Veteran Democrat strategist James Carville was hit by a red-hot Donald Trump attack — and he hit back with better than he got.
The famed campaign mastermind schooled Trump with a basic history lesson — then challenged him to a face-to-face debate.
His putdown followed a bizarrely angry broadside from the president Tuesday.
"Wacko James Carville, a so-called Democrat 'strategist,' wants the Democrats to make D.C. and Puerto Rico States and, most importantly, pack the Supreme Court, putting 13 Justices on the Court," Trump wrote about the 81-year-old Democrat who is an outspoken critic of his administration.
"If they pull off adding these two States, these Country Destroying Sleazebags will dominate politics in America, if we even have a Nation left, for 100 years (TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!)."
Carville responded on his Politicon podcast Wednesday, telling co-host Al Hunt he would debate Trump anytime. The Democratic strategist, known for previous inflammatory rhetoric about the president, described himself as a "rabbi" whose role is educational.
"My job is to teach people," Carville stated, before defending his proposals for D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood and Supreme Court expansion—ideas that had apparently triggered Trump's tirade.
"How many people in this country know that in the last nine presidential elections, the Democrats have won seven in the popular vote? Not very many people," he noted, highlighting Senate representation disparities where California and Texas possess equal senatorial power as states with fractional populations.
The strategist then addressed judicial ethics controversies. He referenced Justice Samuel Alito's luxury fishing vacation with a billionaire maintaining Supreme Court cases, and Justice Neil Gorsuch's $1.8 million property sale to a law firm executive shortly after confirmation.
"People don't understand what's happening to this country," Carville said. "And this proposal, I think, if it does nothing else, is going to have a great educational purpose."
Notably, Trump himself criticized conservative justices seeking independence. "The Democrat Justices stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and the ideology that got them there," Trump wrote. "Frankly, I respect that, a lot! Certain Republican Appointees let the Democrats push them around, always wanting to be popular, politically correct, or even worse, wanting to show how 'independent' they are, with very little loyalty to the man who appointed them."
Supreme Court justices are constitutionally intended to function as independent, impartial constitutional interpreters, uninfluenced by political considerations or personal interests.
