Former Vice President Joe Biden’s disastrous results in Iowa and expected flop in New Hampshire have some establishment Democrats panicking.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ simultaneous rise in national polls and strong support across the early states are intensifying their fears that the party won’t pit a moderate against President Donald Trump.

The veteran Democratic strategist James Carville made headlines when he said he’s “scared to death” the party would nominate Sanders, who he believes would lose to Trump.

While Carville went public with his concerns, many other Democrats are trying to avoid offending Sanders’ supporters.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s disastrous results in Iowa and expected flop in New Hampshire have some establishment and moderate Democrats panicking.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ simultaneous rise in national polls and strong support across the early states are intensifying their fears the party won’t put up a moderate to challenge President Donald Trump.

The veteran Democratic strategist James Carville made headlines this week for attacking Sanders, calling him an “ideological fanatic” whose appeals to a small, fringe voter base wouldn’t translate into a broad coalition in a general election.

“We’ve got to be a majoritarian party,” Carville said in an MSNBC interview that went viral. “The urban core is not going to get it done. What we need is power. We have one moral imperative, and that’s to beat Donald Trump.”

Critics of Sanders argue the Vermont lawmaker will alienate conservative Democrats and swing-state independents who are turned off by democratic socialism and his most liberal policy positions. They say he’ll hurt down-ballot candidates running in purple and red states and districts.

“There’s no chance in hell we’ll ever win the Senate with Sanders at the top of the party defining it for the public,” Carville said.

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Unite or bust

While Carville is spouting off, other Democrats are trying not to publicly tick off Sanders’ supporters and stress that the party has to unite around whoever becomes the nominee.

Adrienne Elrod, a spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign who is a self-described moderate, said she and many other former Clinton supporters were “starting to come around to the notion that Sanders is a more viable candidate in the general than people give him credit for.”

She cited Sanders’ capacity to generate enthusiasm among young voters and appeal to working-class white voters and those who supported President Barack Obama and then Trump in 2016.

Foto: Biden at a campaign event in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.sourceReuters

She suggested establishment Democrats like Carville didn’t have their finger on the pulse of young voters and the party’s diversifying base. But she conceded that Sanders’ major challenge was appealing to conservative Democrats.

“Can he bring the people like my parents in Arkansas who are moderate Democrats and aren’t going to vote for Trump but feel very weird voting for Sanders?” she told Insider.

Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member and donor from New York, argued that Carville’s opinion wasn’t necessarily “the gospel.”

“Democrats have got to come out of group therapy, get off their yoga mats, and understand we’re in for a tough election and we’ve got to stay focused and united,” Zimmerman told Insider.

Andrew Feldman, a Washington-based Democratic strategist, similarly condemned Carville’s comments, calling them “out of touch” and “petty.” He argued that the establishment should listen to the voters and let the process play out so the candidate with the most enthusiasm moved on to the general election.

“That kind of rhetoric is completely detrimental to the ultimate goal of beating Donald Trump,” he told Insider. “It plays right into Trump’s argument that we’re in disarray, that we can’t get our act together.”

Foto: Sanders with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed his campaign in October.sourceHollis Johnson/Insider

Biden’s implosion and a ‘tremendous backlash’

Democrats across the political spectrum agree Biden may not be viable if he fares poorly in New Hampshire and Nevada and crucial donors abandon him.

A Democratic pollster, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the race, said Biden was unlikely to last if he found himself with less than 20% support in national polling after New Hampshire.

“There’s no precedent for somebody finishing as badly as he’s going to in Iowa and New Hampshire and ever even winning a nomination,” he said. “You can say all you want about Iowa and New Hampshire not being representative – they aren’t – but still, these are significant states with intense campaigning where people had a chance to size him up and he was found wanting.”

Elrod agreed that Biden couldn’t stay in the race if he didn’t come in first or second place in Nevada and win the fourth voting state, South Carolina.

The pollster warned it’s “entirely possible” that there would be a “tremendous backlash” from the Democratic establishment if Sanders moved closer to the nomination.

“We are walking into a dangerous game here,” he said. “There’s no question this has a chance of becoming a train wreck.”