James Carville on Monday unleashed an expletive-laden rant on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) over his reported meeting with Jared Kushner, who has made a fortune as the son-in-law of President Donald Trump and is U.S. special envoy for peace.
The longtime Democratic strategist noted in a video for Politicon that Jeffries is a “friend” and “smart guy” who surely understands that Democrats have different opinions on “a whole variety of subjects” and policies, before truly laying into him.
“On one thing, there is no disagreement,” Carville said. “There’s unanimity. And it is simply this: In the opinion of every Democrat in the United States — progressive, moderate, middle of the road, left, fuck, I don’t know, whatever you want — we believe one thing above all.”
He said, “These people are a pack of felons and traitors, and you do not meet with them! You do not meet with them. There’s only one thing you can do with people that you genuinely believe deep inside of every fabric of your body are a pack of thieves and a pack of traitors.”
The New York Times reported Sunday that Jeffries met with Kushner at a private space in New York City and discussed areas of common ground, including housing, immigration and cost of living, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.
Carville said of Kushner: “We need to drag his ass before a committee and find out about what backdoor-dealing whorehouse shit he’s got going on with [U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East] Steve Witkoff and everybody else. We’re not going to be nice to you.”
He continued Monday, “We don’t like you — none of you.”
Kushner has been under scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest in his dual role as a Trump adviser handling U.S. diplomatic efforts with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia while running a private equity firm heavily funded by those very governments.
Kushner also has close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said during a 2024 Harvard event amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza that the waterfront property there “could be very valuable” and that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up.”
Jeffries responded to backlash over his meeting in a social media video published Monday with the caption, “No one from the Trump Cartel is getting a pass.” The minority leader, who could become speaker of the House if Democrats win majority control of Congress in the upcoming midterms, said in the video that Kushner reached out to him first and that Democrats will “hold the crooks accountable.”
Catch the full Carville rant below:
But Carville didn’t appear to care who initiated the meeting.
He said, “Fuck these people! If you’re sitting there saying, ‘I’m taking a meeting with them,’ and people are out there knocking on doors, can’t sleep at night, staying up in angst, worrying about what the hell is going to happen to the country — 40 fucking trillion dollars in debt, in an idiotic war.”
“They have no idea what they’re doing. They’re making every backdoor bullshit deal they can and we’re going to meet with them?” Carville added. “Don’t meet with them. Don’t have anything to do with them! Say: Any business we have, it’s going to be conducted with you under oath.”