Veteran political strategist James Carville turned a boast by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) about Congress into a punchline by simply agreeing with him.
On the latest episode of "Politics War Room," Carville and co-host Al Hunt zeroed in on Johnson's claim that the current Congress was the most productive since Harry Truman's in 1948, a comparison that collapsed the moment anyone checked the history. Carville and Hunt were sizing up Republican vulnerabilities heading into the midterms, with President Donald Trump's approval sitting at 36 percent.
"Speaker Johnson's expertise does not extend to history," Hunt said. "That was the do-nothing Congress."
Rather than correct Johnson, Carville let him have the comparison and everything that came with it.
"Mike Johnson, I think you may be right," Carville said. "I think the parallels are very much there."
From there, the veteran Democratic strategist walked through exactly how thin the record was and landed on a single piece of legislation Republicans themselves won't campaign on.
"The only thing you really passed that was big was the Big Beautiful Bill, which most Republicans are running away from," Carville said.
Carville then dared Johnson and his candidates to keep bringing it up and framed the current Congress as marginally less toxic than the president at the top of the ticket.
"Talk about this Congress a lot, Speaker Johnson, candidates out there, it may not be as bad as talking about Trump at 36 percent," Carville said. "But it ain't going to be very good."
Carville, who's from Louisiana like Johnson, went from mockery to pity. He said he had no use for the speaker but that his feelings had shifted as Johnson's standing eroded inside his own party.
"I used to detest Mike Johnson," Carville said. "I now actually, and I really genuinely mean it, feel sorry for him. He is so in over his head. He's been so manipulated. He's been so beat up. He's been so exploited and hadn't even known it."