Carville appeared on The Beat with Ari Melber Tuesday, a week after his party lost control of the White House and Senate. He lamented that his party has become synonymous with “exotic” policies, which he defined as “identity politics,” and how Vice President Kamala Harris’s former proclamations of these policies likely lost her the race.

“[Harris] does not bring this up, but this stuff is like smoke on your clothes out of a fireplace. You can’t wash it off … and it’s gonna take another four years before we wash the stench of this off of our clothes,” Carville said. “Unfortunately, although she did renounce these positions, Vice President Harris, and then-candidate for president Harris, was kind of enamored with some of these ‘exotic’ positions.”

Carville expressed his wish that President Joe Biden had dropped out much earlier in the race than he did, even if it happened immediately following his disastrous presidential debate against Donald Trump. Had Biden done so, Carville predicted another eight candidates might have stepped forward as primary elections were still in the process. In his opinion, another strong Democratic candidate without any ties to these same exotic positions might have risen to the top.

“When they look at us, they think we’re an urban, old party that’s attached to some exotic positions, which is not the case of many Democrats out there in the country,” Carville said. “They’re very skilled and would have made a great primary and a lot of fun, and I think would have done the party brand a lot of good.”

When Harris first ran for president ahead of the 2020 race, she proclaimed she believed in fewer deportations and the possibility of offering immigrants health insurance upon their arrival. She also proposed a Medicare For All plan.