind already.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Tuesday, Carville, a longtime adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, said that it’s time for the vice president to just “make up your mind,” adding that if he wants to do it, “for God’s sakes” he should certainly do it.
“The one thing we know is that Vice President Biden knows what it takes to run for president. He’s done it twice. He knows what it entails to be president, he’s been right next to the Oval Office for seven years now, just make up your mind! If you want to do it for God’s sakes, you certainly deserve to take a shot here,” Carville said. “And if he beats Secretary Clinton, I’ll be for him in a general. But I’m obviously not for him during this primary. But if he wants to, he’s got every right to take a shot.”
This is not the first time Clinton loyalists have used this line against Biden. Hours before the Democratic debate last Tuesday, Hillary For America campaign chairman John Podesta “needs to make up his mind” on a potential run.
The comments also came hours after Biden took a shot at Clinton, saying that only two members of President Obama’s cabinet made definitive calls on whether to proceed with the raid that eventually killed Osama bin Laden: Leon Panetta and Bob Gates, which contradicts a claim made by Clinton, who says she supported the raid at the time.
Biden also said that he privately told Obama that he should go ahead with the raid, which contrasts with his 2012 statement that he warned against the raid. When asked about what the comments meant, Carville decided against commenting by pivoting to Clinton’s stances on the economy.
“I have no idea,” Carville said. “If he gets in the race, he’ll have to stand up like everybody else and do the other things the other candidates do and he has a right to do that.”
