Democratic strategist James Carville suggested that if progressive leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) can’t stop criticizing their colleagues and begin concentrating efforts on targeting Republicans, they should stop caucusing with Democrats altogether.
During a NewsNation interview on Wednesday evening, Carville discussed the pair’s nationwide “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which comes as the two lawmakers seek to breathe life into the Democratic Party after devastating losses to Republicans last year.
Carville admitted that the tour has attracted impressive numbers. However, he said that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s persistent criticism of the Democratic establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), marked a missed opportunity for the lawmakers to target Republicans. Similar actions taken by Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg, who is planning to spend millions to oust incumbent Democratic lawmakers, also detract from focusing on attacking the GOP, Carville added.
He further argued that many Democratic voters aren’t ready for the progressive ideals represented by Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Hogg, noting that the Vermont senator has already been twice spurned as the party’s presidential nominee.
“So maybe the Democratic Party is trying to tell you something. You lose twice, there’s probably a message in there,” Carville said. “Maybe they need to split off from the Democratic Party.”
Carville’s criticism illustrates a divide in the Democratic Party over how to recover from losses during the 2024 election cycle.
Sanders has argued the party needs to reach out to working-class voters, who favored President Donald Trump last fall.
“The Democrats have their billionaires as well, and if you want to know why Democrats over the years have not been as strong as they should be in standing up for working-class people, it has a lot to do with the power of those billionaires,” Sanders said during a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Folsom, California, earlier this week.
During a University of Montana rally, Sanders reiterated that “the Democratic Party has not been as strong as it should be in standing up for the working class.”
Speaking alongside Sanders at events across the country, Ocasio-Cortez has echoed his words and called on voters to support fresh Democratic candidates who are “brawlers” because they “are the ones who can actually win against Republicans.”
“This isn’t just about Republicans. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Las Vegas rally in March during a speech that echoed Hogg’s calls for change. “But what that means is that we as a community must choose and vote for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”
Carville argued that long-term, progressive strategies targeting Democrats won’t win elections. The Left would benefit far more from focusing on the Trump administration’s trade war and efforts to deport illegal immigrants, he said.
FOLLOWING 2024 DISASTER, DEMOCRATS LOOK TO RECLAIM STATUS AS ‘PARTY OF THE WORKER’
“Let me make a point about Bernie and AOC,” he said. “Bernie’s run for president twice. He’s lost twice. AOC and her kind, and this guy, David Hogg, they want to run against other Democrats. They don’t run against Republicans. When you beat a Republican, come back and see me, and I will be impressed!”
“All they want to do, and all this guy Hogg wants to do, is they want to beat — like, Democrats are not the problem right now,” Carville continued. “We’re not holding an innocent person in El Salvador in jail. We are not starting an ill-thought-out, idiotic trade war. And yet they’re spending all their time — a lot of their time, I’ll be fair to Bernie and AOC, they do attack Trump — but they never run against Republicans,” he said.
