Longtime Democratic pundit James Carville is firing back at recent jabs from a socialist candidate running to unseat a mainstream Democratic congressman in Tuesday’s primary elections in Florida.
After Oliver Larkin told Fox News this past weekend that “it may be time” for Carville “to take a back seat, to people with fresh ideas,” the strategist who first gained national attention as one of the masterminds behind former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 White House victory shot back.
Referring to Larkin, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Carville told Fox News Digital he “has the attribute of every DSA member in the country, and that is he has a motor mouth.”
“He fits right in.”
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Carville, an establishment Democrat, has repeatedly railed against high-profile victories by far-left and socialist candidates over more mainstream candidates in primaries this spring and summer, which are framed by many pundits as a battle for the party’s ideological future.
“They’re a bunch of silly people… a pack of fools,” Carville said in his comments Monday in an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Waters Primetime.”
The 33-year-old Larkin, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, is the only DSA-endorsed House candidate running in a competitive congressional swing district. He is challenging more moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz in Florida’s newly drawn 25th Congressional District.
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Moskowitz is backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as well as indirectly by AIPAC, a major pro-Israel political group.
Larkin, meanwhile, has support from prominent far-left figures, including controversial political streamer Hasan Piker.
“Democratic socialism can win in any district, in any race, for any office all across the country,” Larkin told Fox News on the campaign trail this past weekend. He added that he was “very proud” to be carrying the “torch forward as a DSA candidate.”
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And pointing to Carville and other mainstream Democratic strategists, Larkin said “they’re seeing their power over the Democratic Party establishment wane, and a new generation of leadership taking a step forward.”
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Larkin added, “I think it is very foolhardy to be excluding people from the Democratic Party that they’re going to be begging for our votes in 2028.”
