Democratic strategist James Carville torched Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in a new interview with The Daily Beast, branding them as unelectable and accusing them of dragging the party down with out-of-touch messaging.
“You know what they don’t do? Win elections,” Carville declared of progressive candidates on The Daily Beast Podcast. “All they do is impress other journalists. They never beat a Republican!”
“Every time that you see a Democrat that is out there screaming and pounding the podium, ask yourself: ‘Have they ever beat a Republican?’” he said.
(While not at the national level, Ocasio-Cortez has fended off Republican challengers in her district four times—despite millions of dollars spent to oust her. Sanders has also beaten his Republican opponents in past House and Senate races.)
Carville slammed AOC and Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has drawn large crowds across the country, as “counterproductive,” arguing it plays into the image of the Democratic Party as “old”, “coastal” and “urban.”
“I’ve got a great idea,” he said sarcastically. “Let’s send an 83-year-old and a congresswoman from Queens out in the country.”
Even using the word “oligarchy”—meant to capture anti-Trump, anti-billionaire sentiments—is a misstep, according to the 80-year-old strategist behind Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign: “90 percent of people in the country have no idea what they’re talking about.”
“And that’s a problem with Democrats particularly,” he told host Joanna Coles. “The more ‘identity,’ the more ‘pronoun’ you get, the more you try to use language that no one else uses.”
Yet—much to Carville’s dismay—AOC continues to dominate early conversations on who might emerge as the leader (and 2028 candidate) to lift the beaten-down Democratic Party out of its current unpopularity.
“There’s a lot more to the Democratic Party than AOC and Bernie,” he said frustratedly, citing a number of his preferred figures.
Coles noted that AOC and Sanders have something many other Democrats lack: name recognition. So looking ahead at the 2028 presidential election, Carville advocated for a “mini convention”—scheduled closer to the 2026 midterms—for the public to better get to know a range of Democratic candidates.
“What we have to do is set up ourselves as the party that is simply trying to help people who are trying to make it,” he said.
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