Democratic strategist James Carville has a sneaking suspicion that his former colleague is behind newly elected President Donald Trump’s most daring nominations.
Carville appeared with Ari Melber on MSNBC’s The Beat on Tuesday night.
He said he believed an “old friend” is responsible for Trump’s selection of former Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and, most importantly, Kash Patel as FBI agent. director.
“One person is driving this, I promise you, and it’s Tucker Carlson,” Carville said.
Carville and Carlson sparred on CNN’s Crossfire in the early 2000s, with Carville discussing political points from the left and Carlson from the right.
Carlson went on to work for MSNBC and then Fox News, where he dominated primetime until the conservative-leaning network let him go in 2023.
Since then, Carlson has become a prominent figure on Trump’s side.
Democratic strategist James Carville claimed that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is behind some of President-elect Donald Trump’s boldest nominations
Tucker Carlson has become a prominent figure on Trump’s side. He is photographed at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago on November 14
“Look, I think they’re picking a lot of these people just to annoy people like us,” Carville told the MSNBC host. “The more fear they put in Rachel Maddow, the more likely they are to elect that person,” the Democratic strategist said, mentioning the name of Melber’s colleague.
Gaetz already withdrew from the nomination process because Republicans on Capitol Hill were reluctant to elevate the former congressman, who was under investigation for alleged sex with minors.
In his place, Trump chose former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Carville predicted that if some of Trump’s other nominations failed — as Hegseth’s has been in jeopardy amid sexual assault allegations — they would be replaced with characters “equally repugnant.”
He pointed out how Patel – who spoke about most of the FBI being part of the “deep state” subdivision that jailed journalists for not pushing Trump’s 2020 election lies – is “so outrageous and so outrageous” compared to previous FBI directors.
“That’s why they do it,” Carville argued.
He pointed to the federal investigation into Gaetz and then to Trump’s choice to pick him as AG.
James Carville suggested that President-elect Donald Trump is heavily influenced by Tucker Carlson. ‘Everything I see is the same as what I heard in the green room in 2002’
“They don’t do it in spite of it, they do it because of it,” Carville said. ‘That’s what people miss. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.’
Carville said he did not believe Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist when he entered the White House in 2017, was behind these choices, but rather his “friend” Carlson.
“Everything I see is the same as what I heard in the green room in 2002,” Carville said.
“Kash Patel was Tucker’s business partner,” the Democratic pundit continued. “Tucker is forty times smarter than Steve Bannon. He is forty times more connected, he is also very connected to Elon Musk and everything else, and he is a very smart man who should not be underestimated.”
“Tucker is very, very, very powerful and the selection of Kash Patel proves that without a doubt,” Carville said.