James Carville UNLOADS on Trump: “He Doesn’t Like America!”

on the line with us right now. I can't I couldn't wait to talk to him, and I owe him a date on his podcast as well. He is a political commentator, a podcast host, and a Democratic strategist who helped Bill Clinton win the presidency in 1992. Please welcome to Straight Shooter with yours truly, the one and only, Mr. James Carville. What's going on, James? How are you, man? How's everything? >> I'm good, brother. I'm I'm in Manhattan and uh we had some meetings here and u you know I'm I'm fired up. We got a we had a good night in Texas. I think we got some good sports events coming up and getting excited about the NBA playoffs to get to you know big tournament. >> Well I Well listen I always appreciate your time. Let's get right to it though because your time is precious. There's a lot at stake for Democrats in the state of Texas. So we going to get to that. You saw James Celerico beat Jasmine Crockett 52.8 to 45.9%. What did that race tell you and why did you term it a good night? >> Okay, let's so let's back up. The first thing is you you should read tonight G. Elliot Marsh >> is a and he'll tell you and they'll walk through numbers. You know how these guys do in sports. You know we know the >> okay playing field. They know the arcane stuff. >> It was a big night. First of all, more Democrats vote in the Democratic primary and vote in the Republican primary. That does not happen in Texas. Maybe not in this country. So, that that's a positive side. I think Jim is a is a much better general election candidate that than Congressman Crockett would have been uh >> because >> well, she had uh she had said that kind of made fun of the governor for being in a wheelchair and she that Hispanics >> called them Hot Wheels >> for Trump. Yeah. and they said Hispanics voted Trump had a slave mentality. That's probably not the best way to get these people back, wouldn't you think? So, I I mean, she's uh she's smart. >> Uh she's she's definitely fearless, but I I think that that Jim was a a better general election candidate and I'm I'm I'm happy he won the primary and I think he's going to be strong. I I I think he's got a good story. >> You just brought up how early voting for Democrats outpaced Republicans, which obviously don't happen in Texas. How do you keep that momentum going for the midterms in your estimation? >> Well, okay. So, but what I'm telling people, Stephen, now you got to look at that the playing field is now tilted in the favor of the Democrats because they have a runoff and that runoff is not until May the 26. So, you had this big election night. It was at I guess March the 3 and now you got to go all the way to May 26 >> and they spent Corn spent $77 million. Okay. >> In the first round. So, in a television that they're going to be running against each other is going to be brutal. I mean, when I tell you Democrats don't know, Republicans, they know how they know how to fight. Okay? They bring a dirty weapon to a knife fight. They don't just bring a gun. And and I'm telling people, send Tal Rico money now. And if while they're killing each other out there, Jim can go on and say, "Look, I want to bring Texas together. I want want people treat each other like good Christians and neighbors." and just be the goddamn nice guy for between now and May 26 and they're going to be killing each other and you're going to be the you know the the soothing guy, the young guy or the faith-based candidate. So I think there's I think we got a between now and May and I said don't send the money in September [ __ ] send it now and while we you know and you know this well enough that you know you know sports strate political strategy when you're in a advantageous position you take advantage of the advertisations position and we're the Texas Democrats right now are in a position they're not used to but they're in an adaptation position and you you got to you got to make the best of You got to make >> Do you believe that Telerico could actually beat Cornin or Paxton in a state like Texas, a red state like Texas? You think he could do that? >> Well, if look, you know, Stephen, I one of the things people ask me and it's okay and I'm fine with that to predict things and I say, I'm not you, you know, early in my career, somebody said, you know, you don't try to predict things. You just try to affect things. Do I think it? Yes. But you say, well, that's James. He's kind of a brah cheerleader Democrat guy. The betting markets, look at this. Go predict it. I I I think they're pretty close to 50/50. K Rico was 85 cents on a dollar in the betting markets. All right. Even though we didn't the poll data was kind of inconclusive because it's hard to get into it too deep, unless you want to. It's hard to pull a primary in a place like Texas. >> Okay. >> Betting markets are I think they're 50/50. I got to look on uh predicted again, but they're they, you know, they're like any betting market. They they're they're a big market and they're not going to be they're generally not that far off. So, yes, I did. The question is not only do I think that that Terica can win it, but the the markets think he can too. >> Let me transition and we're talking to James Carville. I mean, the man himself right here on Straight Shooter with yours truly. James, I want to talk to you about the other day. I saw you uh going off a little bit about Representative Omar where you just told I believe it was her you just told her leave the party. I mean, you know, I want to know where that came from and when you speak in this in this with this level of frustration, can you enlighten us about what exactly it is that you're talking about and what got you so ticked off when it came to something like that? >> Thank you. And and by the way, I met her one time and first off, she's a a very attractive, spoken lady. Uh I have a lot of friends in in Minneapolis and and people think a lot of people think well of her, but she started attacking white males. And I'm say, wait a minute, let's stop. All right. In 19 in 2024, 72% of the people that voted were white. All right, that's just a fact. Of that 72, probably 48% or 48 and a half were males. So I it's somewhere around I did the math on on the thing about 33% of the people that are going to vote are going to be white males. >> Well, it's stupid to attack 33% of the voters, >> right? >> That's not You DON'T WANT TO START THERE. You know what you try to do is you start and you build up. And so what I would say to Congressman Omar, why don't you be a democratic socialist of America, do what AOC did, but but don't and if they win. The truth of it is I I share a lot of ideological issues in common with Congressman Omar. But maybe you should do like a parliamentary government. You you you let you in the governing coalition, but not the electoral coalition. I mean, I'm being perceived. I don't think she'd do that. But we cannot we have to get this mentality out that we can win national elections with white people because you can't. All right. You know, if I was >> without white people because you can't without Yes, you're right. >> that we can somehow another win an election without white males. It's just insanity. >> It's it's literally mathematical insanity, cultural insanity, as anything else. But James Carville, what about those who will push back on you and say, "Okay, he's a Republican. He happens to be the president of the United States, and you certainly were recently going off on him. You went the hell off on him a hell of a lot harder than you went off of Representative." Now, now he's Now, I'm saying he has he has white people. He has white males that love him. All right. What about that? WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE THAT WILL LOOK AT YOU and say, "Come on, James." >> Because I'm a white male. I'm I'm different than other people. This is his greatest thing is is one of the the great favors that people have that I find distasteful is say the a person of color. Well, that means that all non-white people are the same. No, all white people are not the same. All black people are not the same. All Hispanic people are not the same. All right. And I don't like generalizing about someone's gender or their race or their sexual preference or anything else. Like all gay people are not the same. They're very different personalities. They're very different values, very different everything. And I just don't like and I know when people say it that they're trying to be inclusive in their language, but I don't think they stop and think of what they're telling somebody. All right. And that's that's that's my issue. I I I don't think, you know, if I'm going to vote for somebody big, first of all, it's generally the Democrat. If it would have been Crockett, I would have been no problem. more enthusiastic about being for Jim than I would have been for her. >> James Carville, do you believe do you believe considering the animist the disgust that the president evokes from so many people? Do you believe there is such a thing on the left as Trump derangement syndrome, which is what the right accuses people of. Do you believe that exists? >> Can I say something to the people that accuse Democrats of having Trump derangements? No. No. I got it and I got it bad and I don't want to get better. I just want to get worse. Okay. >> You want to get worse, James? >> I I don't think I I don't think that I I try to conjure up more detail for him than I have when I wake up in the morning. It's really hard to do, but I'm This is a condition that I'm not trying to get rid of. >> Why not? >> Make my DISEASE WORSE. >> WHY? WHY? WHY, JAMES? WHY DO YOU WANT TO MAKE THE DISEASE WORSE? TRUMP DER, WHY DO YOU WANT TO MAKE THAT WORSE? BUT I because in my opinion he doesn't like the United States. He doesn't like our laws. He doesn't like our allies. He doesn't like our treaties. He doesn't like the fact that we're inclusive country that is built in a large part on immigration. I don't think he I I I and I don't think I think he's politicized the Justice Department. I think they're making money hand overfoot like you couldn't believe. >> And I think I I think the guy does not can't stand the country I love. And if if you said well somebody capital gains tax or somebody doesn't think that we should have a I don't know affirmative action like I disagree with you but I'm not going to tell you that I think you hate America. I think you got some bad priorities. I don't think Trump likes the United States. >> Okay. What I think, >> how do you feel about people who say the same thing about the left because of some of the stuff that we were seeing with woke culture, cancel culture, identity politics, etc. What about that? >> Well, you're not going to find anybody more antic cancel culture than James Carville. >> And I thought I was the first person to speak, a Democrat to speak up for wokeness. And I was quickly corrected. It was my friend Al Sharpton. >> First time I said was April 27th, 2021. And I said, "This stuff is killing us." And and and I'm going tell you what happened, Stephen. A and you'll you'll relate to this. Yeah. You know, I live in your in the early part of 2021. You know, we still had a kind of woke culture. We had a backup of the >> uh pandemic. And I was in the grocery store and they had a and you know what I'm talking about a black church lady you know kind of 60 years old probably you know was a little overweight and I I gave her a fist bump and she said boy don't give me no goddamn fist bump put your arm around and give me a hug and I said to myself you know people that's the way people want to live if they come up and they see you and yet we were so scared to touch anybody because they go to HR and and report us for her. And she said, "Well, don't put your goddamn shake, you know, fist up. Put your arm around me." And and it dawned on me that's the way people want to live. You know, if I see you, I want to shake your hand or grab your arm. You know, hey man, how you doing? How your hammer hanging? What's going on? You know that that's the way people live. And they tried to make us live another way. And I I I thought it I'm right. I said that. >> But that's your party though. That's your party. It was 15% of the Democratic party. >> Well, that's what I mean. That's all I mean. That's all I mean by that was on the left. >> Yeah. I can't I I can't 65% of Republicans believe that January the 6 was a tourist visit. It actually was a criminal act against the United States. This is a kind of naive. Some college professors were sitting around and said, you know, we're going to change the way people talk to each other, right? >> No, we're not going to do that, lady. James, let me let let me transition because while I got you on the on the subject of the president, I'm talking to you about both parties and how you're feeling. Um, let me transition to Trump's decision to um bomb Iran um in concert with Israel. What are your thoughts about that decision? How are you feeling about it? >> So, I'll walk you through it. So, we had we had Max Boot on our podcast today. He's a big was a big neocon big Iraq war guys gazetti Iran war and I said you know my our experience is about wars we grew up with so I was in the Marine Corps doing Vietnam but why I was in there I figured out that ain't nobody wanted to fight this war and I and when I knew it wasn't hopeless is when I was in the barracks and I actually didn't go to Vietnam and the people that went to Vietnam considered me a hero cuz I didn't go and I said wait the people actually fought the war. I said, "Man, you don't want to [ __ ] you. You lucky son of a [ __ ] You stay right where you are." And so they called me out in February of 15th of 1968 and said, "If you sign, we'll give you $1,700 and make you assault, give you E5, give you another strike if you sign up for two more years." And I I told the garrison, I said, "Gnunny, I ain't signing shit." The guy looked at me. He was like a 23 year old Marine Corps veteran. And he said, "I don't blame you, you [ __ ] Get out of here. I wouldn't sign nothing either." So that's where that war was in 1968. >> And I thought that the Iraq war was another civil war that we were getting in. We didn't have any interest. We didn't have an opponent. We were trying to to change the regime, which okay. >> So how do you feel now happening here? This I think it's the same thing. How do you define winning? What what is what is winning? So they went in and they killed Hani. Okay. Who cares? I mean, I'm not going to We shed tears for him. They killed all the other people they wanted to be a successor. >> So, what did what do they think is going to happen? The people around say, "Well, these people are bombing the [ __ ] of us. I think we'll elect Franklin Roosevelt or Martin Luther King, our next No, that's not the way it works. >> Well, what what what about the argument that it can make China now checkmate because first, you know what, we did what we did with Maduro and Venezuela, and now we got Iran, so no more cheap oil for for for for Russia. You might have to you or China rather you might have to deal with us. What about that notion? >> It's kind of it's you got to get an oil guy. It's a open world market. Okay. It's a it's a price on a world market. So you cut off 5% of the world supply and the world going to get supplied somewhere else. By the way, it's costing Americans right now at the gas pump. So, we're paying you, the American consumer, are paying for this on the hope that you might be able to restrict China's oil supply, which I don't think you're ever going to do. But that So, right now, you're already paying for this war. Then when you pay for a war and you say, "Well, this war Iraq war cost, it cost us trillions of dollars cuz you still paying the VA medical care. You're paying for psychiatric care. You're paying for people that have been maimed, wounded. Wars are not things that you people should enter lightly. I'm not a pacifist, but I am definitely I would call myself not a pacifist, but I have a very dovish view about war. We got to we got to we got to get ready to go. But I got to ask you this question. Sure. >> So, moving forward, >> looking at the Democratic party, >> feeling how you're feeling about what transpired last night in Texas, >> right? From a national perspective, I've been making the case there's no definitively that yeah, there's a lot of qualified candidates, people that know politics that would do a good job if they were in the presidency, but pe somebody that actually resonate with the masses out there and could beat a Marco Rubio or JD Vance in 2028. That's not what I'm seeing from the Democratic party. What are you seeing? >> Okay, so first of all, you're not going to say that until you have a presidential nomination because a political party without a president is not going to have a message. And by the way, the I think the Democrats are going to take the House back. I would I would think about not a great predictor, I would think they're probably going to take the Senate back, but that's not the the the question here. They're not going to be able to pass anything. >> Okay? >> But you have you're going to have eight candidates, and this is what I would say, like you when you look at a a draft class, a NBA or NFL or something like that draft class, and you say, "Man, this is a they got five or six people in this thing, you know, that that's going to be impact players right out of the shoot." And then sometimes you look at the draft and you say, "Well, there's maybe there's one or two that that are going to make an impact in their first year." There are seven first round all world draft picks in a Democratic party running for president. And then you go underneath the presidential level. I mean, Tal Rico, you can see what kind of talent he got. Watch this guy Rob Sand in Iowa. When when I tell you that that he's he's got if y'all look at that guy and say, you know, that guy one day has a 5% chance to be a Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Understand what I'm saying? That's pretty high praise. I mean, that that was like, you know, when when Ted Williams heard Henry Aaron take batting practice in spring training, he said he got out and wanted to see it because he knew right away, this guy's gonna be very good. >> Yeah, >> James, I got to get ready to run, man. And I got a commercial break to get to. I thank you so much for your time and I appreciate it. And I promised I was covered on your podcast and I will be there to talk to you. All right. >> All right. My man, the one and only James Carver right here. Political commentator, podcast host, Democratic strategist, extraordinaire, helped Bill Clinton win a presidency in 1992, by the way. Right here with straight shooter with Stephen A triple uh 86696 pus. The number to call is 86696 pus.

James Carville sits down with Stephen A. Smith and unleashes a fiery take on Donald Trump and the state of the Democratic Party. From “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to the 2028 election, the legendary strategist delivers blunt opinions and political strategy in this explosive interview. https://sxm.app.link/YouTubeSAS Connect with me on social media: Twitter: https://x.com/stephenasmith Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephenasmith/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stephenasmith Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephena/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-a-smith-763b31194/