Carville: Law firms making deals with Trump will be remembered as 'collaborators'

Democratic strategist James Carville on Friday compared law firms that signed a deal with President Trump to Nazi regime “collaborators” in Europe.

Several firms tied to past investigations of the president have agreed to forgo diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices in line with Trump’s executive order and donate millions to causes of his choice through legal aid. 

“Maybe you need to go in history and see what happened in August of 1944, after Paris was liberated. They didn’t take very kindly to the collaborators,” Carville said in a Friday recording of his "Politicon" podcast.

“No, it was not a very pretty sight in the streets of Paris. I’m not saying that these people should be placed in pajamas and have their heads shaved, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and spit on. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that, that did happen,” he added.

Carville said law firms found to willingly enter a signed agreement with Trump have betrayed the United States.

“These people are a disgrace to the law firms they represent, to the companies that they represent and are supposed to be in self-interest, and they’re a disgrace to the United States and etch their names in the tablet of history for being some of the greatest traitors, appeasers that we’ve seen in the history of our great country,” the longtime Democrat said.

On Wednesday, Milbank law firm said it entered an agreement similar to the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom deal with the Trump administration to resolve concerns.

“As a large law firm that does a majority of its work on transactional matters, we are dependent on our ability to navigate client issues in all parts of the Executive Branch. We believed that it was in the best interests of the Firm and its clients to resolve the Trump Administration’s concerns in a way that would foster our working relationship and avoid what could have been an unnecessary confrontation,” Chair Scott Edelman wrote to employees in a letter obtained by The Hill.

Milbank was among 20 firms contacted by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission asking about diversity in its hiring practices. 

Carville said Trump’s actions are creating moral issues that the country will have to reckon with after he leaves office.

“When this is over, there has to be, at a minimum, an intellectual reckoning with this class of appeasers that are here,” he said.