During a Thursday podcast, Democratic strategist James Carville argued that Democrats are “bound by the truth” in ways that Republicans are not. Appearing on “Politics War Room” with The New Republic editor Michael Tomasky, Carville discussed Tomasky’s recent article suggesting that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory was largely due to “right-wing media.” Carville contended that conservative media and Republicans often use dishonest tactics, whereas corporate media holds Democrats to a higher standard, limiting their ability to spread misinformation.
“You list all of the entities they have now, from Fox to Newsmax or One America … There seems to be a lot of demand for this out there — I mean, a lot,” Carville told Tomasky. “So one of the things that I get constantly is, we should do what they do. Well, they lie. I mean, I’m being frankly serious.”
“But our side won’t tolerate lies. Okay, if … a Democrat goes on TV and says some lie, The New Republic’s going to say, ‘That’s not right,’ or The New York Times is going to say, ‘That’s not right.’ So how — and I’m serious when I say this — one side is constrained by the truth; the other side has no such constraint,” he added. “You’re kind of starting in a bad place, aren’t you?”
In September, Carville also suggested that fact-checkers should concentrate their efforts on “Republicans” to help protect the U.S. Constitution.
“So let’s take the fact-check industry and let me tell you something, and I defy anyone to disagree on this: by 5 to 1, they would rather fact-check a misleading Democratic claim ’cause Republicans have so many … They want to say, ‘We’re just umpires, man, we just call it like [we] see it, we don’t really have anything.’ And, of course, there are times when Democrats exaggerate,” the Democratic strategist said at the time. “My thing is, how would you fact-check World War II? … They’re treating this like it’s just a normal time where you got shirts and skins and we just call ’em like we see ’em.”
“I think the whole industry has to decide: what is our role here? Is our role to be objective, impartial observers that report as accurately and fairly as we can, or is our role here to try to help save the Constitution of the United States?” he continued. “Because they’re two different things.”
ABC News debate moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir faced criticism for only fact-checking Trump during his September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, despite several false statements she made during the event.
For example, Harris incorrectly claimed that Trump called white supremacists in Charlottesville “fine people” in 2017 and asserted he would sign a national abortion ban if reelected, despite his repeated statements to the contrary. The moderators did not address or correct either of these claims by Harris.
