James Carville urges Democrats to consider expanding Supreme Court if they regain power

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville has strong opinions on the future of his party, saying it may be time for Democrats to go on the offensive against what he called the "identity left." Appearing on "Saturday in America" with host Kayleigh McEnany, Carville also voiced support for Democrats expanding the Supreme Court by adding four liberal justices in 2028 if they regain power.

Asked about expanding the Court, Carville replied, "Well, they should, because the public has lost faith in an entire branch of government." 

After New York City and Seattle elected two democratic socialists in last week's special elections, McEnany asked Carville where he stood on the Democratic Party's leftward shift in ideology.

Carville said that while a coalition "always wants as many people" as possible, some just aren't worth the trouble.

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"But when one part of the coalition becomes destructive to the other parts, then it's time to reconsider your relationship with them," Carville said.

Regarding what he described as the "identity left" - the progressive wing of the Democratic Party - Carville argued it may not be enough to ignore them, suggesting Democrats may need to confront the movement directly.

"I think we have to, not just say, 'Well you lost - you know you lost - so we're just going to move on.' We might just have to affirmatively attack it because it was so stupid, and it was so unpopular and no one wanted to use that kind of language, and it was a giant mistake," Carville railed, speaking on progressive Democrats' push to enforce new gender pronouns.

"That's all I can say. It caused real damage to our electoral process," he continued. "No one uses it anymore, so people say, 'Oh no, James, declare victory and walk away and be nice,' and that's one option. The other option is to say, 'This was a really, really stupid era in a wing of Democratic politics that caused irreparable harm to the party.' That's pretty close to my view."

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The conversation then shifted to Carville's recent comments, in which he advocated that Democrats should pack the Supreme Court if they win the 2028 presidential election and regain majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. McEnany played a clip from Carville's "Politics War Room" podcast from Nov. 6, where he discussed the issue.

"I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that," he said. "The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court."

Carville continued, "They're going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That's going to happen, people. That's going to happen to you. They're going to win. They're going to do some blue ribbon panel of distinguished jurists, and they are going to recommend 13, and a Democratic Senate and House is going to pass it, and the Democratic president is going to sign it, because they have to do an intervention so we can have a Supreme Court that the American people trust again."

Carville assured listeners, "So just keep that in the back of your mind. And I would bet a lot of money that that's what's going to happen. A lot."

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McEnany pressed Carville on these comments, noting that former President Joe Biden had pledged not to pack the Supreme Court - and kept that promise. She then asked whether Carville truly believed a future Democratic president would move to expand the Court.

"Well, they should, because the public has lost faith in an entire branch of government," Carville replied. "This is the lowest the Supreme Court has been rated, and if you believe as I do, that we need faith in not just the executive or the congressional branch of government, but the Supreme Court - and it is not written anywhere in the Constitution that you have to have nine. That's just a number they came up with."

The longtime Democratic strategist continued, arguing that expanding the number of justices from nine to 13 would be the quickest way to "get some balance on the court."

McEnany pointed out that in order for Democrats to pack the Supreme Court, they would likely need to make Puerto Rico a state and end the filibuster. She asked Carville if he would be willing to take those two steps to ensure a vote on packing the court would go the Democrats' way.

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"I would carve out for those two things, yes," he replied. "I think that when the country is faced with a national emergency, and I think we're faced with a national emergency, you know, they've carved out the filibuster for… judicial nominations. That's not written in the law."

"But isn't that carving out the filibuster just for political reasons? Make carve out, Democrats win?" McEnany fired back.

"Why does the Senate do anything other than political reasons?" Carville asked. "Of course it's for political reasons! Everything they do is political!"

Carville added that, similar to how Democrats are attempting to harm President Donald Trump politically with the Epstein files, Republicans did the same thing to Biden with his son Hunter Biden's laptop. "That's part of politics!" he said.