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Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville told Fox News Digital on Thursday that there is only one unlikely scenario where he would actually join the Republican Party.
Posed with a hypothetical where Republicans had the policies of former President Bill Clinton from the 1990s and the Democratic Party fully embraced socialism, Carville said, “That’s a fantasy, OK, but yeah, hypothetically, if I — hypothetically I could fly to the moon — it’s about the same chance that that happens.”
“Well, if the Democrats went crazy and the Republicans went sane, then I probably would be a Republican,” he added. “But I don’t see any evidence that there’s any possibility that the latter could happen.”
“I think it’s more likely than not that the Democrats embrace sanity,” Carville continued, saying the party’s direction will be determined by Democratic primary voters.
James Carville said only if “Democrats went crazy and the Republicans went sane” would he consider becoming a Republican. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Politicon)
In recent months, there has been a rising faction of far-left Democratic candidates in multiple states, to the point where Carville has suggested there be a schism to keep them out of power.
Hasan Piker, a self-described socialist streamer who campaigned with Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, has emerged as a leading voice on the left as democratic socialists gain ground in elections across the country.
Piker is known for far-left rhetoric, including previously saying “America deserved 9/11.” After widespread criticism, Piker later said in an interview that he “obviously” did not mean America deserved the attacks and defended the viral quote as a critique of U.S. foreign policy.
“I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker,” Carville said recentl on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.” “If he becomes a force in a Democratic Party, I’m out of here. I have no intention of ever being in the same political party with that guy.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital on Thursday, Carville addressed what would happen if the socialist faction took over the Democratic Party.
“That probably would result in some kind of schism in the party,” he reiterated. “I’m going to let Democratic voters determine the direction that party goes in, and if it goes in the direction — which I’m pretty confident it won’t — but if it goes in that direction, then I’m going to be 82, OK, fine, go ahead, but not with me.”
“Until Democratic voters choose the direction of the party, I’ll try to do all I can to help them make the right choice, in my opinion,” Carville added.
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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has been scrutinized for his far-left rhetoric. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Carville’s threat to leave the Democratic Party has been mocked by its progressive wing.
“Now James Carville is talking about leaving the party,” Piker said during a recent video appearance with El-Sayed. “We got [Pennsylvania Sen.] John Fetterman, James Carville fantasizing about leaving the party. I’m like, you’re sweetening the deal. That was really interesting.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has also stood by Piker after Carville’s warning.
“Well, that’s not much of a choice,” Sanders said of choosing between Piker and Carville. “If Mr. Carville doesn’t want to be in my party, the party that I belong to, that Piker, that El-Sayed belongs to, he can start his own party.”
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Sen. Bernie Sanders rejected James Carville’s threat to leave the Democratic Party over far-left streamer Hasan Piker’s growing influence in the party. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SCAD)
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Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick, Hanna Panreck, and Nora Moriarty contributed to this report.