Veteran Democrat James Carville blasts anti-ICE rhetoric, says the left is ‘universally wrong’

WASHINGTON, DC: Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville issued a blunt warning to his own party during a recent podcast appearance.

He argued that slogans like “abolish ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]” and poorly handled culture-war messaging are doing Democrats more harm than good.

Speaking on a Thursday, January 15, episode of ‘Politics War Room’, Carville said the party risks losing public trust by leaning into rhetoric that most Americans simply do not agree with.

During the discussion, Carville reacted to growing progressive calls to dismantle ICE, stressing that such messaging is politically toxic and disconnected from voter realities.

James Carville pushes for reforming ICE

The conversation was sparked by Carville’s co-host, journalist Al Hunt, who made his own position clear early on.

“I don’t want any Democrats out there talking about abolishing ICE,” Hunt said. “You talk about reforming ICE. You talk about making ICE work.”

Carville did not mince words in his response. “Defund the police are the three stupidest words in the history of the English language,” he said.

Then, expanding his criticism to the broader progressive movement, he simply stated, “The left is universally wrong about everything.”

According to Carville, most Americans support the idea of border enforcement and immigration control, even if they disagree with how those systems currently operate.

He warned Democrats not to confuse calls for reform with demands for abolition.

James Carville highlights lax hiring metrics, inadequate training 

While Carville acknowledged serious problems within ICE, he argued that eliminating the agency altogether is not the solution.

He described recent actions by ICE as “horrible” and highlighted the disparity in training standards between federal agencies.

“There’s a difference between becoming an FBI agent and becoming an ICE agent,” Carville noted, suggesting that insufficient training contributes to misconduct.

At the same time, he pushed back against blanket condemnations of the agency, saying, “Some of these ICE agents are dedicated law enforcement professionals… although, I suspect it might be a smaller percent than you imagine.”

Carville then offered one of his most biting critiques of the current system, arguing that lax hiring standards pose a real danger.

“A lot of them are just a pack of people that couldn’t get a job anywhere else that figured they got a chance with not very much training to carry a badge and a gun and shoot people,” he said.

Despite the harsh assessment, Carville remained firm that ICE itself is necessary. “That’s the real danger. The danger is not that we have Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We need that,” he stressed. 

James Carville says Democrats didn’t get their messaging right on trans issue

Carville also turned his attention to what he sees as bigger messaging failures within the Democratic Party, particularly on cultural and social issues.

He pointed to the ongoing legal battles over transgender athletes as another example of Democrats losing control of the narrative.

“I think that the Supreme Court is probably going to rule on this trans athlete issue,” Carville said, referring to the likelihood that the Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.

His comments come after oral arguments were heard earlier this week in Little v Hecox and West Virginia v BPJ, two cases involving state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that restrict transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.

Carville argued that Democrats failed to clearly communicate their position on the issue, with unintended consequences. “We didn’t get our messaging right on this whole thing,” he said. “Because of this flubbing it, we’ve actually done more harm to trans people than we would have wanted to.”