On Tuesday – just two days before Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the House Benghazi Committee – MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell teased an upcoming interview with liberal operative and longtime Clinton hatchet man James Carville, hailing him as a “political Jedi master.” In the segment that followed, Carville proceeded to spin wild conspiracy theories about the reason behind the Democratic front-runner’s Benghazi and e-mail scandals.
Mitchell began by actually challenging Carville on the Benghazi attack: “...how could she be secretary of state, be in charge, and not have those security warnings come to her level?” Carville launched into his rant: “Trey Gowdy is a creation of the Koch brothers and the whole climate denial industry and this committee was nothing but a creation of Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers. You know, Fox ran over 1,000 segments in 20 months after this thing.”
He continued: “This is a taxpayer-funded – understand – taxpayer funded partisan operation that they're running there....All they're interested in is driving her poll numbers down. They’ve admitted as much. It's just a fact. And it’s – he got into Congress because the Koch brothers put him there.”
Before Mitchell could respond, Carville proclaimed: “You can fact-check it. They can fact-check it, I'm right here. Go – everybody fact-check it.”
Mitchell followed up: “But let me ask you about the fact that the Benghazi Committee is the first to reveal that she had the private e-mail server.” Carville repeated: “I mean, they’ve admitted that this was nothing but an attempt to drive her poll numbers down. Have employees who are life-long Republicans come out and said all they were interested in and obsessed with was Hillary's politics.”
Deciding to wrap up the exchange with a softball, Mitchell wondered:
James, if you were still advising Hillary Clinton, I don't know if you are, but if you were helping her prepare this week, what is the key advice you would give her? A woman who, let's face it, before one of the hearings, when she was a little under the weather, did lose her cool and that is the sound bite that has been, you know, viral. What advice would you give her about her demeanor on Thursday?
Carville replied: “I would just say answer the questions succinctly....You know, just understand that these people are just trying to get you politically, don't play their game. Just be above the fray, and you know, you’ll be fine.”
He added: “Everybody knows going into this what this is. This was, you know, all as a result of pressure from Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers. And we know where Trey Gowdy comes from. All of this stuff is in the public record. There's no doubt about it.”
Mitchell simply stated: “We will follow up, James. And of course Congressman Gowdy is welcome to come on and respond.”
Carville got in a parting shot: “Yes, and ask him about how much money the Koch brothers gave him when he ran and why is he part of this whole climate denial subculture up there?”
Here is a transcript of the October 20 exchange: Carville: Benghazi Scandal Created by Rupert Murdoch and Koch Brothers
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