Veteran politico James Carville says he feels bad for a soon-to-be-demoted Mike Johnson.
Carville, 81, told former CNN anchor Jim Acosta on The Jim Acosta Show podcast that he sees President Donald Trump’s loyal House Speaker as a “tragic figure” of the second Trump administration, who will likely be out of a job come November.
While discussing Trump’s absurd “I don’t care about Americans’ financial situation” comment from Tuesday, Acosta brought up the Louisiana congressman’s excuse for the president’s candid apathy.
“I don’t know the context in which he made that comment,” Johnson, 54, said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “But I can tell you the president thinks about Americans’ financial situations. I talk to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day, and we talk about it constantly.”
“Yeah, James, that’s about the same as I didn’t read the tweet,” Acosta, 55, said on the Wednesday episode about Johnson’s defense of the 79-year-old president.
“I don’t much care for Mike Johnson,” Carville, a Louisiana native, said. “We’re both from the same state, different parts. Our politics are really different.”
“At some point, I feel sorry for the guy. He’s in over his head,” the “Ragin’ Cajun” continued. “He knows he’s going to be out in November. He’s trying to just cobble together something and just keep himself from being humiliated in public, and he’s not going to be able to stop it.”
“He’s kind of a tragic figure in all of this. I really believe that,” he added. “I’ve attacked him on numerous times before, but I don’t think it’s what he would say, the Christian thing to do here. I think we should give him a nice burial, because he’s dead.”
Johnson’s office did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Carville’s remarks.
The Democratic strategist also ripped into Trump’s statement during Wednesday’s Politicon podcast, saying that he thinks the president really means what he said.
“You know what? He might be telling the truth,” Carville told co-host Al Hunt. “Because I think there’s only one thing that he’s thinking about in his trip to China: and that is a big grift.”
The Louisianan went on to say that Trump cares about no one but himself, not even his Republican colleagues nor his own American constituents.
“As long as he can go there and make as much money as fast as he can make it, that’s all that he cares about,” he said. “You’re going to watch a grift and graft over there like you can’t imagine. That’s all this trip is about.”
