(NEXSTAR) – A day after addressing an energized Democratic National Convention crowd, Mitch Landrieu, Harris-Walz campaign co-chair, exuded confidence but admitted that time is short.
“At the end of the day, it’s a goal-line stance,” said Landrieu, Biden’s former infrastructure czar and the former mayor of New Orleans, saying that they’ve organized the campaign to start when “it’s fourth and goal and there’s five seconds left.”
Despite having less than 80 days left to whip up support for the Harris-Walz ticket, Landrieu, whose own political career spans decades, said Harris is doing something special.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Landrieu said. “Politically, she had a near perfect execution … if you count the campaign in terms of days, we have won every day since she announced her campaign.”
Landrieu, who joined Harris’ camp after Biden announced he wouldn’t seek another term, is already well acquainted with the Biden-Harris administration. President Biden tapped him to allocate $1.2 trillion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure.
Praise for President Biden
In a continuing theme at the DNC, Landrieu heaped praise on President Biden for his decision to step aside and allow Harris to head the Democratic ticket against former President Trump.
Calling it the “most unselfish political act” the country has seen since the era of George Washington, Landrieu said Biden “saved democracy twice.”
“He saved democracy when he beat Donald Trump the first time, and he’s going to save democracy again by handing it over in an unselfish way to Kamala Harris.”
The role of the economy
Landrieu was quick to push back on questions about the two candidates and how voters will view their economic rhetoric, saying “it is a complete lie that Donald Trump had a great economic record, that is factually and provably false.”
In recent polls, however, more Americans say they would trust Trump over Harris when it comes to managing the economy. The truth is perhaps murkier than what either candidate would have voters believe, however.
Trump has painted his handling of the economy in glowing terms, despite historic job losses during the pandemic, spooked financial markets, trillions added to the national debt and tax cuts that never delivered their promised growth, economic numbers show.
The Biden-Harris administration also failed to bring the relief it promised to many Americans who saw soaring inflation leave food prices more than 20% higher than the were three years ago and mortgage rates grow to unaffordable highs.
Harris has so far sought to target those same economic populism issues: food prices, housing costs and tax breaks for families. How a Harris-Walz administration would advance some of those measures through Congress, much less pay for them, however, is not yet clear.
Should Trump challenge her on the economy or other aspects of her platform during the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Landrieu says he’s not worried.
“There is nobody, nobody, not a person in this country who is better prepared to prosecute the case for the people of America against Donald Trump.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.