All language subtitles for Carville.Winning.Is.Everything.Stupid.2024.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE.eng

(dramatic music)

(energy surging)

- [Commentator]
You talked earlier

about that record low approval
rating for President Biden.

And the skepticism over
his leadership extends

deep inside his own party.

Only 36% of Democrats
think that their party

should nominate Joe
Biden for a second term.

58% say they would
support someone else.

You're seeing real weaknesses

in the coalition that
powered Joe Biden

to the presidency
back in in 2020.

- I've been running
350 days a year or more

since August 1, 1981.

10 years ago I learned
hotel hall running.

(dramatic music)

Somebody told me
very early, says,

"You know what's the most
serious running injury

you can get?"

And I said, "I don't
know, shin splints?

"No," he said,
"getting hit by a car."

Said, "Anything you can do to
avoid getting hit by a car,

endures to your benefit."

(dramatic music continues)

I'm so slow, people
go, "Hey, Mr. Carville,

glad you're enjoying
your afternoon walk."

You know, shit,
thought I was jogging.

(James chuckling)

(dramatic music continues)

I figured out, I've run
around the world, the equator,

probably one and a half times.

Back and forth.

Hotel running is
easy on your joints.

You can shower right after.

There's no wind, there's
no rain, there's no cold.

There's one big downside,
it's not overly scenic,

but, any 79-year-old'll
tell you,

they don't look at
the horizon anyway,

you just look at
what's in front of you

'cause you're scared
you're gonna trip.

On the upside, you
can't get hit by a car.

(dramatic music)

- Louisiana's gift to America,
and they don't want him back,

Jimmy Carville.

(audience applauding)

- So, my first guest
helped put Bill Clinton

in the White House.

- He ran the Little Rock War
Room, home to the famous sign,

"It's the economy, stupid!"

- You are considered,
probably, James,

the hottest political
strategist in the country.

- Look, James, in all due
respect, is a political hack.

- I ain't apologizing
to no one for what I did

for a living and
you shouldn't either

if you wanna go into politics.

(Bill hissing)

- That boy looks like
he swam too close

to a nuclear reactor.

- James is affectionately
known as the "Ragin' Cajun."

- [Commentator] Drag a $2
microphone through the bayou,

you just might find
James Carville.

- Democrats whine too much.

(dramatic music continues)

- There are a lot of
people who don't know him,

who think he tries very
hard to be eccentric.

Those of us who know him,
know that he's actually

trying very hard to be normal,

and just not ever getting there.

(dramatic music continues)

(audience applauding)

- [Ari] No knock
on your experience,

but you've lived
some history, sir.

- Too much.

- He is a dreamboat, although,
we're quick to concede

that he's an acquired taste.

(both laughing)

- I always think I'm gonna win.

I never go into any contest
with defeat on my mind.

You are here for a purpose.

You are here to help people.

(trolley bell chiming)

(cell phone ringing)

Hey.

So, when did you finish
this national poll?

Cost of living and crime
were the two biggest issues?

Right.

Yeah, undecided shouldn't
be more than seven.

I'm alright.

(whimsical music)

Yeah, I'm in town until
after Memorial Day.

(cell phone ringing)

Hey.

Hey, hello, Tommy
Tuberville made my day.

He is a colossal fool
and he doesn't know it.

Yep.

What'd you think of
the inflation number?

- James has several
knitting clubs.

People who he calls all day,
every day, crack o' dawn,

first thing in the morning,
last thing at night.

These are very deep
foxhole buddies.

(cell phone ringing)

- Oh, okay. Hey, Mimi,
I gotta take this.

This a business call, I
gotta take this, okay.

- I can probably count
on two or three hands

the number of days
over the last 30 years

where I didn't speak
to James at least once.

He's probably got seven
dozen people on speed dial.

- Hey, gimme a call when
you get a chance, thanks.

Hello.

Yes, sir!

- John Mack four times a day.

George Stephanopoulos,
Paul Begala.

Butthead, I don't know
Butthead's real name.

- Oh, when you're
doing another poll

will you tell him to?

- He's not calling and
saying, "How's your son?"

He's calling and saying,
"What's going on?"

Which means, "What do
you hear politically?"

"What do you think?"

"Have you seen this?"

"Did you read that?"

"Let me send you this."

- [James] Hey, you called?

- [George] James writes
by talking on the phone.

That's the way his mind works.

- Most people don't know

that this Congress has
failed to produce a budget.

- He works through
what his message is

and you often see it then
at night on television.

- There is no budget.

And we cannot let people forget
that, it's very critical.

- I have talked
to James Carville

every single day since 1983.

I don't miss a day, and
usually, more than once a day.

He is so much more a
student of the game

than people give him credit for.

He knows all your
votes, all your quotes,

and they're locked in.

He is the smartest
son of a bitch

who's ever done
this for a living.

By the way, the
percentage of people

who think Trump has the
mental fitness for office

has gone up.

- I saw that.

- [Paul] He's gone up.

- That's what shook me.
- That is depressing.

- That's what shook me.

- [Paul] That's
depressing. Yeah.

- 'Cause people
think he has energy.

"'Cause I was out
there fighting."

(pensive music)

- [George] This poll is just
brutal for President Biden.

- Absolutely, George.

The skepticism
over his leadership

extends deep inside
his own party.

A hypothetical rematch,
Trump versus Biden.

Right now a seven
point edge in our poll

in Trump leading Biden.

That tells us at this
very early stage, George,

that this race is
shaping up a lot more

about the incumbent
President Joe Biden,

than it is about any
of his challengers.

- May 7, 2023, that
ABC-Washington Post poll,

it knocked me right
off my fucking horse.

(dramatic music)

I don't think people appreciate

how bad Biden's
poll numbers are.

It's like walking in on
your grandmother naked.

You can't get the
image outta your mind.

The American public has
real doubts about this

and you can see it in poll,
after poll, after poll.

- [Commentator] These
polls seem to get at

the elephant in the room when
it comes to President Biden.

For voters, it's his age
that they're concerned about,

his mental acuity, his health.

(dramatic music continues)

- [James] How you doing?

- [Server] I'm great, Mr.
Carville, how are you?

- Good, I'm wonderful.

(cell phone ringing)

Hey.

Hey, George.

- [George] That poll is getting
a lot of attention, huh?

Jesus.

- It's all people
are talking about.

I think if we ran somebody
else, they'd get 54%.

- [George] Wow.

- All right?

- [George] 18% of the public

who thinks Trump
should be charged would
still vote for him.

- It's just amazing
that 18% of the country

thinks he's a criminal, but
they'll vote for him anyway.

- During the Clinton
campaign in 1992

fundamental core tenet was
change versus more of the same.

There's nothing that
says more of the same,

more than Joe Biden
versus Donald Trump.

And James believes that,
you know, change wins.

- He reeks of yesterday,
he's a stitch of yesterday.

He is so yesterday, if
I think of yesterday,

if I think of an old calendar,

I think of George Bush's

face on it.
- Don't let anyone

tell you that America is.

- One of the things
I think in '92,

I think in 2024, "Who
wins really matters."

It's very stark right now.

We got this terrible threat

of Trump coming
back into office.

(soft music)

- [George] We're in
unchartered territory.

- We're here?

- A lot of people are confounded
by how close the race is,

given President Biden's record,

and given what we know
about Donald Trump.

- He admires Biden a lot

and thinks he's been
a very good president.

But, it's hard to make the case

that Joe Biden can win
an easy re-election,

'cause he can't.

- [Joe] Hello, Mr. Carville,

this is Joe in the control
room, are you able to hear me?

- I hear you fine, New York.

(dramatic music)

- The path to victory
is his religion.

That's what he cares about.

How do you get
from here to there?

And there has to be winning.
- So let me bring in

the Democratic strategist,
James Carville.

- There's still a
lot left to go here

before the inevitable
happens, I think.

- This is not a normal election.

- Right now, Jen,
we're in a fight

for the Constitution
of the United States.

The only hope for the
United States of America

is the Democratic
party, that's it.

I don't think that we have
given this sufficient thought.

I think we're taking too much
of a chance to lose here.

But, I've said it.

- When he speaks, people listen,

'cause he tells the truth.

But do you really think
anybody is going to cast

a yes or no vote for Biden

dependent on what
James Carville says?

Come on, guys, hurry up.

Come on.

- All right, I'll
call you later.

Get ready for the show.

Thanks David, appreciate
it, thank you.

You going to Baton Rouge, honey?

- No, the baby has pink eye.

So, no, I'm not going.

But, Mr. Wilson is giving me
a private welding lesson today

and I'm gonna fix--

- Who is your what, now?

- Mr. Wilson is giving me
private welding class today

and I'm gonna fix
that weather vane.

(whimsical music)

This is a really
nice weather vane.

I don't think I'm even
gonna take the squeak out.

I like the squeak.

I'm gonna re-weld it.

De-rust it.

Pound it out.

Paint it.

What?

You have no idea how
much shit I have.

- Mary was a hardcore
Republican operative.

She had worked with the George
H.W. Bush campaign in '92.

So, if opposites
have ever attracted,

this is certainly the case.

- People know you both as the
Democrat and the Republican.

And so, inevitably
they wanna hear.

Tell us about the fights, tell
us about the disagreements.

- Well, I was just
telling her the joke,

when you're famous for a thing,

then that's what
people see you as.

- Absolutely.

- We come from a different era

where you could talk about
politics and you could disagree.

Cheeno is now my travel dog.

That's as hideous
as our pictures are.

- They both passionately
love their country.

They both passionately
love politics.

They're both really expert and
they're students of the game,

but, they're on different sides.

They have such a famous,
I know it's like a cliche,

such a famous mixed marriage.

She's a devout Republican,
he's a reptile.

And yet, they've made
it work over the years.

- I'm really a conservative,
he's really a liberal.

- There's three things
I ain't changing.

I ain't changing wives,

I'm not changing
sexual orientation,

I'm not changing
political parties.

We're gonna go to the house
with what we got here, okay?

- They have a deep love
and a deep respect,

there's no question.

And the secret, I believe,
what do I know, but,

the secret, I believe,
to their marriage is,

they don't talk about politics.

- [Anderson] What is it
like living with you two?

- Friday night, if
we weren't with you,

we'd probably be having
a good stiff drink,

which we're about to go
do right now anyways.

- All right, I'll
let you go do that.

Mary, thank you, James
Carville, thank you.

- You bet.

- Kinda like to join 'em.

- Hey, Simon.

- Hey, James. How are you?

- I'm good.

- Your headphones aren't
working then, are they?

- No, it's better
with the sound,

but I think talking into
this microphone helps.

- [Joe] If we're talking into
this microphone and that--

- I can't hear, is
that Dan talking?

- No, it's Joe.

- [Joe] Yeah, when you're
listening and speaking into the.

- Okay, back now, okay?

How's now?

- If you ever wanna know
why we need a president

not in his 70s, this fucking
program will tell you.

(both laughing)

- Hello and welcome
to "Politics War Room"

with James Carville
and I'm Al Hunt.

An ABC-Washington Post
poll last weekend

just ricocheted around
the buddy politic.

- His Black approval
is around 60%.

We're not gonna get
Black turnout anywhere
where we need it

in 2024 with Biden.

- [Al] And most
people, including.

- James is not just
a TV personality,

he uses that platform to
advance political strategies,

and he's very thoughtful
about what he does.

- The country's become immune

to staggering, breathtaking
corruption at the Supreme Court.

- James has a unique
voice, one that resonates,

not just in Democratic circles,

but Republican circles as well.

And what I've always
enjoyed about his insights

and analysis is that he
talks like he's a real person

because he interacts
with real people.

- The only way to talk
about the Republican Party

is in the past tense.

We keep thinking that
they'll do the right thing.

That they're really Americans
first and Republicans second.

(James blowing raspberry)

Oh, bullshit! Total bullshit!

Republicans create a
lot of distractions,

and Democrats get distracted.

(dramatic music)

- [Reporter] It is
a border showdown.

- We call it, "Biden
migrant crime."

- Every time you hear, "Migrant
crime," you think Biden.

- Deliberately releasing
criminal, illegal aliens

over, and over, and over again.

- We don't need illegal aliens
voting in our elections.

- As journalists, we're looking
for the most colorful quote

that makes viewers actually
perk up when they hear it.

The way that Carville
delivers that,

he comes with the expertise,

but the package that
he presents it in,

is just different
than everybody else.

- There's a story that talks
about Trump having hand cuts.

I think there's a good
chance this man has the clap.

- There are those who suggest
that somehow Taylor Swift

is fixing the Super
Bowl to help Joe Biden.

- I think most of these people
are sexually inadequate.

(James chuckling)

- He goes out of
his way to get shit.

The man is a two fisted shit
catcher, that energizes him.

- Mike Johnson, and
what he believes

is one of the greatest
threats we have to date

to the United States.

He tweeted out that I'd said,

"Christianity was
a greater threat

to the United States
than Al-Qaeda."

Of course, I never
said anything.

Frankly, I think he's
a human piece o' shit.

But, I thought
that, I now know it.

- He'll tell you very
quickly, tell the truth,

tell it like it is.

And that's what makes it funny.

That's what makes it
interesting, that's what helps.

- And he gets out
there with a LSU hat

and a pink sweatshirt,
drooling and spitting.

Glasses so dirty,
it's like insane.

Oh, my God.

But the one thing you
can say about him,

he is relentlessly authentic.

- I've been more excited
about colonoscopies

than he was in giving
his speech tonight.

He didn't wanna be there.

- When you see James Carville,

you're looking at the
face of Louisiana.

No frills, kinda straight at it.

- [Person] Hey, Mr. Carville.

- How you doing?

- [Mitch] He speaks in
a way that people go,

"That guy is different."

- It's so nice

to meet you, sir.
- You too. Yes sir, thank you.

- [Mitch] He is rooted in place,

and he's proud of
it, as he should be.

And he thinks the
rest of the country

could learn a lot from it.

(dramatic music)

- Clean up your shit.

Come on, Harry!

This is typical of what
South Louisiana is like.

Water everywhere.

(DJ speaking
in French)

- [DJ] Main street.

- When I was growing up,
you would have the AM dial,

and it was common
that you would pick up

a French language radio station.

(DJ speaking
in French)

(upbeat music)

None of this was
here when I grew up.

It was very rural,
it was very pristine.

For whatever it's worth,

you're now officially
in Carville, Louisiana.

The naming of Carville is a

interesting story because
look at a map of Louisiana,

prior to 1909 it
was called Island.

And there's a Sicily Island,
there's a Pecan Island,

there's about five other
island place names.

And the mail kept
getting mixed up.

And my grandfather at the
time was the postmaster.

So they said, "Well,
we'll just name

the postal
designation Carville."

Because it was named
after my family,

people assumed that
we were land barons.

Understand, we were
small time bureaucrats.

We got a good name, we
could get into any club.

We just couldn't pay the dues.

(James chuckling)

This is the house that
my father was born in.

If you were in Carville in 1920,

this would definitely
be top three

pieces of residential
real estate.

(soft music)

This is pretty typical South
Louisiana architecture.

Probably, if you lived
here, you were Black.

I grew up thinking,
my daddy said,

we had the best
climate in the world.

We had the finest
peaches in the world.

We had the finest
strawberries in the world.

We had the most fertile
soil in the world.

We were the luckiest
people in the world!

He didn't say, "You're
growing up in some shit hole

on the Mississippi River."

(soft music)

See that window air conditioner?
That was a big thing.

I discovered air conditioning

and masturbation about
the same time in my life.

And boy, what a wow combo. Whew.

(James chuckling)

This is downtown
Carville, Louisiana.

This is the intersection
of Whatever and Whatever.

(James chuckling)

We don't have two stop
signs, we have one.

It's is the only stop sign
in Carville, is right there.

(soft music)

- [Mary Anne] How are you?

- [James] Pretty good.

- Gotta tell 'em about
the metropolitan area.

- Yeah.

(Mary Anne chuckling)

This was the family store.

And, the facade has
changed a little bit.

They've shut the
post office down,

but, that's the
original building.

(whimsical music)

- [Mary Anne] The store was
the center of everything.

- [James] We had the only
telephone in Carville.

- [Charles] Mr. Carville.

- Charles, get outta here.

- How you doing?

- I'm doing good, man.

He grew up right next to me.

- Yeah.

- I mean, literally, he's
my next door neighbor.

(Charles chuckling)

The checkout used
to be right here.

It first was a
typical general store.

So, if you wanted something,
they would get it for you.

I'm gonna get a cold
beer, shit, this is hot.

That's probably me, yes.

- [Mary Anne] I don't
know, but look at that.

Is that Carville or
is that Carville?

- I didn't like wearing
suits and wool stuff.

God, I hated that.

- Our mother was very Catholic.

She wanted 12 children,
ended up with eight.

We've always thought
of James as "St. James,"

he could do no wrong.

Right here. This
angelic human being.

Yeah, okay.
- You think I didn't try

to please my mother?

(James chuckling)

(soft music)

- [Katie] You're a
self-proclaimed mama's
boy, aren't you?

- Yeah, I am a
momma's boy, yeah.

- [Katie] You call your
mom how many times a day?

- Well, I call
home, I call my mom,

I call one of my sisters,

I say, almost every,
about, probably.

- And some days, five times.
- Some days, five times.

It depends on.
- Depending on

how nervous he is.

- You can't know James if
you didn't know Miss Nippy.

She would say, "I
love all my children,

but James is just special."

"God only made
two perfect people

Jesus Christ and
my baby, James."

They'd be like, "Really?"

She worshiped and adored him,

and was every bit as
brilliant and eccentric.

- To supplement the
income for the family

she ended up selling
encyclopedias,

which, she was fantastic at it.

- This is how good of
a huckster she was.

She would go around South
Louisiana in her car.

She said, "Son, we're
looking for two things,

we're looking for a
bass boat and bicycles,

'cause that's gonna say

that there's disposal
income in that house

and they have children."

- That's what she
was looking for.

Some indication of a kid who
would want the encyclopedia.

- She'd see the bass boat.

Inevitably, the father
would walk in and he said,

"Well, Ms. Carville, I'm sorry,

we just can't afford
that right now."

And she would say, "Well, you
know, I see you can afford

a bass boat for yourself,

I just find it amazing
that you can't afford

an encyclopedia for your kid?"

And it's like,
- Boom.

- cha-ching!

(audience laughing)

I mean, it was 100%.

I am the son of a
great salesperson.

We have come to
devalue salesmanship.

If you're not willing to sell,
you're not willing to win.

All right, so this is

patient housing there.

The chief driver of
the economy in Carville

was the treatment center
for Hansen's Disease.

It's what made the
place I grew up

different than any other place,

in probably an entire South.

- [Reporter] The
National Leprosarium,

which is the Marine Hospital
at Carville, Louisiana,

has under treatment,
more than 300 patients

who are lepers.

- If you were in
Carville in 1959,

let's just say population
was 1,000 then,

400 of the people had leprosy.

And 550 were Black.

Okay, I mean, if you didn't
get along with people,

you'll have a pretty, you
know, a pretty lonely life.

- You had people who
were shunned by society

that gave him a
sense of the other,

and a great compassion for them.

- James was one of the few
strategists that understood

that there were
millions of Americans

who lived on the
outskirts of hope.

He's always been able to
see beyond the levies.

And that's something
natural that comes to a man

who understands what it
is to come from nowhere

to become something
in this world.

- He grew up at Jim Crow,
segregated, agrarian South,

and saw the injustice, and
it pains him to this day.

- I grew up in a place that
was overwhelmingly Black,

could see that I led one life,

and for the most part,
they led another life.

- When it was not only not
popular, it was dangerous

to take a pro civil rights
stand, took a lotta courage,

and James Carville did it
and he didn't do it quietly.

- Some people that grow up
go put money in their pocket,

forget where they came from,
and then go support policies

that actually hurt the
people that you grew up with.

James was never that way.

- During the Clinton campaign,

we were working towards
putting people first.

That came so naturally to James,

and it also, I think,
was fuel for him.

Knowing that in some
way he'd be giving back

to the people who
helped raise him.

- Our mission is to empower
people to get these incomes up.

Our mission is to do something
about these healthcare costs,

and to invest in people.

And recognize that this
nation can never be any richer

than the people in it.

We keep our focus on that,

we will become a nation of
fishermen and fisherwomen,

and not a nation of fish
givers and fish takers.

(chimes clanking)

So, Wednesday,

what are we doing?
"Ari" and "AC?"

- Yeah, you have "Ari
Melber" in the afternoon

and then you have "AC 360"
that evening, and the podcast.

And then, Friday

you head to Cleveland
for your WSB

through Atlanta.

And then that speech in
California came through.

- Where in California?

- [Allie] Newport Beach.

- And it's on what
day, what's the date?

- It's Monday the 24th.

So you'll go straight
from there to Aspen.

- It's hard to believe somebody

actually wants to see my face.

- [Allie] They're gonna
see a lot of it too.

(upbeat music)

- The ABCs of my
packing routine is,

running shoes, running
shorts, and good bourbon.

I put it in those little
bottles you buy at Walgreens.

Salvation.

Three ounce bottles.

Shit.

All right.

Keep my sleep meds

and my little
indica gummies here.

(James chuckling)

(plane engine roaring)

- [Reporter] Political
strategist James Carville

is back in the news again.

Democrats are telling him
to keep his damn mouth shut.

"Don't talk about Biden's
sinking poll numbers!"

- You said quote, "Nobody's
saying, "James, you're wrong."

"They're saying, "James,
you can't say that."

- James has been very honest

and upfront about what he sees
as Joe Biden's weaknesses.

But like any other
political strategist,

sometime we get it right,
sometime we get it wrong.

I'm not bed wetting.

Not yet.

- Democratic Senator
John Fetterman

went after famed political
strategist James Carville,

quote, "I'll use this
as another opportunity

to tell James Carville to
shut the, quote, "(beep) up."

- They'd rather bury
their head in the sand

than listen to what
Carville's trying to tell 'em,

and that, "Biden
is going to lose."

On issue after issue,
they're trailing Trump

where they really shouldn't be,

including on the issue
of democracy, by the way,

where Biden's only leading
him by three points.

And if you wanna make that the
centerpiece of this election,

which I believe it should be,
you know, objective facts,

which suggest he
should be blowing him

out of the water on that one.

- [Reporter] Always
back to the politics.

- Do doubts remain about
the President's age?

Yeah, but, to say this does not
make me into a "Bed wetter,"

or, "Whatever, looser."

- Has someone called you that?

- I think that, yeah, I
think they've called me

a "Bed wetter" on any
number of occasions.

I'm not offended by it at all.

I guess I'm 5% offended that
if you really think calling me

a "Bed wetter" is gonna
make me change my mind,

I don't think you know who I am.

- Elections always
boil down to decisions.

- A bed wetter is a
person who overly frets.

I have become the kinda
person that I used to hate.

One of these carping Democrats.

"Hey, no, they're never
goddam satisfied."

It was a CBS poll where 72%
of the people said that,

"President Biden
physically or cognitively,

can't do the job."

And by the way, he is old.

Age is something that
everybody deals with.

(whimsical music)

If you're like me, you're
dealing with it as we speak.

If you're a younger person,

you deal with it through your
parents, or your grandparents,

or somebody down the street.
You can't pivot from that.

- [Cameraperson] Mr. President.

-[Cameraperson 2] Mr. President,
on your right, sir.

Mr. President.

- I've heard James
on the phone saying,

"What, if I stop saying he's
old, he's gonna get younger?"

"I mean, it's not gonna."

(Mary muttering and grumbling)

And I'm very pro age.

I love that James
is gonna be 80,

and still whipper
snapping around, but,

he quits teaching at LSU

'cause it was too hard
to drive to Baton Rouge.

Imagine being
president at that age?

- I am very comfortable
that I am saying publicly

what people are
saying to themselves.

I have enough money, I
have enough whatever,

I could just shut the fuck up.

- James is nothing,
if not consistent.

He's consistent in his boldness,

consistent in his
willingness to say things

that his allies
might not wanna hear.

James is saying,"The flames
are coming outta the engine,

the plane is going down,

and we're all just
watching it happen."

(upbeat mariachi music)

- I'm ready to sign, Debbie.

(upbeat mariachi
music continues)

How you doing, sir?
- Good morning

- Nice to see you.
- and enjoy the day.

- Thank you.

(audience applauding)

The first campaign I ever
worked on, this is dating me,

was in 1959.

This is my eighth
decade in politics.

And my job was to tear,

I worked for a guy
named Price LeBlanc

against Boyzie Jumonville.

And my job was to tear
Boyzie Jumonville's

telephone pole signs down.

(audience laughing)

Well, we lost and
Price went on to be

one of the great Toyota
dealers in the United States.

- Happy to be alive at
your Action Toyota dealer.

We're loaded with trucks!

Trucks, trucks, cars and trucks.

(audience laughing)

- He taught me the value of
salesmanship and hucksterism.

And, Democrats, we're
not huckster enough.

And what that does is.

- Louisiana has this
incredible history

of having colorful politicians.

And James, of course, is
the epitome of that color.

- They go further, and further,

and further into
economic slavery!

- We followed
politician's campaigns

and got attracted to it like
it was a circus sideshow.

♪ You are my sunshine

♪ My only sunshine

- The defining political
character of my youth

was a man named Earl Long.

He had this unbelievable
way of scaring people.

And he really went
after powerful people.

- There's only two
classes of people

that can get first class
hospital treatment,

that's the poor poor
and the rich rich.

- These guys were
bigger than life

because of their
oratorical skills

and fanciful personalities.

- Why do you keep talking out
of both sides of your mouth?

- So a person with
nothing between his ears,

such as you, can
understand what I'm saying.

("Hadacol Boogie")

- There was a State
Senator, Dudley J. LeBlanc.

He was a huckster
of the first order.

He comes up with a
product called Hadacol.

♪ Do the Hadacol Boogie

♪ The Hadacol Boogie

♪ The Hadacol Boogie

- Anything that you
had, Hadacol could cure.

It was a hugely
successful product.

- LeBlanc did a road show
called the Hadacol Tour,

kind of a traveling circus,

and the whole combination
of politics and hucksterism,

it got people out,

and made politics relatable
with a show business component.

- Of course, the FDA found
out that it was nothing

but alcohol and bullshit.

- Hadacol, what's that good for?

- Well, it was good for $5
million for me last year.

(audience laughing)

♪ And that's good
enough for me ♪

- You're into politics
as a young person

and you envision a career,
or life in politics?

- I never envisioned this.

(pensive music)

- [Peter] Carville
was a poor student

and dropped out of college
to join the Marine Corps.

- That experience imposed
discipline on him.

And James does not
take to discipline,

he doesn't take to structure.

And yet, you can't
exist without some.

- [Peter] After the service

he finished college and then
got his law degree from LSU.

- I practiced law for two
years and was terrible at it.

And then somebody
in the law firm

started putting me to work
on campaigns for politicians.

So I started doing that.

I found what I liked to do
relatively late in life.

I managed my first
campaign in 1982,

which meant I was 38-years-old
on election night.

- I gather the world did not
beat a path to your motel room?

- No, they didn't
beat a path anywhere.

- The term, "Political
consultant" as a profession

was almost non-existent.

For him to say,
"Hey, you know what?"

"This is what my life
career is gonna be,"

was a pretty big lift.

- I spent a lotta time
staring at the phone,

waiting on it to ring.

- 1984, my first campaign,

I was the lowest man
on the totem pole,

it was my first
job outta college.

Carville was coming to Texas
to be interviewed for this job

as a campaign manager for
Lloyd Doggett for US Senate.

I carried the candidate's bags.

Somebody had to go pick
up the out-of-state guru

at the airport.

So I go and get him, you
know, dropped his fifth F-bomb

by the time we'd loaded
the bags in the car.

I learned more in 15
minutes driving in with him

than I'd learned in
four years of college

getting a degree in
political science.

- You could see after 30 seconds

that he was 10
times more talented

than the entire
room put together.

I just remember
saying to myself,

"Man, I'm not going anywhere
without this fucking guy."

- [Crowd] Doggett,
Doggett, Doggett, Doggett!

- Doggett had got crushed
in the Reagan landslide.

It was up until that day,
the biggest ass whipping

a Democrat had ever
gotten in Texas history.

(audience cheering)

Phil Graham just beat the
living shit out of us.

(pensive music)

- I went there a boy
and I left a man.

- James was famous for losing
races over and over again.

- He was pretty much
nobody in our party,

and he just wasn't sure he
was ever gonna really make it.

- He slept on my sofa at
age 40, absolutely broke.

He had an Oldsmobile.

He had three or four changes
of clothes, and that was it.

- So I go back to Baton Rouge,
work in the mayor's office.

We'll also be proposing
some new school lights

at the school
crossings to ensure

the safety of our children.

The mayor feels very
strongly about this.

Then I get a call

to go interview for a
campaign in Philadelphia.

And I said, "Well, you
gotta send me the ticket."

And he said, "Well, we're
gonna reimburse you."

"I mean, we're not,
you know, just get."

I said, "You don't understand,

I don't have the money
to get a ticket."

"You got to send me the
money to get the ticket

to go to Philadelphia."

Took a job in 1986 working
for a man named Bob Casey,

who was then running for
governor of Pennsylvania.

- This is Pennsylvania in '86

when the worst of the Rust
Belt collapse is going on.

Casey would go around that
state spurred on by Carville,

and Casey would go
around and said,

"If you've ever been
knocked on your butt,

I know what it feels like."

"I've been there, I'm
gonna fight for you."

- [Cameraperson] Okay,
here we go, this way.

- James understands the
struggle that people have

to put two paychecks
together, because he lived it.

(audience cheering)

(upbeat music)

- Casey wound up winning.

(audience applauding)

When the results
came in and we won,

James got on the phone
and called Miss Nippy

and just burst into tears.

And Mr. Casey, who was a
very reserved Irish Catholic,

took the phone and told that
lady how wonderful her son was.

They had a vigorous agreement
about how wonderful James is.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- I was thinking, "I don't
have to go back to Baton Rouge

and beg people for a
way to make a living."

The Casey campaign,
without that,

I'm not me.

And that didn't
come until I was 42.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

I woulda been a massive
failure without this.

The Pod Streak was '86 to '92.

- [Announcer] Wallace
Wilkinson, if he wins, you win.

- You've given a victory to
the people of Kentucky tonight.

- I take it as a
great compliment that
the voters chose us.

- [Announcer] Zell Miller,
fortune is his cause.

- [Reporter] Democrats
in Philadelphia

and we're cheering a new hero.

Harris Wofford had
shown them how to win.

- [Reporter] Since
last week's elections,

political consultant
James Carville's phones

have been ringing off the hook.

Democratic candidates
running in 1992

are anxious for the
advice of the man hailed

as the architect of Harris
Wofford's stunning upset

in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

(pensive music)

(steamboat horn bellowing)

- Okay, James, let's
go to our questions.

They're always so good.

Okay, Mike, it
doesn't matter a lot,

but I've lost the
picture, what do I do?

- [Mike] No, let's
just carry on.

We're talking.

- [James] Just
carry on with audio.

- Oh, you don't
wanna see me? Okay.

- [James] We see ya.

- [Mike] To our chagrin,
we can still see you, Al.

(all laughing)

- [Al] Okay, we'll start with
Jeff in St. Pete, Florida,

who says, "When is the date
when there is no turning back,

legally, as to being the
nominee, at the convention?"

- As you know, I have been
highly skeptical of the idea

of President Biden
running for reelection.

So now I'm hearing,

"Well, you might have
been right in June,

but there's nothing
we can do about it."

Okay, I profoundly disagree.

(dramatic music)

Lyndon Johnson was running for
president in March of 1968.

- [Reporter] The
President had been aware

of a growing divisiveness
within the country.

- Good evening, my
fellow Americans.

- LBJ gives an Oval Office
address about Vietnam

and at the end he
has this sentence.

- I shall not seek,
and I will not accept

the nomination of my
party for another term

as your president.

- LBJ decided not to run,

I don't think he told hardly
anybody, and throws it open.

(dramatic music continues)

- The unpopular incumbent
dropped out of the race.

Six months later,
Democrats go to Chicago.

(upbeat music)

I's declared an open convention.

(dramatic music)

You had a Democratic party
that had a terrible issue

with the Vietnam War.

There were huge protests,
police response was excessive.

(crowd clamoring)

- The party elders put
the Vice President up.

He hadn't been in any primaries,

and they forced him
onto the ballot.

And, what happened?

Well, riots, a loss,

and third party candidate
won five states.

(dramatic music continues)

- Richard Milhous
Nixon has been elected

the 37th President
of the United States.

- Stop! Freeze frame.

There's another way to do this.

(dramatic music)

Let's imagine Biden says,

"I'm not running," two
weeks before the convention.

- Good evening, my
fellow Americans.

- All hell breaks loose,
phone lines are buzzing.

(dramatic music)

You say, "We're gonna put
five candidates forward,

all five will be invited to
speak to the convention."

High drama coming in.

Who will on the
sated list of five?

Wait, I just got an indication

that Newsom's campaign
manager's coming out.

And oh, wait a minute,
I'm back to you.

I see Gretchen Whitmer's
press spokesman

is being invited back in.

You got a fucking game and
everybody is watching it.

As compared to,
we go to Chicago,

(audience cheering)

there's gonna be no suspense.

If you had a
contested convention,

it would be the highest rated
summer programming in history.

Could turn out bad, but it
could really turn out well.

(camera clicking)

- This could only happen
if President Biden decides

he can't or shouldn't run,
and he's made it pretty clear.

So, with that, I think
that James is getting

a fair amount of heat from
Democrats who just say,

you know, "It's over now, I
mean, he's made his decision."

- What people say, "It's
time to fall in line."

But I can't say what George
Carlin said, "Fuck hope."

(James laughing)

I just, I can't.

(dramatic music)

(Jeep engine roaring)

- [Reporter] All right, Josh.

Thank you, very, very much.

So, we got the news?

Okay, we're off and running.

- [Reporter 2] Nikki
Haley has exited the race.

She was in it for
about 13 months.

Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump
during this hour as well.

So, a lot of news.

- [Reporter] Yeah,
we don't expect

to see the President today,

might see Donald Trump today
come out and make a statement.

- To the left is what
they call Union Station.

May of 1962, when I was
a senior in high school,

I actually touched
John F. Kennedy.

He was down here and he
was sitting on the back

of a convertible or something.

And, I'll never forget,

I got close enough, I actually
like, touched his coat.

(soft music)

I kinda identified
with civil rights.

And to a Catholic kid,
that was like, huge.

- I am proud to become

an honorary citizen
of New Orleans,

and I am proud as President
of the United States

to come to this city and to
ask you to join with all of us

in moving this country
forward in this decade.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- An entire generation of people
were just moved by Kennedy

to get in American politics.

(soft music continues)

- I end tonight where
it all began for me,

I still believe in
a place called Hope.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

Okay.

- [Producer] We're
ready, Mr. President.

- [Sound Person] Yeah,
I think you're good.

- [Producer] We're good?

Okay, thank you. Appreciate it.

- No problem.
- Okay.

- [Interviewer] My
first question is,

I'd like to know what
you saw in James Carville

that made you take a
chance on him in 1992?

(audience cheering
and applauding)

(dramatic music)

- The quarter
century before '92,

Democrats had held
the White House

for four years out of 25.

So, the whole question
in '92 was kinda,

"Can anybody play this game?"

- People were hungry for a win.

But a lot of Democratic
candidates thought

that George H.W.
Bush was unbeatable

coming off the victory
in the Gulf War.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- A number of people

were thinking about
running for president.

- They wanna work.

- [Al] So, James and Paul
got to pick and choose

which candidate they
were gonna represent.

- Our buddy, George
Stephanopoulos, called me

and said, "I've signed
on with Bill Clinton,

he's our generation's
Bobby Kennedy."

Which, was the highest
praise he could give.

- I never felt comfortable
with political consultants

because I thought
it was unlikely

that they knew more about
Arkansas than I did.

You just talked to everybody,
including members of the press

and ran your campaign.

So, I had something
to learn, I knew,

and I was very impressed
with what he'd done.

When I met Carville,
I thought I was home.

We were two guys
with pretty flashy

and strong-willed mothers

who came from little
Southern towns.

And, I thought he was so smart.

- Clinton and Carville are from
roughly the same generation,

roughly the same kind of
socioeconomic background.

And they both had a little
bit of rogue in them.

When Clinton signed on
Carville and Begala,

it was a sign that this
is someone who is serious,

and this is someone
who is coming to play
and coming to win.

- James Carville, senior advisor

to the Clinton Gore campaign,

joining us from
Little Rock, Arkansas.

Let me read you
one of the quotes

from a Bush Quail news
release, quote, "Pigs will fly,

lions will lay down
with their lambs,

and patriot missiles
will sail down chimneys

before a Commander
in Chief wannabe

ever gets down to specifics,"

predicted Bush Quail Deputy
Campaign Manager Mary Matalin.

- Well, as you know, I know
Mary Matalin fairly well,

and I've always, one of the
things I feel good about,

is this election's over.

She'll have a good career
as a fiction writer,

'cause she written enough
fiction in this campaign

to fill in for William Faulkner.

It's such a Washington story.

Mary and I had met
in January of '91.

It was a article
about this Democrat

who was winning elections.

Lee Atwater, who was Bush's
political operative, saw it

and told Mary, go get
a date with this guy

and find out what he's up to.

I think we were living
together by March.

- [Interviewer] Conspiracists
would be right to say

that she was sent to spy on you.

- Yeah.

(dramatic music)

We started dating
in January of 1991.

August, President
Bush appointed her

Deputy Campaign Manager.

And I was in the midst

of a special Senate
election in Pennsylvania.

- He promised me that was it.

He wasn't gonna be
in my lane anymore,

'cause I was doing
national politics.

- We were at dinner where James

was introducing a couple of
us to Mary for the first time

and he had cut the
deal with Bill Clinton

to join the campaign.

- They congratulated
him, and I said,

"I didn't wanna make a scene

because they were his
friends and not mine."

- She was freaking out.

And the rest of us couldn't
figure out exactly why.

And then little by little
we realized, oh, my God,

he hasn't told her.

(Mandy laughing)

Poor Mary.

- If he woulda slapped
me across the face,

I would've been less surprised.

The President's inner circle
were all sophisticated men

of a certain age.

They could not articulate
what needed to be articulated

when you're facing
the kind of opposition

that James was presenting.

- President Bush has presented

an agenda for American renewal.

- I have a question for America,

"Do you feel renewed after
four years of George Bush?"

"How renewed do you feel out
there, Mr. and Mrs. America?"

- I had to pull
it out on Clinton

because everybody else
was whining about it.

Called him, "A philandering,
pot smoking, draft dodger."

I got chastised not
to be so negative.

But,

I always made the
soundbites, didn't I?

He is an obsessive politician.

When he has been asked about
his anti-war activities

in the past he has hedged,
bobbed, and weaved.

- [Reporter] The Bush
campaign refused to back down.

The Clinton campaign, of course.

- I'm supposed to be
worried about this?

(all laughing)

- Can't think of another time

where you had a top person
in a Republican campaign

and the top person in
a Democratic campaign

started a romance.

And even though people
talked about it,

was reasonably clandestine.

- They faced a lot of
obstacles from both sides.

It was kinda dicey,

that you're kinda sleeping
with the enemy in both cases.

- [Interviewer] There's
been so many reports

of a romantic attachment
between you and Mr. Carville?

- I think the media does
not know how to cover

what is an unprecedented
relationship.

- Nobody seemed to care
on the Democratic side.

I wish I could tell you

that's because Democrats
are better people.

It's a boy girl thing.

- I think that it is
even a zone of privacy

that exists for
political consultants.

- James got credit for dating me

and I got shit for dating him.

- If you were to lose, will
there be lingering bitterness?

- No, we're not gonna lose, so
I haven't thought about that.

I had been working for
12 years to get this job.

He just came outta nowhere.

He just fell from the
sky doing state races.

And I said, "Oh, he'll
just fall on his face."

Little did I know he was
gonna recreate the genre

of political consulting.

- Thank you, I'm
glad to be with you.

You know, I had a good time,

but I was a pretty straight kid.

I worked hard enough
to make good grades,

but I basically liked
my music and my friends.

And I had a heck of a good
time when I was in high school.

I bet you I said something
you could take outta context.

You weird guys gotta
stick together.

(all laughing)

(phone ringing)

Shh.

- [Person] Said, "They're not
interested in the fact that

you sent me in college.
- Shh. Shh.

- The woman who was paid
by a supermarket tabloid

to publicly talk about her story
of a 12 year alleged affair

with Democratic presidential
candidate, Bill Clinton,

held a news conference today.

- I have lied to the press
about our relationship

to protect him.

(pensive music)

- The Gennifer Flowers weekend
was unlike anything else

in the campaign.

You're coming off the Gary
Hart implosion in 1988,

where just the
whisper of infidelity,

bam, knocked him outta the race.

(plane engine roaring)

- On February 10, 1992, we're
trying to get our sea legs

after these
allegations of affairs.

We get off the plane,
embed from ABC News

hands Georgie and I this letter.

The first line, "Thank you
for saving me from the draft."

Our knees buckle.

(pensive music continues)

- I thought this was it.

No way he can survive
the double whammy

of Gennifer Flowers
and the draft letter.

- [Interviewer] Governor,
did you write this letter

to Colonel Holmes?
- Yes.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- George was in the
corner kinds curled up

in the fetal position, and
Carville was stomping around

in the room.

And he said, "Georgie,
read the thing!"

"If you read it out
loud, it helps him,

it shows he got more character."

(Clinton chuckling)

- James almost immediately
saw something else.

He said, "This letter
can be your friend."

- He said, "I was in the
Marine Corps at the time.

Lots of people in
the Marine Corps

felt just like this letter."

(Clinton laughing)

It was so good.

And he was right.

- I can legitimately
say that I served,

I did what I was told, I
got an honorable discharge.

And Clinton had deferments,
wrote this tortured letter

because he wanted to
remain politically viable,

but he didn't want to
get his ass shot off.

Oh, gee.

- James knew his
generation's ambivalence.

He knew how people
felt who had served

and who had decided
not to serve.

He looked at the letter
in a totally different way

than anyone else.

That's so James, to see
opportunity at a moment

when everybody else sees death.

- Carville recommended
that we turn into it,

that we deal with it.

- [Reporter] Why did the
Pentagon, in your opinion,

release the letter?

- I think that it is,
"Why do you think that?"

Well, let's try a case
of rocket science.

Here's a article in "The Wall
Street Journal" on Friday,

and here's a story that looks
like it might be going away.

And somebody says, "A-ha,
look, we have something

that can kick this
story an extra day."

(dramatic music)

My job was to convey to
the press and the public

that we are tough fucking people

that know what they're doing.

'Cause that was really
part of what I was selling.

But you have to ask.
- But shouldn't you be glad?

- Are you gonna let me
answer the question,

or you gonna interrupt me?

Okay. All right.

- [George] That defiance ended
up sending a bigger signal

that lasted throughout
the whole campaign.

If you've got a big problem,
confront it, don't hide it.

- Carville's approach
is just as relevant,

perhaps more relevant
today than it was in 1992.

You turn into the fire, you
don't turn away from it.

- [Interviewer] Should
Biden go on the attack?

- My dad was a boxer at LSU.

He said, "Get in, throw a
combo and get the hell out."

That's what Biden needs to do.

Go in, throw a quick
combo, back off.

Come back, quick
combo, back off.

- [Al] Any sense of how and
whether Biden's going to address

the age issue?

- I asked the campaign
if he's gonna give

a full throated speech
on the subject of age,

I want to interview
him about that.

And they said, "Well,
look, we don't,"

they made it clear they're
not gonna be doing that.

- You seem to be
pretty convinced

that Biden really believes
that he's gonna win.

- He has a conviction
that the American public

is as insulted by Trump on
a spiritual, patriotic level

the same way that he is.

- I hope his view of America
turns out to be correct.

But, I gotta say, the
evidence I see right now is,

I just have a hard time
being encouraged by it.

- It will go down in history

as a catastrophic miscalculation
if he is wrong about that,

and I think that
will be the story.

- Evan, thank you so much.

- [Evan] A great pleasure.

Always a treat to be
with you guys, thank you.

(dramatic music)

- In June of 1992, we did a poll

for "The Wall Street Journal"

and NBC News that showed
Clinton in third place,

behind Perot.

(phone ringing)

- [Person] And it was
proposed on the 16th of April.

- Pick it up.

Hello, give it
here. Hand it here.

You're a guy that can't
pick up the phone.

We were so strategically
dysfunctional.

Everybody realized that
something had to be done.

I'd run a lotta campaigns,
and I developed an idea

of the way that you
should do things.

- [George] He wanted
to have representatives

from every department
all in the same room

so that we all could
speak with one voice

and have one strategy.

- They came to me and said,
"We're gonna do this coup

and you're gonna be the
leader of the coup."

"And, by the way, you
gotta go sell this

to the Clintons, thank you."

(James chuckling)

- So he came up with this idea
of the Clinton Action Team

and took it to Hillary.

Who was the most
important strategist.

Hillary loved it, blessed it,

but said, "You should
call it the War Room."

- Seemed like a good idea.

If she'd o' told me to
call it The Fart Room,

I'd o' called it The Fart Room.

- He was given the job
during the convention,

James, as the general of that
War Room, created a culture

that I don't think
any Democratic
campaign has ever had.

- This morning Perot was
on "CBS Morning News."

- [Mandy] Every morning and
every night, everyone came in.

Everyone heard the news.

Everyone was part
of the conversation.

It was literally
an open campaign.

- It gave people psychic income.

You moved to Little Rock,
you didn't get paid shit.

You worked seven days a week,
you worked 15 hours a day.

The benefit was, you
were in on the secret.

- I have a picture
from the War Room.

All these people, impossibly
young, impossibly brilliant,

impossibly idealistic,
and James was their guru.

He was their spiritual leader.

And he created a camaraderie

that has now lasted for decades.

- [James] Hey.

- [Person] Hey.

- It's a good spot, suggestion.

- [Person] Sure.

- At the end, have him
say, "Read my lips."

"No, sir, This time we're
reading the record."

- One of the great things about
Carville is he could distill

a message into its essence.

We had that little
sign that said,

""Change vs. More of the Same."

"The Economy, Stupid."

"Don't forget healthcare."

And everybody who worked for
me looked at it every day

and just had it
drilled into them.

(dramatic music)

- You have to know an awful
lot to be able to boil down

an entire presidential
campaign to 14 words.

You have to know history,
you have to know psychology.

You have to know polling,
you have to know voters.

You have to know what
people's lives are like

in that moment.

But, in those words are
the keys to victory.

- Stay focused, talk
about the things

that have mattered to people.

You know?

It's the economy, stupid.

- It's the economy, stupid.

- The economy, stupid.

- I don't know how many times
people have sent me like,

"It's the blank, stupid."

I guarantee you it's a million.

And it's just one of
these things that,

what we call, "Sticky."

- I think there are a
couple of big things.

One is James
Carville's old line.

"It's the economy, stupid."

- It's the economy, stupid.

- Stupid.

- Stupid.
- Stupid.

- It's the economy, stupid.

- Mm.

- We all go by, "It's
the economy, stupid,"

and you wouldn't have that

if you didn't have
James Carville.

- "It's the economy, stupid."

Did you ever hear that one?

"It's the economy."
It is indeed.

- I feel a little
odd sitting up here,

being known as the person
that popularized the word,

"Stupid" in American politics.

I'd like to be remembered

for something a little
more substantial than that.

But what the heck.

(audience laughing)

(dramatic music)

- Good evening,

we're back in the capital
of Arkansas tonight.

We want to show you the scene
as they await the arrival

of their governor, the new
President of the United States.

That is Bill Clinton.

Can I just say,
there's James Carville

right in the middle of it all.

He has this relationship
with Mary Matalin,

who is the Political
Director for President Bush,

he was supposed to be with.

- [Commentator] And he
told me that the one thing

he's really sad about
today is that Mary

is suffering this loss.

- On election night,
I turned on the TV

completely shit faced and
already on my first hangover.

And there he is in this teal
jacket that I bought him,

waving.

♪ Don't stop thinking
about tomorrow ♪

♪ Oh, ah, ah, ah

("Don't Stop")

- We were all in awe of
everything that he had done.

You couldn't have held Nippy
Carville down for anything.

SJ had reached the tantamount.

This was just the most
unbelievable thing in the world.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- And finally, I want to thank
the members of my brilliant,

aggressive, unconventional,

but always winning campaign
staff, they were unbelievable.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

They have earned this.

- When you think of Democrats
and how long it had been

since they'd won a
presidential election,

how fraught this
campaign had been,

we were all caught
up in the moment.

(dramatic music)

I understood that James had
done something extraordinary.

You know, I was kidding
James yesterday,

I said he's about to pass from

the role of regular human being
into the role of a legend.

And I think he
really deserves it.

I also believed,
and still believe

that a lot of people's
lives across the country

would be different
because of this.

More people are gonna
have better jobs.

People are gonna pay a
little less for healthcare,

get better care,

and more kids are gonna
go to better schools.

So, thanks.

(all applauding)

(dramatic music continues)

- I was 33-years-old

before I ever went to
Washington or New York.

I was 42 before I won
my first campaign.

And I'm happy for all of y'all.

(dramatic music continues)

- It taught Democrats
how to win again.

That's what James did.

That's what Bill Clinton
did, taught us how to win.

- And I'll never forget what
y'all have done, thank you.

(all cheering and applauding)

(ducks quacking)

(upbeat music)

(sports announcer
chatting on TV)

- [Announcer] And he's
seven miles an hour

and seven strike outs, 2-2.

(soft music continues)

- [Mary] You guys hungry?

Equal amounts, and there's more.

- Hey honey, I'm gonna
make lunch for everybody.

- [Mary] What are you making?

- French fries.
Special tuna salad.

- You have all the stuff?

- I have all of the stuff, Mom.

- So I'm gonna go
off to the farm.

- Fine, I got everything
on this in place.

(soft music continues)

Oh, yeah.

(potato cutter thumping)

- Would you like me to cut
a few like a normal person?

- [James] No, I got it.

- He says, he's got
it, he's got it.

(soft music continues)

- As a couple, Mary and
James were always public.

And then they turned it
into an incredible business.

- Those of us inside the Beltway
identify the power couples

of Washington by their first
names, Bill and Hillary,

Al and Tipper.

But these days, the toast of
the town are James and Mary.

(dramatic music)

- When James and
Mary got together,

they were able to
parlay it into books,

speaking gigs, appearances.

(audience applauding)

- "All's Fair, Love, War
and Running for President."

- They were a subject
of fascination.

No one could figure
out their relationship,

but everybody loved
the two of them.

- Here you are in the war camp

of the Clinton administration,

in the war camp of the
Bush administration,

and this passion is happening.

(audience laughing)

- It worked because it was real.

They were both true
to themselves, and
true to the marriage,

and true to their
profession at the same time.

That's pretty hard to pull off.

- How you doing?

This Serpent head's my
husband, James Carville.

- Oh!

- Don't call me that.

- [Mary] We would fight
over the funniest insults.

- 22nd most loathsome
thing on Earth, me, 1994.

- What will you say to
people, "Oh, Carville,

there he is exploiting
his celebrity?"

- I'd say, "They're right."

(both laughing)

- There was that crazy
television show they did,

"K Street," where they kind of
became themselves on camera.

- Our first date was.

- January 8th, 1991.

- [James] That's right.

- The public James
and Mary were a show.

(audience applauding)

They made money being a
Democrat and a Republican.

That made people
wonder, "Is it real?"

- One pundit actually had the
temerity, not knowing them,

to write that it
was all a stunt.

- Nobody knows a marriage
except the one that they're in.

Everybody does it differently.

There is no model.

You know, now that we're having

this truth serum conversation,
I really have never liked

having our marriage be the
cause of our celebrity.

I don't like it.

Who gives a shit what I think?

- It was legal, I'm not
breaking any law or anything.

- All right, here's
the consolation,

our choice was to be a real
whore and go be a lobbyist.

And I could not do that.

- Never did.

- In that context, I'm
glad we did what we did.

- And with us now, America's
political odd couple,

James Carville, Mary Matalin,
welcome, happy anniversary.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Second year.

- That's exactly right.
- That's right.

- Together.
- Together.

- Now, let's begin.
- There it is.

(dramatic music)

- "Meet the Press
with Tim Russert,"

that was the forum where
they were together,

they disagreed, but were
sort of agreeable together.

- If you lower taxes
on successful people,

you have to raise taxes
on average people.

- Can I say something?
- That is, don't,

- please, please, honey,
I don't interrupt you.

That is what is behind this

whole thing.
- Well, I don't talk

- as long as you do.
- They want to lower taxes.

- Tim Russert was the
dominant political reporter

in American politics.

He also had a great
sense of what worked.

He knew putting
James and Mary on,

yeah, it was entertainment,

she's a Republican,
he's a Democrat.

But they were smart.

- He is the resident national
expert on lying presidents.

- Tim saw, not the shtick,
he saw the authenticity.

And James and Mary,
love 'em or hate 'em,

they're completely authentic.
- [Mary] Is he down the car?

- [Paul] They were
from somewhere.

They weren't just these
uber polished elites.

- [Reporter] How do
you think he's gonna do

in Iowa and New Hampshire?

- Steal the baby.

Anybody want a baby.
- Oh, no.

- I bought a baby.

We are joined by
two of my favorites,

Emma and Maddie Carville.

- Carville and Matalin were
really sort of cable 1.0,

when you really did try to
find some common ground.

And then, MSNBC started to
rise, Fox started to rise,

and things polarized.

People went to
their echo chambers.

- It's always been a racket,

but there was an honor
and there was civility.

I'm happy that both of us
were able to work when we did

in the Golden Age.

- Won't you be perceived
simply as a political hit man

who went after Ken Starr
and tried to destroy him?

- What happened was, I
was right on Ken Starr

and I'm right about
this right wing money.

- Spend, spend, spend.
- Because we care about...

- I let you ramble, let me
be concise and accurate.

- This is your 10th
wedding anniversary.

Will you make 10 more?
- Here we go.

- You know, this is the
only time we fight, Tim, so.

- Battle of the economists.
- Very pro marriage.

- We'll be right back.

Mary Matalin, you are joining

the Bush Cheney administration.

- [Mary] Not a minute too soon.

- Why are you leaving your
role as private citizen

and joining the federal
government as an advisor

to the President
and Vice President?

- Well, as the President
said yesterday,

"We need to be citizens,
not spectators."

- Your wife, is she
joining the enemy

or serving her country?

- Well, I mean, I
think clearly that she,

and I'm very proud
of her, she thinks

she's serving her country.

She's serving people that she
deeply cares and respects for,

President Bush and
Vice President Chaney.

- When I went into the White
House, quit our nice life

that we'd built with our
kids, were two and five.

He stopped talking to
me for many, many moons.

- No comment tonight
on his wife's new job

from the Democratic
strategist James Carville.

- He didn't want the pay cut

and he didn't want
the emotional energy

that he felt he
deserved, to be diverted.

(pensive music)

I had to force him to come
to my swearing in ceremony.

Stood in the back of
the room like this.

It was just such bullshit.

- She's doing something
that she really believes in.

Maybe I'll do a a little bit
to make her job more difficult,

but I'm sure she's up to it.

- No, I supported him when he

slapped me across the face

by doing Clinton
in the first place.

And that if any
multitasker on Earth

could take care of two kids,
and him, and the house,

and at the time, four
cats and four dogs,

and, I could do it,
and I did do it.

So I resented his lack of
confidence in me to get it done.

You can have it all, you just
can't have it pleasantly.

You're always tired, you're
always the last one in line.

Husbands are second
to the last in line.

The repeat of that
was the Iraq war,

which he was so opposed to.

I have my opinions about that,
which are not worth sharing,

because it's irrelevant.

- Mary Matalin, the
debate over the war,

how do you see it playing
out across the country?

- Well, increasingly,
the Americans understand

the threat that Saddam poses.

They understand the connection

between weapons of mass
destruction and the terrorists.

- All through that Iraq war,
nobody was more passionate

- All through that Iraq war,
nobody was more passionate

about speaking out
against it than James.

Nobody was more passionate than
advocating for it than Mary.

- What do you think is gonna
hurt President Bush more,

the fact that they hadn't found

any weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq,

or the fact that Iraq is
getting more violent by the day

and we've been there forever

and the thing has gone
to hell in a hand basket?

(audience applauding)

Mary worked for Cheney,

and I just detested
the Iraq war.

That caused me

the most discomfort, I think.

I...

- He hated the war so much

and I kept trying to
talk to him about it.

He said, "You know what?"

"You know what?"

"It takes two to tango,
if I stop fighting

I'm not talking about
this ever again."

And we didn't, and we
haven't to this day.

I'm not advising this
for relationships.

- Sometimes, if you gotta
have a fight in a marriage,

at least it wasn't over
the toothpaste cap,

it was over a war.

- We can fight over that too.

- At some point,
everything, you move on.

Then, you know, we
had to stop fighting,

it wasn't gonna change anything.

- [Interviewer] Catholics
are supposed to stay married.

- I never thought about
ending my marriage.

It never crossed my mind.

- Divorce happens, I get it.

We were not going to
divorce each other.

We could torture each other
in perpetuity in there.

We came perilously close, but
we were not getting divorced.

And at some point
it became like,

"I don't care how
much you piss me off,

I am not leaving you, and
you're not leaving me."

And it became like

a competition of who could
outlive the other guy.

- [Julie] I'm Julie Mason.

Delighted to welcome
back to the show

Congressman Brendan Boyle.

He's a Democrat of Pennsylvania,

representing the state's
second congressional district.

- [Brendan] Great
to be back with you.

- [Announcer] "The Julie
Mason Show," 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

- One of the things in my
later life that has defined me,

is I've spoken up against
extreme identity politics.

I saw this woke silliness
was just a disaster.

I said, "Defund the police,
three stupidest words

in the history of the
English language."

(dramatic music)

This defund the police lunacy,

this, "Take Abraham Lincoln's
name off of schools,"

I mean, people see that, some
of these people need to go

to a woke detox
center or something.

(dramatic music continues)

There's just this preachy
aspect of progressive politics

that people find
enormously off putting.

No one wants to call people
Latinx or any of that nonsense.

My greatest is
cultural appropriation.

So, if you come to New Orleans
and you have a sweatshirt

that says, "I got bourbon
faced on Shit Street,"

am I gonna say, "Oh my God,
you appropriated my culture,

how dare you say that?"

(audience laughing)

- James is not a
cultural warrior.

He wants to find the thread

that will impact
the most people,

and therefore, move
the most voters.

- He is the voice pushing
the Democratic party

to remember the whole country.

- If we keep this kinda
NPR identity left politics,

we're going to lose.

- He is singling out
a very narrow lane

within Democratic politics,

and it's not their beliefs
that he is so upset about,

it's the fact that if
they don't get their way,

they'll just stay home.

- These are ideas from the left

that are prevalent now
in the Democratic party,

and yet, you're speaking
kind of negatively again

about the left.

- Because it has
become symbolically
to be interested more

in changing dictionaries
than changing lives.

(dramatic music continues)

- [Bill] How are you?

- [James] I'm good. Yourself?

- You know, it's an
interesting time to be alive.

- God, is it.

About 10 or 11% of Democrats
describe themselves as,

"Progressive liberal,"
whatever that means.

- Is that right?

- Yes. This is
survey after survey.

And these people are

annoying, silly, and most people

don't even know what
they're talking about.

- I know.

- The original word, "Woke"
was to know that Black people

need to be woke in their
interactions with the police.

What happened was overeducated
coastal white people

got a hold to the word.

And as they do everything else,

they completely fucked it up.

- I agree.

- And pissed everybody
in the country off.

- Now you're
speaking my language.

- And if we just could get

the humanities faculty at
Amherst to shut the fuck up,

we'd be a lot better off.

(dramatic music)

These groups, they're nice
people, don't get me wrong,

but they don't
understand politics,

human motivation,
organization, picking a fight,

winning the fight,
moving to the next fight.

That's what's important.

- I'm gonna leave you
with another superb quote

from the great James Carville,

"Screw the argument,
win the election."

James Carville.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- About 1/3 of my
life is spent packing.

I usually go to Costco and
just buy underwear, and socks,

and T-shirts, and
just throw 'em away.

It's significantly cheaper
than hotel laundry.

I used to do 150
appearances a year.

I really can't do that anymore.

Here we go. Hope
we got everything.

(James laughing)

I'm gonna be right
in front, okay?

- [Reporter] Longtime Democratic
strategist, James Carville

with some choice words
about his fellow Democrats.

- Joe Biden is bleeding
Black male voters.

"A suspicion of
mine," quoting here,

"is that there are too
many preachy females

dominating the
culture of his party."

- I've always thought that
good speech uses visuals.

If I say that message
is getting out,

"There's too many
preachy females."

Then everybody knows
what I'm saying.

Democratic messaging
is too feminine.

Don't eat hamburgers,
don't watch football,

don't drink beer.

- What James Carville
basically is saying is,

the Democrats got
too out of touch,

lost connection with
working class voters.

- It's a classic Carville.

- Classic Carville.

- Carville added,

"These women are like, "Global
warming is real, James,

you gotta eat your peas."

"Don't preach to me woman,
I'm a spoonin■ with my gator."

(audience cheering
and applauding)

- I don't think we're gonna
get any closer than this.

We'll just walk from here.

Jesus Christ.

(dramatic music)

I gotta get to 30 Rock
to do a television hit.

- You trying to get to MS?

- Yes, ma'am.

- You want me to walk you over?

- I would love if
you walked me over.

- Come on.

- Thank you, ma'am.

- [Producer] I'm a producer
at WNBC, I'm from New Orleans.

- [James] Oh, okay.

(sirens blaring)

- [Crowd] Genocide
Joe has got to go!

Genocide Joe has got to go!

Genocide Joe has got to go!

- [James] You saved my life.

- [Crowd] USA, hey, how many
kids did you kill today?

- [Ari] James Carville
is our special guest

on a big political night.

The Biden campaign just
released this photo.

Biden is, of course, leaning
on the Democratic predecessors.

- [James] Good to see ya.
- [Ari] Good to see you.

- It's an exciting time
to be in Manhattan.

- Yeah, it's bad out the street.

What does it mean to
have these three together

for the Democratic Party?

- It's historic and I think
the party is starting to gel,

to come together, but
we're not gonna replicate

the 2020 Coalition.

Most people think we're
going to lose Hispanic males.

- You've upset a lotta people,

at least with the
way you put it.

I didn't tell you I
was gonna ask this,

it's almost like you knew.

Here's the quote, recent
to the New York Times,

"The suspicion of mine,
James Carville," quote,

"is there's too many,"
quote, "preachy females."

- Sometimes I go out on a limb
and say provocative things,

but what I was trying to do
is bring attention to the fact

that we're losing males.

And you know what? I succeeded.

(pensive music)

Woo. It's a blue wall.

("Oh When The Saints
Go Marching In")

♪ Oh, when the saints
go marching in ♪

- Hi, thank you, all right.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

♪ Oh, how I want to
be in that number ♪

♪ Oh, when the saints
go, go marching in ♪

("Oh When The Saints
Go Marching In")

- Can I get you today?

- I want a half a
cup of black, please.

- Your VIP mug.

- There you go.

The most attractive
thing about living here,

most places kinda
discard the elderly,

and here, the elderly
are treated with respect.

And that is not common.

I just don't wanna grow
old among strangers.

That's just, that's why
I wanted to come here.

This is a sign of an
advanced civilization.

A a donut is the
sign of a fat cop.

This traffic is just gruesome.

I've never seen this kind of
traffic over Tchoupitoulas.

- [Mary] Well, I spent the day

with your beautiful
model daughter.

She's kicking it at the farm.

And Emerson has a date
tonight with a Republican.

- Oh, wow.
- Sadly,

- [Mary] I didn't want her
to get involved in politics

at all.
- What difference

does it make?

Just have fun.

- [Mary] Because Republican
men are micro penises.

I can't deal with 'em.

- Don't, don't, okay, come on.

But, have fun honey.

- [Child] Love you, dad.

- I love y'all. Okay.

- [Mary] I meant
that emotionally.

- I know that. I
know that, honey.

I know that.

- [Mary] Did you get
to get non-sequitur?

- I did. Okay.

- Love you.
- Love you. Bye-bye.

- She's embarrassed. Bye.

(dramatic music)

There was a romantic
sentiment about us, initially.

Then it turned into today we
are some sort of prescription

for bipartisan civility.

Like, we do not have
bipartisan civility.

We have marital civility, we
have bipartisan cacophony.

- We've been married 32 years.

People can infer what they
want or don't want from it.

It's all how central are
your politics to you?

There are tens of millions of
people in the United States

that don't even know
anybody from another party.

- It never occurred to me
that your love interest

and politics would be a
determinant in a relationship.

But a majority of people
don't wanna date somebody

from the other party.

So a majority of people just
want to think like they think

and be validated 24/7.

Well, I think that's sorrowful.

I don't have to agree with
him, but he makes me think.

There is not a day that goes by

that I don't hear
something new from him.

Or laugh at some weird thing
that he thinks is funny.

- Look, be curious.

- He's just lives in his
own world, and I love that.

He's just a wonder.

He's like a wonder of nature.

But, so is a hurricane.

So sometimes you just have
to batten up the hatches,

and get a stiff martini,

and let the hurricane pass by.

- [Jake] Let's turn now to
the issue of immigration

and border security.

- What I've done since
I've changed the law,

you're in a situation where
there are 40% fewer people

coming across the
border illegally.

It's better than
when he left office.

And I'm gonna continue to move
until we get the total ban on

the total initiative relative
to what we're gonna do

with more border patrol
and more asylum officers.

- [Jake] President Trump.

- I really don't know

what he said at the
end of that sentence.

I don't think he knows
what he said either.

(dramatic music)

- [Reporter] Before you
even get into the mumbling,

and fumbling, and
missteps, and stumbling,

the optics alone
are so devastating.

- Dealing with everything
we have to do with,

look,

if we finally beat Medicare.

- He is too weak.

He is too frail. He
is a cognitive mess.

- [Rachel] What was
your personal take

on what you saw tonight
and what are you hearing

from the people you've
been speaking with?

- It's kind of a
DEFCON 1 moment.

- There is a deep, a wide,

and a very aggressive panic
in the Democratic party.

- He had a test to meet
tonight to restore confidence

of the country and of the
base, and he failed to do that.

(dramatic music)

- Whatever you read,
it was 50 times worse.

- Three minutes after it
started, I said, "Fuck this."

I took two gummies and
listened to country music.

- James, you were
right four years ago

and you're right
again this time.

- Who coulda seen
this coming? Oh wait.

- Right.

I do know this, the worst
thing that could happen

to you in politics, is you
confirm an existing suspicion.

And what happened last night is,

people suspected that he
was too old for the job,

and they walked away saying,

"Well yeah, he is
too old for the job."

I think it's that simple.

- So, it's been obvious
for months, years,

Biden's too old,
what has worked?

Nothing.

Nothing.

- I tried, man, I tried.

(soft music)

- [Ezra] I don't
think that most people

who watched Joe Biden
will say to themselves,

"I want this guy as
president in three years."

Voters have been telling
Democrats at the polls

basically the whole time Joe
Biden has been president,

Democrats, or at least Joe
Biden, have not been listening.

And now they're gonna have
to decide whether or not

they're going to listen.

- We're on track to lose an
election to a major criminal

who is going to destroy
the Western alliance,

the Constitution, and
everything in between.

So we oughta act like it.

We're up against the wall.

The Democratic Party is,

the United States of
America's up against the wall.

The country is
clamoring for change.

- [Ari] James Carville, who has
urged Biden not to run again

told "The Times,"

"You know how bad the upcoming
DNC in Chicago's gonna be?"

"We are going to sit
Shiva for four days."

A reference to a
Jewish grief ritual.

- Yeah, I mean, I would defer
to Rabbi Carville on that.

- When I was young I saw the
Democrats as a party of hope.

"I have a dream."

"Keep hope alive."

"The Man From Hope,"
the Hope poster.

We hope and we want other
people to have hope,

that's why we do what we do.

And, we're now the party,
frankly, we're at a crossroads.

What did Michael Corleone say,

"How do you get
outta this business?"

For 30 years I've
been out pontificating

and strategizing in public.

Maybe people will say,

"We've had enough of James
Carville, thank you."

"We need some new
blood out there."

(audience cheering
and applauding)

And I'd say, "Understand that."

"I probably had
enough of myself."

- It's just so nonsensical,
politics today.

I feel bad that my heart no
longer belongs to politics.

His vehicle for policy
is still open to him.

But, as he well knows, the
problems and the solutions

are bigger than a guy.

- The responsibility of
governing requires you

actually to have
the power to govern.

And you can't have the power
to govern if you do not win.

So in that sense,
winning is everything.

And James is in the business
of winning elections

without losing your soul.

- To bring about change, or,
to have a more just society,

far and away, the best
way to accomplish that

is through political power.

But without political power,

you're not gonna
get your shit done.

- Are you ready to get to work?

(audience cheering)

And when we fight.

- [All] We win!

- God bless you, God bless
the United States of America.

(audience cheering
and applauding)

I'ma head out.

- Okay.

- [James] You ready? Go culture!

- [Allie] Bye James.

- Bye-bye. Thank you.

Dammit, this country
is worth fighting for.

The principle of the
generational promise

is worth fulfilling.

And I am not gonna
let anybody say

at a time that our
basic institutions,
our basic philosophy,

our sense of decency and our
sense of national purpose

is under attack

that I sat by and did
nothing more than pull a lever.

That's your choice.

(dramatic music)

I think I know what
you're gonna do.

I know that you people
and people like you

around this country want
to not just fight back,

but you want to
fight for something.

You want to fight
for this nation.

You want to fight
for its people.

You want to fight
for its children.

And most importantly, you
want to fight for its future.

We have big battles coming up.

I'm gonna count
on you. Thank you.

(audience applauding)

(dramatic music continues)

If there was ever a time
when winning was everything...

It was this time.

You're right.

The only thing that we can do

is we have to be all part
of the opposition.

And we have to oppose,
oppose, oppose.

Well, I didn't want to be
in the opposition with you,

but I'm happy to be
in the opposition with you.

We have no choice.

We have no choice.

We'll see you all soon. Peace.

You got to let
it up, You gotta let up a...