Democratic strategist James Carville pushed back against Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany Saturday after being pressed on his belief that the next Democratic president should pack the Supreme Court and grant statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
“Expand [the Supreme Court from 9] to 13 and get some balance on the court,” Carville said, appearing on Fox News’ “Saturday in America.”
“The Republicans won the popular vote I think two out of the last eight elections, and they have two-thirds of the Supreme Court justices, and that's absurd, it's a distortion. The Supreme Court does not serve the law, it serves the interests of the Republican Party and corporate America. Everybody knows that and I think it would be a good idea to return some balance.”
McEnany immediately moved to pour cold water on Carville’s suggestion, arguing that Congress would never reach a large enough consensus to permit the addition of more judges on the Supreme Court. The only way to do so, she said, would be to eliminate the filibuster, a Senate procedure that in essence requires measures to receive at least 60 votes in order to pass.
“Are you going to eliminate the filibuster?” McEnany asked.
“Yes,” Carville responded bluntly, arguing that doing so was necessary when “the country is facing a national emergency.”
“Isn't that just for political reasons?” McEnany fired back.
“Why does the Senate do anything other than [for] political reasons? Of course it's for political reasons, everything they do is political!” Carville said, laughing.
“It’s like when somebody said they're attacking President Trump on Epstein because they're trying to hurt him – well of course they're trying to hurt him! Just like when you would attack President Biden on Hunter Biden, you were trying to hurt him, that's part of politics! You've been around too long and you've been too effective at your job to know that what both of us do is about politics.”
McEnany said she appreciated Carville for “admitting [his] naked political ambitions,” to which Carville bluntly responded: “I’m a nakedly political guy.”
