Democratic strategist James Carville on Thursday largely avoided directly answering Fox News host Sean Hannity’s critiques of his party’s stance on illegal immigration, government spending and males competing in women’s sports.
Hannity suggested on “Hannity” that Democrats have positioned themselves against popular public opinion by supporting males in female sports, prioritizing illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens and resisting efforts to cut government waste. Carville deflected on immigration and spending while insisting he was unaware of any Democratic support for male athletes competing in female divisions.
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“To me, if you want to be the party where the Democrats defend men playing in women’s sports, if you want to be the party that stands up for illegal immigrants’ rights over safety and security of Americans — because they let millions of unvetted illegals in this country, including terrorists and cartel members and murderers — if you want to be the party that is going to fight against spending hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse, I think it’s a bad strategy,” Hannity said. “And as somebody — I respect you —I would think you would agree with me that Democrats should stand with [President] Donald Trump on getting rid of that waste, fraud and abuse.”
Democrats have been critical of Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk’s effort to eliminate government waste, protesting their actions to reduce the abuse of taxpayer funds within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Education.
Carville did not address the subjects Hannity raised, instead pivoting to criticize what he considers to be the Republican Party’s platform.
“I think the Republican Party is against a minimum wage. I think the Republican Party stands for more tax cuts for people making over $400,000 a year,” Carville said. “I think the Republican Party wants to get rid of a woman’s right to choose. I think the Republican Party wants to destroy Medicaid. I think the Republican Party would like to get rid of Medicare if it possibly can.”
“I think the Republican Party supports Vladimir Putin. I think the Republican Party is weak when it comes to Communist China,” he continued. “So there are a lot of issues of which I have profound and deep disagreements with the Republican Party on. I must tell you that in all honesty. And there are many things that the Democrats want to do that I really believe in.”
Hannity began to call Carville out for what he “didn’t answer,” but the Democratic strategist interrupted him to say he was unaware of a single Democrat who campaigned on the issue of which sexes can compete in sports. Hannity retorted that there are Democrats “out there advocating for” males to play in female sports.
Carville repeated that he is unaware of any.
Only two House Democratic lawmakers voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in January that would bar males from competing in female sports.
“I hear a lot of Democrats standing up for illegal immigrants. And they don’t want to deport them,” Hannity said. “They want to have sanctuary states and cities. I hear a lot of Democrats like [former Vice President] Kamala [Harris] saying she’s against fracking and drilling until she’s running for election. I see a lot of Democrats do support men, their rights to play women’s sports. You’re not addressing those key issues that are —” he said, before being cut off.
Carville interrupted to dispute whether males playing in female sports is indeed a “key issue.” He suggested the real important issues are health care, social security and the economy, for which he asserted Democratic presidents are better stewards.
“I don’t know of anybody that’s sitting there worrying about who plays in the high school track meet,” the Democratic strategist said. “I really don’t.”
Hannity then moved to the issue of DOGE identifying billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, including “on the radical Green New Deal, DEI, wokeism, transgenderism, LGBTQ+.” He showed a graphic that scrolled through examples, which particularly focused on USAID.
“With the exception of [Democratic Pennsylvania Sen.] John Fetterman, I don’t hear Democrats saying, ‘You know what? We ought not be spending the American people’s money this way.’ What say you?” Hannity asked.
Carville responded by minimizing the effect of cutting funds USAID spends because of how small of a percentage it makes up of the entire federal budget. “They [USAID] spend $41 billion … the federal budget is $6 trillion, I did the math, Sean, it comes to something like .014 %,” he claimed.
“But James, you’re smarter than this. Because I’m listening really closely to you. And USAID is 1% of what they’re finding and they’re finding it in every department of government … And what’s happening is we’re seeing the biggest, I think, corruption, scandal, abuse of taxpayers in my life,” Hannity said. “Now, I hear you, and I hear James Carville circa 1990s, and it’s like you don’t want to address what Americans seem to say are their top priorities. Illegal immigration, they want lower energy prices, they want the economy fixed.”
Carville then touted former President Joe Biden’s administration for having “the most domestic energy production production in American history.” Hannity agreed, but gave Trump some of the credit for it.
“James, I think you need a new playbook. I really do,” Hannity said. “But I still love you.”
“I’m not too worried about the high school track meet. But I am worried about people having affordable health care. And that’s the difference between our two parties,” Carville responded. “You go and worry about the high school track meet. I’ll worry about people getting good health care, okay? We’ll agree to disagree.”
Hannity asserted Carville might care about the issue of males playing women’s sports if it affected his daughter.
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