Carville Continues Clinton Defense: 'This Is Not Just Spin'

"I actually believe this."

Clinton apologist and Media Matters' newest columnist James Carville continued his vociferous defense of Hillary Clinton on Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopoulos with complaints that the media is treating her differently than all other politicians.

Carville, who recently dubbed this perceived media discrimination the "Clinton Rule," describes one set of press standards for the Clintons and then another for everybody else.

"This is not just spin," Carville said. "I actually believe this."

Guest Republican strategist Ana Navarro found Carville's comment laughable, but turned the tables on his comment saying she agrees that there are extremely different rules for the Clintons and everyone else. "They think they're above the rules," Navarro said.

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren jumped into the conversation backing Navarro's assessment, telling Carville he just "stepped in it" by making that claim. Susteren's greater point addressed the fact that there are government officials who have been fired for the same thing she has gotten away with.

But Carville was more comfortable defending his claim and deflecting to Colin Powell and Jeb Bush who both do "the same thing" and maintains that the media is not attacking them as they are Clinton.

Navarro addressed Carville's allegations against Jeb Bush saying she has been sending messages to Bush's private e-mail since before he was governor, unlike Clinton who "set hers up the week she was in confirmation" for secretary of state. She complimented Bush as being "one of the most transparent, if not the most transparent, governors."

This struck Stephanopoulos as odd. He offered, "[Bush] turned only a fraction of his e-mails over. That's just a fact." However, Stephanopoulos did acknowledge that the Clinton camp was extremely slow in figuring out how to address the scandal with the media.

During an exchange between Navarro and Carville, Navarro added, "James, it took God six days to create the Earth. It took Hillary Clinton eight days to address the media."

But Carville brushed it all off as typical "talking points" and blamed the Republicans' ire over Benghazi for fueling yet another "fake scandal" against a Clinton, something Carville has said is a "20-year-habit."

Stephanopoulos then reminded Carville that the Clintons have to face the responsibility in handling crises appropriately, and yet, they haven't: "The fact is, the Clintons are still dealing with it in the same way [they always have] and that's what's dispiriting potential supporters."

Meanwhile, excusing himself from the 10-minute conversation on the scandal he had just participated in was David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, who took off for the moral high ground in order to shame Navarro and Carville for engaging in a political volley:

I think this kind of back and forth, with due respect, if that's going to be the nature of our campaign in the next 20 months, with issues like violence against women all around the world, disparities in income, and the insecurity and instability of the Middle East and Europe at stake -- people's livelihoods at stake. If this [pointing to the two] is going to be what's at issue in the next 20 months, we're in very sad shape.

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