James Carville took to Fox News on Thursday where he pushed back against host Sean Hannity in a debate on cost-cutting efforts under President Donald Trump.
Hannity, in a live interview with the longtime Democratic strategist, declared that he was scrolling through “all the waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government as an on-screen graphic touted “accomplishments” by the Trump administration’s nonofficial Department of Government Efficiency.
Carville then swerved away from the host’s question to call out a separate graphic on “questionable spending” at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has a budget of about $40 billion compared to the $6.8 trillion federal budget.
“I did the math, Sean, it actually comes to something like .014%,” Carville said.
He continued, “So take the $41 billion, put it against the $6 trillion and see what you’ve done when your president is responsible for more federal debt than any president in the history of the United States.”
The national debt — under Trump’s first term in office — grew by $7.8 trillion, the largest four-year increase in history, The Washington Post found last year.
Earlier in the interview, Hannity declared that the Democratic Party is for “tens of billions spent abroad for a Green New Deal, DEI woke agenda and transgenderism” as he asked Carville what happened since President Bill Clintonbalanced the budget during his White House stint.
“Well, we got to get that $100 million for condoms for Hamas,” said Carville, who mocked the president’s debunked claim.
Hannity, toward the end of the interview, claimed that Trump made America “energy independent” for the first time in 75 years, adding that Democrats have been “fighting against that” with electric vehicle mandates.
“I think you need a new playbook, I really do,” Hannity said.
“I’m not too worried about the high school track meet,” replied Carville, referring to Hannity’s earlier remarks on transgender athletes in sports.
“But I am worried about people having affordable healthcare and that’s the difference between our two parties.”
