John Fetterman tells Clinton adviser James Carville to ‘shut the f*** up’ for being critical about Biden’s chances in 2024 and claims he is not longer ‘relevant’
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said Clinton adviser James Carville should “shut his mouth” as he questioned whether 81-year-old President Joe Biden should run for re-election.
For months, the 79-year-old Carville has raised concerns about the president's sluggish poll numbers amid a less-than-enthusiastic Democratic base.
In conversation with Politico that was published Wednesday, Fetterman said Carville's comments were not helpful.
“I'll use this [as] Another chance to tell James Carville to shut up,” Fetterman said. “Like I said, my husband hasn't been relevant since grunge existed.”
“And I don't know why he thinks it's helpful to say these things about an incredibly difficult circumstance with an incredibly strong, decent and excellent president. I will never understand that,” the Pennsylvania Democrat added.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman (left) told Democratic strategist James Carville to “shut up” in an interview with Politico on Wednesday
Carville has questioned whether President Joe Biden (pictured), 81, should seek re-election because of his advanced age and low poll numbers
Fetterman, 54, argued that it is too early to panic about the polls, which show Biden is unpopular, would lose to former President Donald Trump in key swing states, and that voters are concerned about Mr. the president.
The Pennsylvania senator said, “That doesn't really matter.”
'There is also a whole life in politics between now and next November. I don't worry about that. And I'm also very vocal about this, while there are Democrats who are very critical of the president,” Fetterman said, before bringing up Carville's name.
Carville broke onto the national stage during the 1992 race, helping Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton be elected President of the United States.
In the thirty years that followed, the Ragin' Cajun – as Carville is known – became known for his outspoken views on American political affairs.
In September, Carville claimed he believed Democrats could easily retain the White House – if they fielded a candidate under the age of 60 against Trump.
“We would get 55 percent,” Carville said during an episode of Bill Maher's podcast.
He was also interviewed at length for one October Atlantic story on Rep. Dean Phillips' decision to launch a primary campaign against Biden.
In that piece, Carville discussed how Biden's poll numbers “weren't good — and they're not getting better.”
“I talk to a lot of people who do a lot of polling at the congressional level and at the state level, and they all say the same thing. There is no outlier; there is no other opinion… The question is: has the country made up its mind?' thought Carville.
He noted how the president's team believed Biden could beat Trump in 2024 because he already did so in 2020.
But Carville pointed out that 2020 and 2024 will be two very different election cycles — because there are a number of independent and third-party candidates out there to poach voters and Democrats aren't as enthusiastic as they were four years ago.
“The most under-reported story in contemporary American politics is that black turnout has been miserable everywhere since 2020,” the longtime Democratic political strategist noted.
Carville also noted that “nobody says, 'James, you're wrong.' They say, 'James, you can't say that.'
In November, he told DailyMail.com that polls showed Biden losing to Trump in five of six swing states was “not surprising at all.”
In response to Fetterman's comments to Politico, Carville noted that some of the senator's Democratic colleagues “apparently haven't gotten the memo yet” that he is irrelevant.
“His colleague Senator Casey asked me last week to co-host a fundraiser with him,” Carville said, naming Pennsylvania's other Democratic senator, Bob Casey. 'Sen. Brown asked me to go to Cleveland to campaign with him,” he added, referring to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
He said of Fetterman, “I'm glad he's feeling better.”
Fetterman suffered a near-fatal stroke last year and was hospitalized for depression earlier this year.