Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Does James Carville Think This Tactic Will Bring Voters Home to Biden?


At the start of this month we covered how Democratic strategist James Carville has been issuing warnings about President Joe Biden's chances for reelection, especially when it comes to the demographics he's losing. This includes young, non-white male voters, a key part of Biden's 2020 coalition. As the unpopular incumbent president continues to flounder in the polls, it would seem that Carville's really letting that desperation show when it comes to the idea that former President Donald Trump could once more be elected.

In a video clip of "James Carville Explains" that's been making the rounds this week, Carville goes on an angry, expletive filled rant about how young voters may not share his exact views on the election. It hardly comes off as him actually explaining anything. 

Carville warns that "there will be no government left, there will be no rights left, you will live under theocracy, you'll end up with Christian nationalism," a hysterical point that's been hyperbolically addressed before, especially when Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) earned the gavel. 

"But that's all right, you little f**king 26-year-old, you don't feel like the election's important to me, you're not addressing the issues that I care about," Carville continued in a mocking tone of voice. 


Not helping the case for Carville to be taken seriously is that the full 12-minute YouTube video containing that excerpt is titled "Donald Trump: A Fart or a Shart? That Is The Question." The first couple of minutes were full of some particularly immature content. 

Calling a fart a "trump," like Carville said he learned they call it in the United Kingdom, even calling upon viewers to have their children and grandchildren do so, is "very important to our strategy of mocking [Trump] and doing things [the] Biden campaign isn't able to do." 

Carville then addressed how something he says he hears "a lot," is how "'young voters are not into this, it's two candidates, one is in his 80s, one is almost in his 80s, they're concerned about things, about Washington or politicians, and you just can't blame 'em for...'"

In a creepy and sudden change of tone, Carville then snapped "oh s**t, f**k you, all right! Are you watching what is happening in the Supreme Court?! If you're 26, do you see what they're doing?!" He went on to claim that the Court was taking away "every right that you could possibly have away from you" and that "the Supreme Court has out of nothing getting ready to create immunity for one person, Donald Trump!" Carville also brought up Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, conservative justices who have frequently been targeted and even threatened by liberals. 

Carville then referred to those who call themselves originalists "a**holes" and "illegitimate whores," as he mocked them too with his tone. As his rant became more unhinged, he likened the Supreme Court to Russia, insisting we are dealing with "an illegitimate court."

"You think that Thomas is legitimate?! You think Thomas didn't perjure himself about Anita Hill?! Are you kidding me?!" Carville was referencing Thomas' confirmation hearing from over 30 years ago now, during which sexual harassment claims about Thomas came up. It's worth reminding that Carville helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992, a man who has faced a slew of accusations when it comes to crimes of a sexual nature.

Carville also accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh of lying about accusations from Christine Blasey Ford, who has been and continues to be thoroughly debunked. "You think Kavanaugh told the truth when this woman came out, that he raped her?!"

From there, the Democratic strategist even engaged in election denialism, which Democrats constantly lambast Republicans over when it comes to the 2020 election, despite how they themselves did it with the 2000 election. "You think Bush was really elected in 20--in the year 2000?! Of course he wasn't elected! He was installed, by the right-wing Supreme Court justices!"

"You think that Gorsuch--you think that that was legit?! Oh please! You think that hurrying up Barrett's confirmation by Mitch McConnell against what he said he couldn't do when Obama was president?! So never look at these people and say this is a legit third branch of government, it is not! This is an illegitimate organization that unfortunately, if I don't do what they say, they'll throw my ass in jail!" It's worth reminding how Biden has defied the Courtwhen it comes to student debt. 

"But never, don't teach your children, don't teach your students, don't teach anybody that the current Supreme Court has any moral or legal legitimacy. It doesn't! It's in there because of contrivement and it's in there because of weakness and cowardness," Carville declared as he went back to ranting about Bush v. Gore even more so. "Let these sons of bitches trample all over you," he continued as part of his rant. "That's no longer a principle of the United States of America," Carville sai when speaking about how nobody is above the law. "Understand that," he insisted, gesturing wildly. 

Although he had previously spared Chief Justice John Roberts, Carville went after him too, along with his wife. Carville also brought up Adolf Hitler when addressing how Roberts regarded the case of immunity.

Carville again brought his rant to calling out young voters he's trying to win over. "And then you tell these young people, if you don't get involved right now, in this election, they're going to be involved in your life for the rest of your frickin' life! If Trump and Roberts and Alito and Gorsuch and Thomas and Leonard Leo and, uh, the Heritage Foundation, if they get ahold, there will be no government left," which brings us to the remarks in that clip above. 

A few minutes later in the full video he offered "my advice [is] to tell these young people to get off your mother f**king ass and go vote because you should vote like your entire future and the entire future of this United States depends on it because quite frankly it does and that's not an exaggeration." Carville emphasized such a point by menacingly getting up closer to the camera.

Carville's always been a little unconventional; it's what he's known for. He and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have been getting into it with each other for years. But this doesn't seem like the smartest tactic to take. It also is a whole other level of unhinged ranting. 

Even fellow liberal and Trump-hater Brian Krassenstein called Carville out over remarks. 

"Ok, so, I despise Trump. I think he would be a disaster for this country, but this is too extreme. Trump was already president and the institutions held. We didn’t slip into a theocracy, we didn’t lose all our rights, and the government is still here," he said in his post. "Don’t sound like a lunatic melting down. That doesn’t serve a purpose other than make people think that everyone on the left is a lunatic," Krassenstein also aptly wrote. 


Even if his tactic isn't necessarily the way to go, Carville is right to worry. Trump is leading Biden in the polls, with RealClearPolling showing him up by +1.4. Included are the slew of polls we've recently covered, such as Harvard CAPS-Harris, where he's up by +4 with first choice and leaners and the CNN poll where he's up by +6. There's also the most recent poll from Morning Consult, where Trump and Biden are tied at 43 percent each, although Trump has more support with Independents and from Republicans and those who voted for him in 2020 than Biden does with Democrats and his voters from 2020. 

When it comes to the young voters whom Carville is ranting and raving about, the crosstabs for the Harvard poll actually show Trump leading with voters 18-34, with 53 percent support to Biden's 47 percent. 

The CNN write-up also devotes an entire paragraph to how poorly Biden is doing with young voters, according to their own poll:

In the Biden vs. Trump matchup, the poll finds Biden faring worse than in previous CNN polls among the youngest voters, trailing Trump by a 51%-to-40% margin among voters younger than 35. Biden’s deficit with voters in that group is driven largely by those who did not vote in 2020. With that group excluded, voters between the ages of 18 and 34 in this poll divide 46% for Biden to 47% for Trump. Although not all polls release crosstabs or use the same age breaks when reporting results, other recent polling has shown a wide range of results for younger voters in testing a matchup between Trump and Biden, ranging from an 18-point Trump advantage among those younger than 30 in the Fox News poll in mid-March up to a 21-point Biden advantage among those younger than 30 in the Pew Research survey earlier this month.

A separate CNN analysis about the poll also mentioned how "Biden is still experiencing problems with key sectors of his own coalition, including younger voters, a new CNN poll shows."



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