Vladimir Putin is 'helping' Bernie Sanders because he wants Trump to win, claims James Carville
Former advisor to Hillary Clinton James Carville made a remark recently that is bound to turn a lot of heads around. Reviving the scare of 2016 when pundits said the Russians had interfered in the American presidential election, he said the Nevada Caucuses were going “very well” for Russian president Vladimir Putin. His remark came ahead of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ dominating win in the first battle of the west. The back-to-back wins in New Hampshire and Nevada make the veteran a frontrunning presidential nominee.
The 75-year-old strategist, who endorsed Michael Bennet as the Democratic candidate for the November election before the latter dropped out, said the Nevada results made it evident that Putin wanted “Trump to win”. Carville, who advised Hillary during her first presidential candidate in 2008 when she lost to Barack Obama in the nomination race, told MSNBC on Saturday, February 22: “Right now, it's about 1:15 Moscow time. This thing is going very well for Vladimir Putin. I promise you. He's probably staying up watching this right now. How you doing, Vlad?”
He said the Russian president is trying to help Sanders to challenge Trump for he wants the incumbent to eventually prevail in the November 3 battle. For him, it’s a “straight line”.
“The happiest person right now is Vladimir Putin. I don’t think Sanders wants Putin to help.”
A day ago, the Kremlin denied that Russia was interfering in this year’s election to boost Trump’s re-election bid after intelligence sources in the US warned the Congress about the threat last week. “I mean, it's a straight line. I don't think the Sanders campaign in any way is collusion or collaboration,” he added.
“I think they don't like this story, but the story is a fact and the reason that the story is a fact is Putin is doing everything that he can to help Trump, including trying to get Sanders the Democratic nomination.”
Carville asks Democrats not to attack each other in SC debate
Carville also cautioned the Democratic candidates to refrain from attacking each other in the tenth debate they are set to appear in Charleston, South Carolina -- the state which will hold its primary next Saturday (February 29). It will also be the final debate before the Super Tuesday is held on March 3 when as many as 14 states and one US Territory will pick their presidential candidates.
In the last debate that took place in Las Vegas, the candidates indulged in animated attacks against each other with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg finding himself as a common enemy. Carville cautioned against a repetition of the same and advised the candidates to talk about the country and how they plan to take it forward under real choices that they have to make to beat President Donald Trump.
“I don’t know if us in the media are sufficiently telling people what are the risks that you are running by doing this,” he told Brian Williams. “I think voters need to really be appraised of what’s going on here. Hopefully, these candidates have the skill and are able to do this.”
Carville is not convinced that Sanders will beat Trump
Carville is little convinced that Sanders will be able to beat Trump if he wins the nomination. "If you’re voting for him because you think he’ll win the election, because he’ll galvanize heretofore sleepy parts of an electorate, then politically, you’re a fool," he said.
Carville and Sanders are not known to be the best of friends. Earlier in February, Sanders called Carville a “political whack” as he thought the latter is a part of the ‘Democratic establishment’ that he is challenging in this election.
The strategist’s remark on Russia helping Sanders came in the wake of the Democratic candidate’s warning against the Kremlin to stay away from the 2020 elections after American officials informed him in a classified briefing that Moscow was trying to help his campaign.
“The intelligence community is telling us they are interfering in this campaign, right now, in 2020. And what I say to Mr. Putin, if elected president, trust me you are not going to be interfering in American elections,” Sanders told reporters in Bakersfield, California.
Sanders’ campaign even issued a statement saying: “Unlike Donald Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend.”
Sanders is now leading the fray with 34 delegates while former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg is second with 23. A candidate has to win 1,991 delegates to clinch the nomination.