Appearing on MSNBC early Wednesday afternoon, long-time Clinton adviser James Carville came out of the woodwork to condemn not only Republicans but the news media for their “stupidity” of harping on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal and refuted the notion that there’s “a full-scale Democratic freak-out” underway.
Andrea Mitchell Reports fill-in host Luke Russert didn’t even get a question in before Carville was off and running, complaining about “all of the foolishness going on” with previous guest Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post writing about a “a full-scale Democratic freak-out” and being employed by Amazon’s Jeff Bozos who’s “running that sweat shop out there in Seattle.”
Just before Russert could interject, Carville suggested that Bezos “needs to go on 15th Street where The Washington Post is and get this place in order” because “[t]here's nobody editing that newspaper as far as I can see.”
When asked about the rise of socialist Bernie Sanders, Carville denounced it as “foolishness” and whined that he’s “having to come out of my vacation to deal with this kind of stupidity that these people are putting out and Hillary’s going to be just fine.”
Russert pushed back on the pro-Clinton argument that her e-mail scandal is just something concocted by Republicans when he argued: “So if this is just the media doing this, why is the FBI investigating? Why is there a congressional – why is that?”
Carville continued to have none of it, emphasizing that he’s “been dealing this for 23 years now” in defending the Clintons and responded and cited a piece by Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker that the Clinton confidant claimed “says basically there's almost zero chance that she did anything that was wrong?”
Russert then posed this hypothetical to Carville: “So you, as the famed political operative, one of the highest paid political operatives in the world, you have no problem seeing ‘FBI,’ ‘Clinton.’ and ‘criminal investigation’ next to each other in headlines around the country?”
As only the Clinton partisan could, Carville chalked the e-mail server as being nothing more than “a hill of beans, just like all of the other stuff that I've been through” but rather:
It's just a bunch of people, you know, talking to each other, spinning themselves up over a pile of garbage. And it’s people like The Washington Post talking about a total Democratic freak-out. You want to talk about a freak-out, look at these Republicans all like they want to get rid of all the people in the country, they want to repeal the Constitution, and God knows what. You want to freak out on something, freak out on that.
Firing back, Russert tried to play along and asked if “[i]s all this part of a vast right-wing conspiracy then” and if it’s “just the same old, same old that always to them?”
Providing a unusually short response, Carville called out “stupid media people” for repeatedly covering this Clinton scandal: “It's just mostly, you know, stupid media people talking to other stupid media people, making stuff up and spinning themselves up on something that's not going to amount to a hill of beans.”
In his closing remarks, Carville signed off by affirming: “I'm going to campaign hard for [Clinton] and I'm going to call out the stupidity in the media when I see it, just like the stupidity that was in The Washington Post, 'full Democratic freak-out,' give me a break.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on August 19 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
August 19, 2015
12:19 p.m. Eastern
JAMES CARVILLE: You know, I had to come out because of all of the foolishness going on. That gentleman, Mr. [Chris] Cillizza I guess it was, talks about a total Democratic freak-out and then he quotes a guy who talked to a guy. You know, this Mr. [Jeff] Bezos who’s running that sweat shop out there in Seattle he needs to go on 15th Street where The Washington Post is and get this place in order. There's nobody editing that newspaper as far as I can see.
(....)
CARVILLE: Let me ask you a question, why is she beating every Republican and has better favorability ratios than any Republican running for president and it's supposed to be the Democrats that are freaking out? I mean, look, polls go up and down. This is – this is foolishness. I'm having to come out of my vacation to deal with this kind of stupidity that these people are putting out. And Hillary’s going to be just fine. She's going to be just fine.
LUKE RUSSERT: So if this is just the media doing this, why is the FBI investigating? Why is there a congressional – why is that?
CARVILLE: Did you read the Jeffrey Toobin piece in The New Yorker that says basically there's almost zero chance that she did anything that was wrong? And this always goes on. This goes on and on, it's never going to stop. And you know, these people, “We don't like Hillary. Why is Paul Begala and Jim Carville out there defending her? Why can't we just attack her like we want to?” And I understand that, I've been dealing this for 23 years now. And people need to-
RUSSERT: So you, as the famed political operative, one of the highest paid political operatives in the world, you have no problem seeing “FBI,” “Clinton,” and “criminal investigation” next to each other in headlines around the country?
CARVILLE: No, because it's not going to amount to a hill of beans, just like all of the other stuff that I've been through. It doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It's just a bunch of people, you know, talking to each other, spinning themselves up over a pile of garbage. And it’s people like The Washington Post talking about a total Democratic freak-out. You want to talk about a freak-out, look at these Republicans all like they want to get rid of all the people in the country, they want to repeal the Constitution, and God knows what. You want to freak out on something, freak out on that.
RUSSERT: Is all this part of a vast right-wing conspiracy then? Is it just the same old, same old that always to them?
CARVILLE: It's just mostly, you know, stupid media people talking to other stupid media people, making stuff up and spinning themselves up on something that's not going to amount to a hill of beans. And by the way, I'm looking forward to the Benghazi hearing in October. We should see how many questions they're going to ask on Benghazi. What they need to do is just calm down and, you know, enjoy the race. There's going to be some interesting politicking coming up and it’ll be fine.
(....)
CARVILLE: You know, people are going to interpret every word, every expression that she makes. Everything – you know, the rule of the media is this: “The Clintons don't deserve a defense.” They get irritated if somebody comes on and defends them. And I just don't play by those rules, I never have and I'm not going to play by those rules.
(....)
CARVILLE: I'm going to campaign hard for her and I'm going to call out the stupidity in the media when I see it, just like the stupidity that was in The Washington Post, “full Democratic freak-out,” give me a break.
