In a wide-ranging discussion spanning recent Supreme Court decisions, the direction of the Democratic Party, and corruption, longtime Democratic political strategist James Carville shared his fear for the future of the nation.

“I’m really scared for the United States,” Carville declared on his Politicon podcast with Al Hunt.

Carville explained that “four people on the Supreme Court … don’t believe in birthright citizenship,” which is “as clear as a bell, is right there in the Constitution.”

He was referring to the decision this week that overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Some appeared dismayed that the decision, which is based on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was not unanimous.

“I, frankly, was very depressed by that Supreme Court final couple days,” Hunt added. “I mean, the narrative, which is what they wanted was, well, they called balls and strikes.”

“I mean,” Hunt continued, “birthright citizenship was enacted by constitutional amendment, in 1868, the 14th Amendment, and, you know, suddenly Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, and really Brett Kavanaugh, say, ‘Hey, you know, we’ve been wrong for 170 years,’ or whatever it is.”

Carville explained that the 14th Amendment “says that people who are born here are citizens thereof.”

“It’s not a … They didn’t do you a favor. They didn’t do you a favor, it wasn’t some act of objectivity.”

“They don’t believe in the 14th Amendment,” Carville lamented. “They don’t believe in any of the Reconstruction Amendments. They never have, and they have never believed in the First Amendment.”

Ratified after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Amendments are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments that abolished slavery, enacted birthright citizenship, and guaranteed certain equal protections and voting rights.

“Look at just what they doing in the wrecking ball, what the whole thing is,” Carville said.

He then moved to news of President Donald Trump’s financial disclosures this week.

“We know Trump’s made $2 billion since he’s been there,” Carville exclaimed, referring to his recent time in the White House.

“I’m just really fearful for the United States. I mean, in ways that I don’t think I could have ever been. It’s just, it’s beyond awful.”

Trump White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt‘s old congressional campaign still owes creditors more than $326,000 — and they have little chance of collecting, according to a NOTUS report citing a new Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing.

The debts of the campaign, from 2022, are largely from supporters who donated more than federal law permits. The total of those excessive contributions amounts to more than $210,000. NOTUS reports that federal law requires campaigns to not spend those funds, but Leavitt’s campaign currently has no cash on hand.

Leavitt, a congressional candidate from New Hampshire, lost her 2022 race to Democrat Chris Pappas. Her campaign has made no progress in raising funds to retire those debts, NOTUS notes, according to her committee’s filing.

Many political campaigns carry debt — sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars — for years after the election, NOTUS reported. “But the Leavitt campaign debt is different, since a significant portion requires refunds for contributions that exceeded the legal limit by hundreds or thousands of dollars.”

While an FEC complaint was filed in 2022, there’s been no update.

The FEC “has been unable to take enforcement action of any sort since May 1, 2025, when the campaign finance regulator entered a de facto shutdown after losing the minimum number of commissioners to perform such high level duties.” Trump has nominated two new commissioners, but they are awaiting Senate confirmation, and no hearing has been announced.

The New Hampshire Bulletin last year reported that “campaigns are required to repay donors anything over the limit, which at the time was $2,900 per election, within 60 days, per FEC regulations. Leavitt’s campaign appears to not have done that based on this disclosure.”

Last year, OpenSecrets reported that by law, “federal political candidates are not personally liable for their committees’ campaign debt,” and her campaign’s “options for making creditors whole are limited.”

Candidates like Leavitt could “personally contribute money to their campaign committee, which in turn may pay people and companies owed money. But federal records indicate that this is rare.”

Image via Reuters 

One of President Donald Trump’s favorite shows, “Fox & Friends,” is pulling up stakes after just days of promoting his Great American State Fair, a 16-day event to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.

According to The Daily Beast, the conservative morning TV show “is back in the studio” after two days, which “it spent talking up over live shots of empty grass.”

The Fox News cameras “kept beaming out the bare lawns and thin crowds” that undercut Trump’s “boasts that the event was ‘packed.'”

On Monday, The Independent reported that Trump’s “MAGA-themed event has been beset by problems,” and was a “ghost town.”

On Truth Social, Trump asked, “Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State Fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it?”

Wednesday morning, the “Fox & Friends” studio was packed with “an audience of first responders, veterans, and their families” as the hosts returned to the indoor set, The Daily Beast noted.

“We’ve been away for 48 hours. They’ve been waiting for us to return. We appreciate it,” co-host Brian Kilmeade declared.

Trump had claimed that 45,000 people turned out for his kickoff speech, but Fox News’ cameras “blew apart the president’s boasts.”

As did photographs from Reuters, The Daily Beast reported, with them “showing nowhere near the numbers the president had touted.”

“The network’s live shots from the Mall repeatedly framed wide stretches of empty grass behind its anchors, The Daily Beast added. “On other mornings, the walkways and booths behind the set sat all but empty. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, turned up on the show Monday to gush about the fair with a bare lawn.”

On Tuesday, USA Today opinion columnist Rex Huppke wrote, “I love President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair. I love its emptiness. It’s expensive food. Its ability to confound Trump-friendly media outlets that keep pretending it’s going great.”

“I love seeing Fox News broadcasting from the fair, its hosts claiming the place is filled with excited patriots while the scenes behind them show a vast expanse of untrod-upon grass with an occasional few humans milling along the fringes.”

Huppke said it was “like watching your high school bully host a party that no one attends. It’s a daily humiliation for a wildly unpopular president who coopted what should be a unifying national celebration and turned it into repellent schlock.”

Image via Reuters