Dems Fighting Words: Carville & Hogg battle over the future of the party

Follow "The Tara Palmeri Show" wherever you get your podcasts

If you miss Crossfire or Hannity & Colmes, then you’ll relish this episode of my new podcast The Tara Palmeri show where James Carville, 80, and David Hogg, 25, engage in a generational debate over the future of the Democratic Party. Hogg, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, has some controversial methods for rooting out the gerontocracy, specifically putting $20 million behind primary challengers who will push them out. It has the entire establishment up in arms, not just Carville, who suggested that DNC members sue Hogg over it, so these two really get into it…

For a taste:

When Hogg asked, “What is your plan to deal with our abominable approval rating?” Carville shouted back, “Win elections! Win elections!”

After calling what he’s doing an “abomination,” Carville held Hogg’s feet to the fire for not speaking up about Joe Biden during the 2024 race.

“I called on Joe Biden to drop out of the race in 2022. Where were you?” Carville asked. “Where was the young, the young cool generation coming?”

“I said we should have a contested convention,” James said. “No one else came here other than President Obama who was trying to call people on the day that President Biden dropped out.”

That’s just a small preview. You can listen to the entire episode on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart and Amazon Music. Please be sure to follow the show for more episodes, rate it, and share it with your friends. I will be dropping episodes biweekly and that’s the best way to get them straight to your device.

During the interview, the news broke on Semafor that Hogg was being challenged by Kalyn Free, a Native American attorney and party activist, for his seat as DNC Vice Chair. Free lost the race back in February but she filed a complaint at the end of the month, challenging the DNC’s election, calling it a “fatally flawed election that violated the DNC Charter and discriminated against three women of color candidates,” according to her complaint seen by Semafor. Now she’s calling on an election for two new vice chairs, replacing Hogg and Malcolm Kenyatta, a Black man, “so that a woman has a chance to win one of their jobs,” according to Semafor.

This complaint was months before Hogg infuriated the party with his plans to primary incumbents. The DNC is planning to hold a hearing in mid-May on whether to hold a re-vote.

Hogg has been in a tough spot ever since he came out with his primary plan, triggering complaints from other DNC members. If the party holds another vote for vice chair, this would give party members who are against Hogg a chance to get rid of him.

When I brought up the move to oust Hogg to Carville after the interview, he was