Democratic operative James Carville went on a tear Wednesday over a Washington Post article that described presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign as facing a “full-scale Democratic freakout” over slipping poll numbers.
The longtime Clinton adviser was being interviewed by MSNBC’s Luke Russert and used the live television appearance to go after “stupid media people,” even at one point launching into a bizarre, high-pitched whine to imitate his detractors.
“This is foolishness,” Carville said during the interview. “I’m having to come out of my vacation to deal with this kind of stupidity that these people are putting out. And Hillary is going to be just fine. She’s going to be just fine.”
The Tuesday article, written by Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza, questioned whether Clinton is a “good candidate” and if she’s running a better campaign than she did in 2008, when she lost the nomination to President Obama.
“Clinton is in the midst of a full-scale Democratic freakout due to her faltering poll numbers and ongoing questions about how she has handled her private e-mail server,” Cillizza wrote. “Joe Biden is considering running. Al Gore’s name — yes, Al Gore — was even floated!”
But Carville, who is also a contributor to Media Matters, took issue with the article and called out Cillizza by name along with the newspaper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. He even took a swipe at Amazon, referring to a recent New York Times investigation that accused the company of maintaining grueling working conditions.
“That gentleman, Mr. Cillizza, talks about a total ‘Democratic freakout’ and then he quotes a guy who talked to a guy,” Carville said. “You know, this Mr. Bezos — who’s running that sweat shop out there in Seattle — he needs to go to The Washington Post and get this place in order. There’s nobody editing this newspaper as far as I can see.”
Carville and Russert debated Clinton’s place in the polls and whether the FBI examination of her email server will hurt her campaign.
“It’s just stupid media people talking to other stupid media people, making stuff up and spinning themselves up on something that’s not going to amount to a hill of beans,” Carville told Russert.
At one point, Carville scrunched up his face, started speaking in a high-pitched tone, and began to mock those who, he said, would criticize his defense of Clinton.
“It goes on and on, these people, ‘We don’t like Hillary. Why is… Jim Carville out there defending her? Why can’t we just attack her like we want to?'” Carville said. “I understand that. I’ve been dealing with this for 23 years now.”
Watch a clip of the interview below:
