James Carville calls out CNN, New York Times for not reporting enough good news about the economy

On Anderson Cooper 360 Monday, democratic strategist James Carville was there to break down the very tight gubernatorial race in Virginia ahead of Tuesday’s election, and he ended up criticizing CNN during the conversation.

Stress has been building for democrats in Virginia considering that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by ten points there in last November’s election. But Carville, who has been raising concerns about the democratic party being too far left for some time, said the difference right now has more to do with language and less with ideology. And he said there is plenty of blame to go around.

“I think the White House communications have been bad,” Carville said. “I'm very critical of people like myself that have access to shows like you, that I haven't framed this work well. And I blame CNN and The New York Times and everybody else.”

Carville said the bottom line is that the economy is actually really good for workers right now. And it’s time for shows like Cooper’s on CNN to start pointing that stuff out.

“All we talk about is presidential approval and inflation. We don't talk about wage growth. We don't talk about the power that workers have now,” Carville said. “And I'm not a typical media basher but there is a lot of good news in this economy and we're not getting it out. We got to do a better job I think.”

Video transcript

- James, I mean, you've been raising concerns about the Democratic Party being too far left now for quite some time, getting some heat for doing that. Do you see that impacting this race? I mean, is that part of the problem here?

KYLIE MAR: Democratic strategist James Carville was on Anderson Cooper 360 Monday. To break down the very tight gubernatorial race in Virginia ahead of Tuesday's election. Concern has been growing because it shouldn't be that close after Joe Biden beats Donald Trump by 10 points there last November. But Carville said the difference now has more to do with language and less with ideology, and he said, there's plenty of blame to go around.

- I think the White House communication has been bad. I'm very critical of people like myself that have access to shows like you that I haven't framed this work well, and I blame CNN and the New York Times and everybody else.

KYLIE MAR: And Carville, who suggested that the current stalemate on Capitol Hill over President Biden's agenda is also hurting things in Virginia, said the bottom line is that the economy is really good for workers right now, and it's time for shows like Anderson's to start pointing that stuff out.

- All we talk about is presidential approval inflation. We don't talk about wage growth, we don't talk about the power that workers have now, and I'm not a typical media basher, but there's a lot of good news in this economy, and we're not getting it out. We've got to do a better job, I think.