Three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won primaries on Tuesday. By Thursday, James Carville was on a podcast saying he wanted to talk about splitting the Democratic Party.
One of the winners was Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist. Carville and co-host Al Hunt discussed her win on “Politics War Room.” Carville pointed to reporting on her past statements and said she had attacked interracial relationships and the American flag. “Lady, I ain’t in the same party as you. I’m sorry,” he said.
Then he widened it. “I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk ‘the S-word.’ ‘Schism.’ I really do.”
‘A big tent’
Democrats, Carville said, have always called themselves a big tent. “There’s just some s— that I can’t be in the same tent with,” he said. He argued that many of the socialist candidates winning primaries do not much like the party and run as Democrats because they could not win as third-party candidates. His proposal: “Let’s negotiate a terms of a schism here. Maybe we can part under some kind of advantageous terms for both of us, but I’m done.”
He drew a line on Israel too. He said he is comfortable in a party that questions the Israeli government’s policies, and enthusiastic about it, but not one that denies Israel’s right to exist.
Hunt said the wins could “complicate the politically existential question of winning in November.” He called the candidates “a great gift to Donald Trump” and said Democrats would be better off if figures such as Barack Obama and younger party leaders said, “This is not us.” If Democrats do poorly in November, he warned, “that group of crazies” could “just sabotage Hakeem Jeffries every step of the way.”
Both men said Republicans are overstating how much the three winners represent the party. Both also said AOC is a different case. Hunt said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caused headaches early on and later became more effective, and he does not see that potential in this group. “I don’t either,” Carville said. “I could be in the same party with her in many ways.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, also kept some distance. She told CNN that some of the candidates Mamdani backed “do not understand the politics of New York City” and “are relatively new to the body politic.” She said she and other Democratic leaders are “disappointed” in Mamdani.
