Carville slams Democrats' use of 'NPR language' after Harris loss

James Carville slammed what the longtime Democratic strategist called “NPR language” that he said members of his party use as he evaluated why Vice President Harris lost the November election. 

Carville said during an interview Friday with The Hill’s “Rising” that while Harris did not use that language during the campaign, Democrats’ use of it broadly in the past remained in voters’ minds. 

“If you noticed, [Harris] talked about if somebody breaks into her house, she’s gonna shoot them,” he said. “She didn’t use any of that NPR language, which is so devastating to Democrats.” 

Co-host Niall Stanage noted that Carville doesn’t like to use the term “woke” or “wokeness,” but "NPR language" refers to language previously deemed “politically correct.” 

Carville pointed to terms that some Democrats used previously like “Defund the police” in reference to police and criminal justice reform and “Latinx” as creating a lasting memory in voters’ minds when going to the polls. 

“What you look for with politics revolves around things we call sticky, things that you remember, like ‘Defund the police,’ three stupidest words in the history of the English language,” Carville said. “But it stuck.” 

“Some of this is just so idiotic that it defies imagination that people live like this,” he added. “Can you imagine a majority Black city. If I saw three Black guys on a street corner, and I said, ‘Good morning fellas. How are things in the community of color today?’ they wouldn’t know what I was talking about.” 

Carville said “most everybody” is trying to get away from that language and “rub this stench off,” which he hopes will be done by the 2026 midterm elections. 

During the campaign, President Biden and later Harris both avoided using terms that some Democrats, particularly progressives, used that yielded backlash in past elections. But President-elect Trump and other Republicans still sought to attack Democrats over that language and tie them to it. 

“It’s very counterproductive,” Carville said Friday.