CNN’s Michael Smerconish recalled James Carville’s famed catchphrase Saturday morning when he asked the architect of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election victory why Democrats are not running away with the race if the economy is strong.

Friday’s jobs report showed 254,000 jobs were added while unemployment was at a healthy 4.1 percent. Meanwhile, numbers have continued to indicate inflation is cooling.

Still, polling has shown Vice President Kamala Harris has not pulled away from former President Donald Trump, while the former president is actually ahead in some surveys in key battleground states.

On CNN’s Smerconish Saturday morning, the host welcomed Carville on to discuss the November election and reminded the veteran Democratic strategist of his utterance of one of the most famed statements in politics.

In 1992, Carville said bluntly of elections, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Smerconish asked Saturday, “James, big jobs report yesterday, robust stock market, declining interest rates, tamed inflation, if it’s the economy, stupid, why isn’t Harris ahead?”

Carville reminded the host that there are still more than four weeks until the election and predicted that either Harris or Trump would catch momentum between now and then. He said:

Well, first of all, you forgot to drop in crime rate, which is really impressive. You know, she’s slightly ahead in this not the election. These things tend to break one way or the other at the end. There are seven swing states. The least likely result is they break 4-3. But I can’t stop the commentariat from saying it’s going to be neck and neck and it’s going to come down to this. I think it will break at the end, I think someone will carry swing states 5-2 or 6-1. Whoever does that will do well in the House and do well in the Senate. But this is this thing is a long way from decided.

Watch above via CNN.

The post CNN’s Smerconish Presses James Carville on 2024 Race by Citing His Old Phrase: ‘If It’s the Economy, Stupid, Why Isn’t Harris Ahead?’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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