Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rebuked James Carville on Sunday after the Democratic strategist suggested that the party can’t pass any progressive legislation that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) does not support due to its tenuous Senate majority.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sanders knocked the political consultant, who is best known for his work on former President Clinton’s campaign, telling host Chuck Todd that Carville was not “terribly relevant to what happens in Congress right now.”
“James Carville can live in his world,” the senator added.
His comments came in response to an interview Carville gave with Vox.com during which the famously centrist Carville warned that the Democratic Party “can’t be more liberal than Sen. Joe Manchin” after the interviewer asked him about the possibility of passing Democratic priorities without Republican support through the budget reconciliation process.
“That’s the fact. We don’t have the votes,” Carville added in the interview.
Carville has referred to Sanders in the past as a “communist,” echoing insults used by former President Trump, and warned of the possibility of the “end of days” should the Vermont senator secure the 2020 Democratic nomination early last year.
“Last night on CNN, Bernie Sanders called me a political hack,” Carville said in February of last year. “That’s exactly who the f— I am! I am a political hack! I am not an ideologue. I am not a purist. He thinks it’s a pejorative. I kind of like it! At least I’m not a communist.”