Political strategist James Carville has gone viral on social media after cursing young voters over their perceived lack of enthusiasm for incumbent President Joe Biden.
"There will be no government left, there will be no rights left, you will live under theocracy, you'll end up with Christian Nationalism [if Donald Trump wins]," Carville said during a 12-minute video posted to the Politicon YouTube channel. "But that's all right you little [expletive] 26-year-old, you don't feel like the election is important."
On Monday morning, the excerpt about young voters was posted on X, formerly Twitter, and criticized by a host of conservative social media accounts.
Eric Abbenante, a conservative comedian, filmmaker and documentarian, posted a clip of the video to his X account Sunday night. By 1 p.m. Monday, the video had been viewed more than 330,000 times.
"Excellent outreach to young voters James. The kids love nothing more than being scolded by a lizard person," Abbenante wrote.
Newsweek reached out to Carville, along with the Trump and Biden campaigns, Monday morning via email for further comment.
In an email response to Newsweek, a Biden communications spokesperson provided information on the campaign's youth engagement program, which includes digital ads, along with outreach efforts on college campuses.
Biden faces concerns among young voters, a crucial voting bloc for Democrats, ahead of the presidential election, according to a March poll that found former President Donald Trump winning voters younger than 30 years old.
In the YouTube video, the Louisiana Democrat also takes aim at the conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to emphasizing the importance of voting, he also highlights a recent Harvard Youth Poll, which shows that younger Americans are far more likely to prioritize bread-and-butter economic issues over causes like climate change and the Israel-Gaza conflict this election year.
Carville said issues like abortion, interest rates and housing affordability are often overlooked by the media and by Democratic officials.
"You are being insufficiently served by the commentariat and to some extent insufficiently served by Democratic messaging," he continued. "So my advice to these young people, is to get off your [expletives] and go vote. You should vote like the entire future of the United States depends on it. Because it does. And that's not an exaggeration."
Political commentator Brian Krassenstein took aim at Carville's approach in a post on X.
"Ok, so, I despise Trump. I think he would be a disaster for this country, but this is too extreme. Trump was already president and the institutions held. We didn't slip into a theocracy, we didn't lose all our rights, and the government is still here.
"I feel we should be concentrating more on policy proposals than outright scaremongering. Talk about Project 2025, and what that would mean and why that would be bad. Don't sound like a lunatic melting down. That doesn't serve a purpose other than make people think that everyone on the left is a lunatic."
Carville is known for helping former President Bill Clinton's victory in the 1992 presidential election over incumbent George H.W. Bush and Independent challenger Ross Perot.
His YouTube video posted Sunday has over 36,000 views. The Politicon channel has 154,000 subscribers. Carville also co-hosts a podcast, Politics War Room.
Update 4/29/24, 1:41 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Gabe Whisnant is Deputy Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in South Carolina. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2023, he directed ... Read more
