Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, during a NewsNation town hall Wednesday, went off when debating domestic manufacturing, telling the crowd that the U.S. does not “need to make t-shirts.”
“I have on six items of clothes: shoes, socks, jeans, skivvies, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. You know how many of these were made in America? None. None,” Carville said during the event hosted by NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo alongside commentators Bill O’Reilly and Stephen A. Smith.
“And I don’t want to live in a country that makes t-shirts,” he continued. “I can buy them from somewhere else.”
O’Reilly pressed Carville further on his argument, asking: “You don’t want to live in a country that makes t-shirts?”
The pundit responded, “Yeah, we don’t need to do that. We make airplanes, we make movie.”
“We drill oil, we make all kinds of things. We don’t need to make t-shirts,” he added.
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, also on the panel, chimed in on the debate, saying she wants to live in a nation that “makes cars.”
“Fine. I drive a Ford Bronco. You think I know where the steering wheel was made? You think I know where the tires were made?” Carville, the longtime adviser to former President Clinton, replied Wednesday. “No. Do I care? No.”
President Trump, who marked 100 days in the Oval Office earlier this week, also called into the town hall.
Trump brushed off concerns about his executive actions thus far — including the trade war his administration has escalated in recent weeks by slapping a 10 percent duty on nearly all imports coming into the country, along with imposing a 145 percent tariff on goods coming from China, one of the largest U.S. trading partners.
“We have to have fair trade. We’re losing billions and billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said. “And it’s not fair, and it’s time for the American people to be properly protected by somebody that knows what he’s doing.”
“And I know what I’m doing perfectly,” he continued, adding that “it’s a little complicated subject” and “I’ve got to explain it.”
He also pleaded with viewers to give him a “little bit of time” to fix the economy, after data showed earlier this week that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter of his administration.
The president has touted his economic and trade agenda in recent weeks, suggesting it would boost domestic manufacturing and investment, and lead to more jobs. Despite his argument, his latest sweeping tariff announcement has the U.S. and global partners on edge amid stark market changes — which Trump has largely blamed on the previous administration.