Former Obama adviser David Axelrod said Saturday on CNN’s “Newsroom Live” that there was a lot of “irrational exuberance” on the Democratic side of the aisle over Kamala Harris’ candidacy.

Axelrod said, “His whole message has been built for two years now around strength. He’s strong. He’s the guy who can handle these problems, and so on, and now he’s got a younger and more agile opponent when it comes to debating, and he doesn’t want to debate. I don’t know that it’s a great look for him. I do think at the end of the day, he may feel he has to debate.”

He continued, “I think there’s a justifiable sense of concern in his camp that this thing could get away from him. It may be their race to lose, but it’s a race, so it could be lost, which is something they didn’t feel when they left that convention in Milwaukee.”

He added, “There’s a lot of irrational exuberance on the Democratic side of the aisle right now because there was despair for some period of time about what November was going to look like. Now, people feel like there’s a chance. But it’s absolutely Trump’s race to lose right now. He is ahead, and he is ahead in most of the battleground states. They’re close; they can be won by either candidate.”

Axelrod concluded, “I think it’s a wide-open race, but Trump has the advantage right now, and everybody should be sober about that on the Democratic side.”

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