Democratic strategist James Carville has a sneaking suspicion that his former colleague is behind President-elect Donald Trump's most audacious nominations.
Carville appeared on MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber Tuesday night.
He said he believed an 'old friend' is responsible for Trump picking former Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary and - most importantly - Kash Patel to be FBI director.
'One person is driving this, I promise you, and it’s Tucker Carlson,' Carville said.
Carville and Carlson sparred on CNN's Crossfire in the early 2000s, with Carville arguing political points from the left and Carlson from the right.
Carlson went on to work for MSNBC and then Fox News, where he dominated primetime until the conservative-leaning network let him go in 2023.
Since then Carlson's become a prominent figure at Trump's side.
Democratic strategist James Carville floated that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is behind some of President-elect Donald Trump's most audacious nominations
Tucker Carlson has become a prominent figure at Trump's side. He's pictured on November 14 at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago
'Look I think they pick a lot of these people just to irritate people like us,' Carville told the MSNBC host. 'The more angst they cause Rachel Maddow, the more likely they are to pick that person,' the Democratic strategist said, name-dropping Melber's colleague.
Gaetz already pulled out of the nomination process as Republicans on Capitol Hill were wary about elevating the former congressman who was under investigation for alleged underage sex.
In his place, Trump selected Florida's former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Carville predicted that if some of Trump's other nominations tanked - as Hegseth's has become imperiled due to allegations of sexual assault - they would be replaced by characters 'equally odious.'
He pointed out how Patel - who talked about the bulk of the FBI beloning to the 'deep state' aind floated imprisoning journalists for not touting Trump's 2020 election lies - is 'so outrageous and so out-of-character' compared to previous FBI directors.
'That's why they do it,' Carville argued.
He pointed to the federal investigation into Gaetz and then Trump's choice to choose him as AG anyway.
James Carville suggested that President-elect Donald Trump is being heavily influenced by Tucker Carlson. 'Everything that I see is the same thing I heard in the green room in 2002'
'They don't do it in spite of that, they do it because of that,' Carville said. 'That's the thing that people miss. That's not a bug, that's a feature.'
Carville said that he didn't believe Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist when he entered the White House in 2017, was behind these picks, but rather his 'friend' Carlson.
“Everything that I see is the same thing I heard in the green room in 2002,' Carville said.
'Kash Patel was Tucker's business partner,' the Democratic pundit continued. 'Tucker is 40 times more clever than Steve Bannon. He's 40 times more connected, he's also very connected with Elon Musk and everything else, and he’s a very bright man who should not be underrated.'
'Tucker is very, very, very powerful and the Kash Patel pick proves that beyond any doubt at all,' Carville said.
