A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here . The political strategist James Carville was among the first top-level Democrats to loudly and persistently push for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race earlier this year.
It was a controversial argument when Carville — with his uncensored Louisiana flair for a turn of phrase — started making it, long before the CNN presidential debate that opened the floodgates of concern and ultimately made Biden change his mind. Biden’s departure, Carville told me, was a bit like having an infected wisdom tooth removed. Not pleasant, but you feel good the next day.
A new CNN documentary, “Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid,” focuses on the strategist’s early pressure on Biden and ties it into his long career. It also examines his famous bipartisan marriage to Mary Matalin, a top strategist for then-President George H.W.
Bush’s reelection campaign in 1992, who lost to Carville’s candidate, Bill Clinton. She was later a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney in the George W. Bush administration.
Her decision to work for Cheney caused frustration in the marriage, according to the film. Watch “Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid” on Saturday at 7 p.m.
ET on CNN. When I talked to Carville in New York recently, it was shortly after Cheney and his daughter Liz , the former Wyoming representative, had both endorsed Vice President Kam.