GOP officials have become 'all about stunts' in Disney, Bud Light feuds: James Carville

Political Strategist James Carville joins the Live Show to discuss Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' feud with Disney, political boycotts of Bud Light, and the outlook for Donald Trump and President Biden's candidacies for the 2024 election.

Video Transcript

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DAVE BRIGGS: Is fighting Mickey Mouse opposed to Donald Trump an effective political strategy? Well, it appears Florida Governor Ron DeSantis believes the answer is yes. A "Wall Street Journal" poll, however, suggests otherwise. DeSantis's 14-point advantage over Trump has pulled a Splash Mountain, if you will, to a 13-point deficit.

Now, can we expect the woke battle to continue? Let's ask political strategist James Carville. James, great to have you here on Yahoo Finance, sir. So Disney versus DeSantis, no matter how this ends, can DeSantis truly win? Is this an effective political strategy?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, He's managed to make Disney and Donald Trump a mortal enemy, which you wouldn't even normally think of those two as running in tandem with each other. But this is the problem. When you govern by stunts, you just have to come up with more stunts.

So the stunt is, don't say gay between grades 1 and 3. Well, you got to come up with another stunt. Now you can't say gay grade 1-12.

And the next stunt is going to be, well, you can't say gay at the University of Florida. And, of course he's been exposed. I mean, Disney completely outfoxed him on the Reedy Creek development thing.

Trump has just so outfoxed him on he putting his fingers in anything. And I just wonder how much more humiliation this man can take, because he's had a horrible, humiliating couple of weeks. He's got to have some limit.

DAVE BRIGGS: Is he on the ropes, DeSantis, before he's actually stepped into the ring?

JAMES CARVILLE: I think he's on the deck. I think he's already on the canvas, to tell you the truth, but maybe. OK, you could say he's on the ropes, but he's making a fool of himself and Trump is making a fool of him. And what's the backstory here? I'll share it with you quickly, is a woman named Susie Wiles, who was DeSantis' number one political operative and Mrs. DeSantis knocked her off and she went to work with Trump. And you can see that her elbows were sharp and she's just beating the living you know what out of him. And that's what happens in politics. You make the wrong people mad and you pay a price for it. And he's paying it right now.

DAVE BRIGGS: That's how it's playing out. So they've got another one, though. They've got another woke war, if you will, and that's with Bud Light, whose promotion with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney has really become a rallying cry for the right. Donald Trump Jr, surprisingly, defending Bud Light here. Who you got in this?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, Bud Light. It doesn't matter. It's all a proxy thing. And even when I grew up, I thought companies wanted to sell as much of their product as they could to as many people as they could.

And I guess the Budweiser people or whatever thought they could market to this group. I don't even understand the parameters of this. I don't drink light beer anyway, but I don't even understand what-- They just got to be outraged about something and this is just, I guess it's something to be outraged about. I have no idea. It's just not in my wheelhouse.

And I don't think this stuff is working very well for them, by the way, just so you know. They keep coming up, again, it's one stunt after another. You've got to understand, at the core, when you're all about stunts, you have to keep pulling off more stunts. There's no way you can get off.

You're the rabbit on a hamster wheel. That's what you're on when you start in the stunt business. And that's all they are is stunts.

DAVE BRIGGS: James, you more of a tequila guy, not a Bud Light guy?

JAMES CARVILLE: I'm more of a bourbon guy, to tell you the truth. My roots in Kentucky go back a long way. But I like my poison brown.

DAVE BRIGGS: Next time we'll have one of those. All right, so it's interesting, because you hear about Bud Light, you hear about Disney, and what you don't hear about from DeSantis or any of the other 24 Republicans is Trump. You don't hear a word about it. And it's interesting because Chris Christie, he equated this to Voldemort, the legendary "Harry Potter" villain who you do not speak his name. How long can that strategy of not mentioning your true opponent, how long does that work?

JAMES CARVILLE: I don't think it's working right now. I mean, how long is it working? Well, that assumes that it's working. I don't think it's working very well right now. Look, I think all of America politics can be summed up by the incident in Kansas City.

The granddad, the grandson, and the Black guy, that explains everything that you need to know. And the granddad had Fox blaring on the TV every waking hour he was up. The grandson didn't like it, and of course, he shoots, unfortunately, the Black kid. And to understand that is to understand the modern Republican Party. You don't need any other explanation.

DAVE BRIGGS: Is it over? Is Trump the '24 nominee?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, it certainly feels that way. And in a recession, who am I to sit here and say he can't win again? No one in their right mind can say that. I don't know how many more indictments are coming.

I don't know how much more anything else is. I think a change of, like, 42,000 vote, he would have won in 2020. So he's a worthy adversary and people better pay attention to what's going on there. And if we don't get turnout up in some of these heavily Democratic areas, I'm scared to death about 2024, I'll be honest with you.

DAVE BRIGGS: Keep your eye on Virginia, though. I'm not convinced Glenn Youngkin, the governor, doesn't throw his hat into the game late there. But President Biden reportedly could kick off his '24 campaign as soon as Tuesday with a robust 42-point approval rating. What could go wrong there? Are you excited for the Biden campaign to run again?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, look, it's politics. What could go wrong? A lot could go wrong and a lot probably will. That's just the nature.

I think Youngkin has any chance at all to get the Republican nomination, as long as Trump in. For some reason he's unable to run, a health issues or legal issues or something like that, then you'd probably have a different ballgame. But Trump is the Republican Party.

We shouldn't kid ourselves. Maybe some Republicans don't like to hear that, but he is and he dominates it like no one I've ever seen in my life dominate any political party. So I don't think Trump cares a wit's petulia about Glenn Youngkin at all.

DAVE BRIGGS: Who would you like to see challenge Joe Biden on the left? Or do you think he's the right nominee for right now?

JAMES CARVILLE: Well, let's just put it very simply. There are more people working in American anytime in 50 years. There are more people that have health care in America than any time in American history. Both those are two pretty important metrics in assessing the success of a presidency, and by those metrics, he's probably the most successful President we've had the last 100 years.

DAVE BRIGGS: So you'd like him to be the nominee, yes?

JAMES CARVILLE: Yeah. I mean, I think he deserves to be renominated, and in all likelihood, he will be.

DAVE BRIGGS: And he'll be 82 when he is running in '24.

JAMES CARVILLE: You're not going to get away from that. I agree. And you can pivot to the right, you can pivot to the left, but you can't pivot younger. They're going to have to deal with that and I think they know it.

DAVE BRIGGS: Indeed. James Carville, great to have you here on Yahoo Finance. Appreciate that.

JAMES CARVILLE: Thank you.