James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist, criticized what he called “NPR language” that he said members of his party were using as they weighed why Vice President Harris lost the November election.
Carville said during an interview with “Rising” on The Hill on Friday that while Harris did not use that language during the campaign, Democrats’ widespread use of it in the past has stuck in voters’ minds.
“If you notice, (Harris) talked about if someone broke into her house, she would shoot him,” he said. “She didn’t use any of that NPR language, which was very damaging to Democrats.”
Co-host Niall Stanage noted that Carville doesn’t like to use the term “woke” or “wokeness,” but that “NPR language” refers to language that was previously considered “politically correct.”
Carville pointed to terms that some Democrats have used in the past, such as “defund the police” in reference to police and criminal justice reform and “Latinos” as creating lasting memories in voters’ minds when they go to the polls.
“What you’re looking for in politics is things that we call sticky, things that you remember, like ‘defund the police,’ which are the three stupidest words in the history of the English language,” Carville said. “But it stuck.”
“Some of this is so stupid that it defies the imagination that people live that way,” he added. “Can you imagine a majority-black city? If I saw three black men on a street corner and said, ‘Good morning, guys.’ How are things in the community of color today? They wouldn’t know what I was talking about.”
Carville said “most everyone” is trying to get away from that language and “get that stink out,” something he hopes to accomplish by the 2026 midterm elections.
During the campaign, both President Biden and later Harris have avoided using terms that some Democrats, especially progressives, have used that have backfired in past elections. But President-elect Trump and other Republicans have still sought to attack Democrats over that language and associate them with it.
“It’s very counterproductive,” Carville said Friday.
