Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said during a recent interview that the Republican tax and spending bill, which President Trump is expected to sign Friday, will be seen as a “mass extinction event,” predicting the Democratic Party will pick up more than 40 House seats in the 2026 midterms.
“And I like with the unified party — every Democrat voted against this. Every Democrat, regardless of the ideology, their ethnicity … we can all rally around this, and we can run on this single issue all the way to 2026. And Paul is right, we‘re going to pick up more than 40 House seats,” Carville, the former strategist for former President Clinton’s campaign, said during a Thursday appearance on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“I can tell you what the poll says today: The Democrat in New Jersey is up 20 points. That‘s in a state that we won by 2 1/2 or 2 [points] in 2021. I mean, you know, political anthropologists are going to look back at this, and it‘s going to be called a mass extinction event because there are a lot of them are going to be extinct,” Carville told host Anderson Cooper.
The House GOP passed President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” Thursday, sending it to the president who is expected to sign it Friday evening. The package, which was adopted by a 218-214 vote, contains the president’s major spending priorities, extending the 2017 tax cuts and also cuts to Medicaid, which some Republican members of both chambers have expressed concerns about.
All but two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) — voted for the package Thursday. All Democrats voted against the bill.
Trump hammered Democrats late Thursday during his rally in Des Moines, Iowa, saying he hates them for not supporting the massive package and that Republicans will be able to benefit from those votes politically when midterm elections come around.
“All of the things we did with the tax cuts and rebuilding our military, not one Democrat voted for us. And I think we use it in the campaign that’s coming up, the midterms,” Trump told the crowd.
“But all of the things that we’ve given, and they wouldn’t vote. Only because they hate Trump. But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them,” the president added. “I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”
Carville said Thursday that “when people go to the polls voting for this, I promise you, I promise you, this thing is really — it‘s like 25, 26 points underwater already.”
“And we haven‘t even started our education program,” the longtime operative added.
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