Carville: If I'm Watching The Debate Through The Lens Of A South Carolina Democrat, Joe Biden Won Debate

Veteran Democratic strategist joins to discuss his belief that winning South Carolina is critical for Joe Biden if he is going to have a viable path to the Democratic nomination.





JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE: The first thing is I watched the debate -- I'm watching this debate through the lens of a South Carolina Democrat. If I do that, Joe Biden won that debate. He was relevant. He kept coming back to his time with Obama, who was very popular among South Carolina Democrats. He was up against the wall. He's got to win Saturday, and I thought he had the kind of best debate.



I was really surprised that the coronavirus thing didn't come up until Bloomberg brought it up at an 1:07. They're talking about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, you're talking about a kitchen table issue...They're scared to death, and the Trump administration has no idea of what they're doing. And I just thought this was a chance to really be more relevant about what people are thinking and what people are talking about in this race. Bernie Sanders, this is the first time he's really gotten roughed up a little bit, and he didn't like it. He looked like he had a cold. It was just something -- he wasn't terrible. Don't get me wrong. I'm not -- calm down, Bernie Bros. But he was just a little off. He just wasn't quite himself.



You know, Mayor Pete, he did well. I mean I don't know if he gets lost in the background. And I think Bloomberg, I was surprised. He was better than I thought he could be. He wasn't like John F. Kennedy, but he was better than I thought he'd be.



BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: What about Warren? What about Klobuchar?



CARVILLE: Warren gives you the impression she'd rather beat Bloomberg than win herself, okay? I mean, she is really a talented person, but she probably needed a little more finesse. She really hit Bloomberg hard on the question of nondisclosures. She kept going back to that and I don't think that she did that well. Klobuchar and Steyer both did very well, the question is anybody going to remember it?

Carville offered mild criticism of Bernie Sanders and warned "Bernie Bros" to calm down as he said the Senator was off his game at Tuesday night's debate: