‘I’m Sure Putin is Somewhat to Blame,’ Says James Carville, But Biden ‘Needs to Be Strong and Stand Up to These Oil Companies’
Democratic strategist James Carville scoffed at President Joe Biden’s efforts to blame gas and food prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, telling CNN’s Jim Acosta that the president “needs to be strong” and go after the oil companies for “manipulating these prices.”
Carville appeared on CNN Newsroom Saturday afternoon, and after a segment dunking on Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker for promoting bizarre snake oil treatments for Covid (Carville joked that Walker had “something wrong with him” because he had “an ill-fitting helmet,” “didn’t put his helmet on right” when he played football), Acosta turned the subject to the economy and the looming 2022 midterms.
We also got @JamesCarville to react to new ad from Sen. Raphael Warnock against his Republican challenger: “I think Herschel Walker had an ill-fitting helmet, he didn’t put his helmet on right because there’s something wrong with him…” pic.twitter.com/RDHx9HvSH0
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 4, 2022
Acosta remarked that Carville was knowing for coming up with the slogan “It’s the economy, stupid” — a strategic point Carville made when he was advising Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign against then-President George H.W. Bush — and that while there had been a “better than expected” jobs report on Friday, “plenty of voters” were still worried about food and gas prices.
In a speech about the economy Friday, Biden had “pointed the finger” at Putin, repeatedly calling the recent inflationary woes a “Putin price hike,” said Acosta. He asked Carville if that explanation worked, or if he’d like to give Democrats “some tough talk here” because they were “losing on some of these kitchen table issues.”
“I’m going to tell you who’s doing well,” replied Carville, citing oil companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell. Anyone who didn’t believe these companies were “manipulating these prices to their advantage,” he added, was “strictly naive.”
Even the conservative Tories in the British Parliament had passed a tax on the oil companies’ “windfall profits,” he continued, and he saw no reason that Congress couldn’t do something similar under their powers to “return that money to consumers, in particular consumers making under $100,000 a year.”
“I’m sure Putin is somewhat to blame,” Carville acknowledged, “but believe you me, they’re riding that and the Democrats have got to show they really understand what’s going on in this economy. A lot of this is being manipulated for the purpose of profit. That’s what’s really happening here.”
Acosta asked Carville why he thought the White House hadn’t “been more aggressive” in going after the oil companies, and “why haven’t we seen some more creative ideas for giving people some relief, you know, on the home front,” noting that past presidents had issued tax rebates and other similar relief measures.
Carville replied that he agreed this idea should be pushed more, describing what he had heard from consultants working with focus groups. “They all say the same thing,” he said, “that they’re being manipulated and the president needs to be strong and stand up to these oil companies,” so Carville thought it would be a “very good idea” to tax the oil companies’ profits and return the money to consumers.
“There is some good news out there” regarding the economy, said Carville, but “we just got to be sure people are ready to feel it.”
“These energy costs are crushing people,” he concluded. “We can do things to help people between now and November, I promise you.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
