“I can’t be in the same party as you,” James Carville said of Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic Socialist who won a New York primary on Tuesday. “I’m sorry. I’m just not, and I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk the ‘s-word.’ Schism. I really do.”
Carville, the veteran strategist known as the Ragin’ Cajun, made the comments on Thursday’s episode of his Politics War Room podcast, hosted with Al Hunt. The two were going over the New York primary results. Chevalier is one of three far-left candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won. Breitbart, which reported the exchange, described the candidates as anti-Israel; Carville’s own criticism of Chevalier was that “she has attacked interracial relationships and the American flag.”
“Some stuff I can’t be in the same tent with”
Carville was a key strategist in Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory, which he helped win by positioning the Arkansas governor as a “New Democrat.” He has spent recent years as a fierce critic of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. On the podcast, he turned on his own side.
“Everybody’s always said, ‘No, no, we’re a coalition. We’re a big tent,’” he said. “And there’s just some stuff that I can’t be in the same tent with.” He argued that many of the new far-left candidates dislike the Democratic Party but use its primaries as a less objectionable route to power.
“Let’s negotiate terms of a schism here,” he said. “Maybe we can part under some kind of advantageous terms for both of us, but I’m done.”
He drew a line on Israel. He said he is comfortable in a party that questions the policies of the Israeli government, and even enthusiastic about it. But he does not want to belong to one that denies the right of Israel to exist.
Hunt: a gift to Trump
Hunt, the more restrained of the two, said the nominees may complicate the question of winning in November. He called the candidates “a great gift to Donald Trump” and said it would help if leaders such as former President Barack Obama stood up and disavowed them. Both men agreed that Republicans are overplaying the three candidates as representatives of the whole party. Both also said the candidates should not be welcomed in it.
Hunt added a warning, as quoted in Fox News’s analysis of the podcast. Without a sweeping Democratic win in November, he said, “that group of crazies” could sabotage House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries “every step of the way.”
The pair pointed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a contrast. She alarmed traditional Democrats when she arrived in Congress, they said, but settled in as a popular left-wing firebrand who did not try to burn down the caucus. “I don’t think this group has that potential,” Hunt said.
“I don’t either,” Carville replied. “And I think AOC is smart. I could be in the same party with her in many ways. I can’t be in the same party with Miss Chevalier. Can’t do it. Sorry.”
