Long-time Democratic strategist James Carville had a warning for Democrats ahead of the general election: don’t think this is going to be easy.

While appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday, Carville talked with co-host Mika Brzezinski about the beginnings of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, which was off to a record-setting start. Carville acknowledged the change in enthusiasm among Democrats and had positive things to say about Harris, but he also issued a stark reminder that the race was far from over:

Carville: This has been a real change in mood in party and around a country, but we got to be a little careful. About ten percent too much triumphalism going on, and you know, it’s going to be a very difficult race. It’s going to be very close, and I understand that people are feeling a lot better and excited. But that excitement has got to be tempered with realism, and the realism is she has a tough campaign on, and as you say, she’s got several things she’s got to accomplish at the same time. But having said that, there’s been real growth in Vice President Harris. I mean, you can just see the difference. And she just looked so confident to me yesterday. I didn’t put the sound on. I just left the video, and I liked what I saw, I’ll be honest with you.

Brzezinski: Yeah, but tell me about that realism. Tell me about the realism of the months to come. I mean, there’s a short amount of time, and a lot is going to happen.

Carville: You’re right, and they’re having to put a campaign together right away. They were obviously thinking about this ahead of time, but they got they got to accomplish between now and the convention, they got accomplish what most campaigns have eight months to do. So I’m not I’m not saying it can’t do it, but people are excited about the party feeling better about itself. You know, we have a woman, a non-white woman, and people are genuinely and understandably excited about that. But we also got a locked-in and entrenched opponent who’s got a large part of the country behind him who are going to pull out — and they don’t care what’s true of what’s fair or anything else — and you got to be ready for that at every point. And all I’m saying to Democrats is, enjoy yourself, feel good, but it’s tough sledding ahead, and let’s get together and get this thing done.

Watch the video above via MSNBC.

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