James Carville lambasted CNN during a Friday appearance on the network for deciding not to air President Donald Trump’s Thursday night speech live, telling “The Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer that this would have shown viewers just how “crazy” Trump actually is.
The longtime Democratic strategist was asked how he would advise members of his party to respond to Trump’s speech to effectively “rebut the work of his administration” ahead of the midterm elections.
“I would advise them to attack CNN, attack ABC, attack NBC, attack MS NOW, because they didn’t air the speech,” Carville told Blitzer. “And I think the president of the United States acting loonier than a tune is newsworthy.
“I don’t think we should have hidden that from the American people,” he continued. “I think it should have been blanket coverage of it. He’s literally off his rocker, and there’s no other way to describe this.”
CNN, ABC and NBC reportedly chose not to air Trump’s address live, while Fox News, MS NOW, CBS and various ABC affiliates aired all or some of it. Trump accused ABC and NBC during his speech of being “part of a plot” — and said their licenses should be revoked.
Trump centered his speech on supposed interference in the 2020 election, rehashing debunked conspiracy theories that it was rigged in favor of former President Joe Biden. He also claimed newly declassified documents showed interference from China.
“So you think we should have given him more publicity?” Blitzer asked Carville.
“I’m absolutely saying that,” Carville replied. “I think the decision not to air that speech by CNN and other networks is not being what’s really newsworthy and that this guy’s — he’s gone. He was advised by his own staff in a story that I read.
“It was in Daily Beast and Politico, that [reported staffers told Trump], ‘Don’t be crazy.’ When you got to advise the president of the United States not to be crazy — of course, he didn’t take their advice, for sure — but this is very newsworthy, I think,” he continued.
Blitzer noted that “a lot of the newsy excerpts” from Trump’s address to the nation were discussed later on during various broadcasts and had “full analysis and fact-checking going on.”
While critics rejected Trump’s speech as a desperate attempt to rewrite his 2020 election story, Carville said some viewers might believe CNN and other networks unfairly edited the clips they discussed — a “mistake” he says could have been avoided.
“I think the mistake was made by the networks to not show it in its entirety so people could see him in full and understand just how far this man has gone down the road to insanity,” Carville told Blitzer. “I would say it was nothing normal about that.
“And you can do it with clips and you can get people on, but there’s nothing like people sitting there watching the whole thing to tell them what’s really going on,” he continued.