Schiff says Trump-Harris race is ‘scary close’

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the leading candidate for California’s Senate seat, said Sunday that he thinks the presidential race is “scary close,” but that Vice President Harris can still win this November.

In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff said he stands by his remarks from July, when he advocated for Harris to replace President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket and said he thought Harris could win “overwhelmingly.”

Schiff, when asked, said he still thinks Harris can win overwhelmingly, but he expressed a note of caution.

“I do. You know, by the standards of today, I think she can win overwhelmingly,” Schiff responded. “Given how divided the country is, ‘overwhelming’ may be winning by 100,000 votes or 80,000 votes in these key battleground states.”

“I think that’s within her capacity to do,” Schiff added.

He noted that when he made that remark in July, he was “urging that the torch be passed to her, and it was. And I think the effect has been dramatic,” he said. “Young people who were disengaged are now engaged, interested, active, volunteering.”

He said he was optimistic but still cautious since certain swing states remain exceedingly close.

“I think we are well poised to win this thing. But it’s still scary close,” he said. “And I can’t remember a time in history when we had such a clear and dramatic choice about the direction the country would take, whether we move forward to an economy that works for everyone, with a democracy that is healthy and intact, or whether we move back to this terrible, you know, Trump American carnage.”

“And I think, faced with that prospect and that choice, Kamala Harris will win this race, and I’m very optimistic about the outcome,” he said.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling average puts Harris ahead of former President Trump by 3.4 points, 49.8 percent support to 46.4 percent.