Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville suggested Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) should consider leaving the Democrat Party during an appearance Wednesday on SiriusXM’s Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Smith.
Smith asked Carville about a video circulating on social media in which the veteran political consultant sharply criticized Omar over past comments she made about white men.
“Lady, why don’t you just get out of the Democratic Party,” Carville said about Omar in the May 2025 clip from his Politics War Room podcast. “Honestly, start your own movement.”
Carville’s remarks were in response to comments Omar made during a February 2018 interview with Al Jazeera in which she said “our country should be more fearful of white men because they’re causing most of the deaths within this country.”
In his podcast comments, Carville suggested Omar could form her own political party and still caucus with Democrats in Congress. Lawmakers like Omar, he added, are “more trouble than they’re worth.”
During the SiriusXM interview, Smith asked Carville what had gotten him so “ticked off.” Carville responded by praising Omar personally but argued that she and other progressive Democrats — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — are not helping the party broaden its appeal to voters.
“I met her one time and first of off, she’s a very, attractive, soft-spoken lady. I have a lot of friends in in Minneapolis and people think, a lot of people think well of her, but she started attacking white males and I’m gonna say, wait a minute, let’s stop,” Carville said.
Carville then pointed to voting demographics from the 2024 election to make his argument about electoral strategy.
“Alright. In 2024, 72% of the people that voted were white. All right? That’s just a fact. Of that 72, probably 48% or 48 and a half, were male. So it’s somewhere around, I did the math on the thing, about 33% of the people that are gonna vote are gonna be white males. Well, it’s stupid to attack 33% of the voters.”
He argued that successful political coalitions are built by expanding support rather than alienating large voting blocs.
“You don’t wanna start there. You know, what you try to do is you start and you build up,” Carville said.
Carville added that if Omar wants to advance a more progressive political project, she could do so outside the Democratic Party while still cooperating with it legislatively.
“And so what I would say to Congresswoman Omar, why don’t you be a Democratic Socialist of America? Do what AOC did, and then if they win, the truth of that is, I share a lot of ideological issues in common with Congressman Omar, but maybe you should do like a parliamentary government. We’ll let you in the governing coalition, but not the electoral coalition.”
READ NEXT: Report: US Exploring Kurdish Role In Ground Operations Against Iran
Sponsored
John Kennedy here. The last fundraising deadline passed — and we came up short. Now the woke crowd is celebrating, saying “Kennedy’s finished.” Let’s prove them wrong. Chip in $25, $50, or whatever you can to close the gap and keep fighting.
