James Carville dumped on his party’s progressive “pom pom caucus,” including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), while urging them to join in on spoiling President Donald Trump’s planned military parade.
In a Monday video for Politicon, Carville told all Democrats to rally behind one issue, dismissing talk of Trump accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar and chatter about the Democratic Party’s messaging as “convoluted shit.” The longtime Democratic strategist argued Trump’s planned military parade, which would celebrated the Army’s 250th anniversary, gives Democrats a perfect opportunity.
He explained:
This is our golden opportunity. You do it in your hometown. Do it in the courthouse square. Organize people, bring them together, use flags, use music. I’ll tell what’s a good one. Play When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again. The Trump administration Republicans are gonna fuck Johnny! That’s what’s going to happen to Johnny! He’s gonna end up eating a .38! And his last call is going to be to a non-existent veterans suicide prevention hotline. Take that! Take that!
Carville pushed for Democrats to “leverage” the issue of veterans, citing a report that Trump’s budget cuts could include more than 80,000 jobs at the Department of Veteran Affairs, some of which would include suicide hotline staffers. The Associated Press reported on the potential cuts, citing an internal memo.
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Trump’s military parade would celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary on June 14. The president’s birthday is also June 14.
Carville dumped on the “pom pom caucus” of his party while urging them to get behind one simple message he believes Democrats should be posing to American voters.
“If they are going to screw and cut and trample on and disrespect a veteran, then what are they going to do to you?” he said.
Carville did not identify members of the “pom pom squad,” but referenced the Fighting Oligarchy tour headed by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), which included a stop at Coachella.
He said:
We got the pom-pom caucus out there. “Yay, team fight, team, fight, we’re going to get them, we’re gonna get them.” You actually have a piece of ground that you can fight on. It’s a noble piece of ground. You don’t have to go to Coachella or somewhere and speak to rallies. You can do it right there and it’s something that people give a shit about, give a big shit about. And they know what it means. They
don’t know what an oligarch is, but they know where the veteran is, they know the suicide is, they know what an obligation is, they know what a country is. And I would ask my friends on the progressive side of the equation or whatever it is, this is something that we can join together in. This is a fight that we could fight together.
Carville has been going after “progressive” Democrats and Democrats who rely on “woke” talking points since Trump’s election. He criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s tour in the past, and got into it with DNC vice chair David Hogg over a plan to spend millions challenging Democrats in primaries in a bid to get younger voices into office. Carville even suggested at one that progressives leave the party altogether.
Carville appears to have changed his tune, urging all Democrats to align now behind one message.
“What higher value you have than the contract that a nation makes with its veterans. That’s a value. That’s the value that we ought to all stand together in. We ought to take this thing and ram it home,” he said. “Ram it home! Ram it home!”
Watch above via Politicon.