Megyn Reacts After James Carville Goes Nuclear on Young ‘Snot-Nosed’ Democratic Staffers

Kamala Harris’ campaign leadership has said the vice president never got around to sitting for an interview with Joe Rogan because of scheduling conflicts. But there have been reports that it was actually the protestations of young staffers that derailed the plans.

That intel did not sit well with veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, who did not mince words when talking about the problems he sees with the next generation of campaign hires.

On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Dr. Leonard Sax, author of The Collapse of Parenting, to discuss how Carville’s criticism extends beyond the political sphere as a result of the way children are raised today.

Carville’s Critique

During an episode of his Politcon show late last month, Carville reacted to the reports that Harris never made the trip to Austin to be interviewed by Rogan because young, progressive staffers had a problem with it.

“The vice president was thinking about going on Joe Rogan’s show, and a lot of the younger progressive staffers pitched a hissy fit,” Carville began. “Supposedly the campaign said that that wasn’t the determining factor, but they ditched.”

He then explained how things should have worked. “When you put a campaign together and you hire young people to do work, let me tell you exactly what… I would tell them: ‘Not only am I not interested in your f-cking opinion, I’m not even gonna call you by your name. You’re 23 years old. I don’t really give a sh-t what do you think,'” Carville declared. 

In his view, things need to change before the next presidential election “If I were running a 2028 campaign and I have some little snot-nosed 23 year old saying, ‘I’m gonna resign if you don’t do this,’ not only would I fire that motherf-ucker the spot, I would find out who hired them and fire that person on the spot,” he said. “I’m really not interested in your uninformed, stupid, jacka– opinion as to whether to go on Joe Rogan or not.”

Teaching Respect

As Megyn noted, Carville represents the non-woke wing of the Democratic Party. “He is the Bill Clinton aide who helped get him elected… He is a Louisiana boy through and through… He is a leftist Democrat, but he is not a woke guy,” she explained. “And he went on this rant about young people within the campaign… who think they know everything because someone hasn’t set those guardrails for them on understanding respect for one’s elders and that one doesn’t know everything, especially as a young person.”

That concept of generational respect is something that Dr. Sax said has been lost in American culture. “We need young people to respect their elders, and the anthropologists will would agree because every successful culture teaches young people to respect their elders,” he noted. “We used to do that, too, as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”

Look no further than what was portrayed in pop culture. “American culture was a culture of respect and the most popular TV shows, like The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the 1990s… were shows that had those strong connections across generations,” Dr. Sax said. “We have lost that.”

While he acknowledged that parents have no control over what Hollywood churns out as entertainment, they can control what their children are exposed to. “You’ve got to create that culture of respect within your own home, and you’ve got to be confident asserting authority in your own home,” Dr. Sax shared. “It is not about discipline. It is about creating those bonds of love and respect across the generations.”

‘Gentle Parenting’ Problems

Dr. Sax said American parents are “confused” about what constitutes ‘good’ parenting these days. “They think you have to choose between being strict or loving,” he noted. “But the best parent is both strict and loving.”

That is at odds with the so-called “gentle parenting” movement popularized on social media. He said the evidence already exists to show it is “profoundly harmful” because it prioritizes “letting kids decide” how to handle things when they are not equipped to do so.

“[In my book], I cite… long-time columnist for The New York Times Jennifer Finney Boylan, who wrote a column about enlightened parenting, in which she asserts that enlightened parenting means ‘setting your child free to discover for themselves their own right and wrong. And if, in doing so, your child becomes a stranger to you, then so be it,'” he explained. “That… is not enlightened. It is a dereliction of duty.”

In this current climate, he said ‘setting your child free’ can have dangerous consequences. “If they have a device with internet access, what they will discover is Drake, and Bruno Mars, and Megan Thee Stallion, and Cardi B and transgenderism and mainstream pornography,” Dr. Sax cautioned. 

“Your job is to teach your child right and wrong, to inscribe your law on the hearts of your kid,” he concluded. “That is your job as a parent. Don’t set your child loose to discover for themselves their own right and wrong. That is a dereliction of duty.”

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Dr. Sax by tuning in to episode 962 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.