James Carville has never been one to hold back, and his recent tirade about Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign staffers was classic “Ragin’ Cajun.” This time, Carville took aim at young progressive staffers reportedly throwing a fit over the vice president considering an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast—an opportunity Harris ultimately skipped.
Carville, visibly exasperated in a video commentary, eviscerated the notion that staffers fresh out of college should dictate strategy to a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. His message? Campaign staffers should take orders, not give them.
“The vice president was thinking about going on Joe Rogan’s show, and a lot of the younger progressive staffers pitched a hissy fit,” Carville said, calling out the internal backlash against a potential interview with Rogan.
He continued: “Let me tell you what I’d say to these people—what I would tell ’em. Not only am I not interested in your fking opinion, I’m not even gonna call you by your name. You’re 23 years old. I don’t really give a st what you think.”
Carville didn’t mince words about what he saw as a failure of leadership within Harris’s campaign. He ridiculed the idea that Harris, a candidate for president, would allow staffers to override a potentially game-changing decision, sarcastically questioning her readiness to be Commander-in-Chief.
Dem strategist James Carville absolutely obliterates Kamala’s progressive staffers who kept Harris from doing the @joerogan interview: I would tell them, “Not only am I not interested in your f**king opinion, I’m not even gonna call you by your name.”
“You’re 23 years old. I… pic.twitter.com/r3NpDVKyDq
— Rusty (@Rusty_Weiss) November 26, 2024
Carville’s criticism isn’t limited to Harris’s campaign. He’s been a vocal critic of the Democratic Party’s tendency to pander to niche progressive interests at the expense of broader appeal. He’s called out what he describes as a preachy, overly moralistic tone that alienates male voters and working-class Americans.
“If I were running a 2028 campaign and I had some little snot-nosed 23-year-old saying, ‘I’m going to resign if you don’t do this,’ not only would I fire that motherf**ker on the spot, I would find out who hired them and fire that person on the spot,” Carville said, underscoring his belief that campaigns need strong leadership and clear priorities.
Carville’s past remarks about the Democratic Party’s struggles with male voters offer context for his frustration. He has criticized the party’s messaging as too focused on elite liberal values that turn off everyday Americans. His suggestion that Harris could have benefited from reaching Rogan’s massive male audience—estimated at 50 million viewers for Trump’s Rogan interview—aligns with his broader critique of the Democrats’ failure to connect with key voter groups.
By skipping the Rogan interview, Harris avoided potential controversy but missed a chance to speak directly to millions of voters outside her traditional base. Trump, by contrast, capitalized on the platform, further solidifying his connection with an audience that values candid, unscripted conversations.
Would Harris appearing on Rogan have changed the outcome of the election? We’ll never know. But as Carville noted, her campaign’s reluctance to take risks—even calculated ones—raises questions about its strategy.
