Democratic strategist James Carville claimed an “old friend” of his is secretly the driving force behind President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet nominees.
The Ragin’ Cajun believes Tucker Carlson, his onetime sparring partner on CNN’s long-since cancelled debate show Crossfire, motivated Trump to put forward Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and former Rep. Matt Gaetz as potential senior government figures.
All have been met with consternation in Washington, while Gaetz had to withdraw from consideration for the attorney general post over allegations—which he denies—that he had sex with a minor and took illegal drugs.
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“One person is driving this, I promise you, and it’s Tucker Carlson,” Carville told Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s The Beat. “Tucker is forty times more clever than [former Trump adviser] Steve Bannon, he’s forty times more connected. He’s also very connected with Elon Musk and everything else and he’s a very bright man who should not be underrated.”
While also naming defense secretary nominee Hegseth—a former host at Fox News who overlapped with Carlson at the network—and Gaetz, Carville said it’s the nomination of Patel to lead the FBI that most supports his case.
Carville justified this belief by falsely claiming Patel is a former business partner of Carlson, the former Fox News host turned conspiracy theorist and independent media proprietor.
In fact, Carlson is a former business partner of Neil Patel, the co-founder of the news publication The Daily Caller.
“Apparently, Carville thinks all Indians are the same,” tweeted The Caller‘s CEO with the clip of Carville’s erroneous claim.
“Tucker is very, very, very powerful and the Kash pick proves that beyond any doubt,” Carville added, doubling down on the nonexistent connection.
“I think he has more influence in this current administration—way more influence than [Bill Clinton adviser and fixer] Vernon Jordan in the Clinton administration or any of the kind of wise men that were around.”
Kash Patel, meanwhile, was the subject of a glowing profile by the production house that Carlson launched after getting sacked by Fox last year, though Carville made no mention of it.
Carville raised Bannon’s name in response to Politico reporter and MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire, who said Trump’s controversial nominees were a “nod to the extreme right-wing portions” of his base, including his former adviser.
But Carville said Carlson—not Bannon—is now the central stakeholder Trump is trying to please from that part of his MAGA base.
“Everything that I see is the same thing I heard in the green room in 2002,” he said of watching Carlson operate in 2024, alluding to their time backstage when they were colleagues at CNN.
