Mike Johnson on democratic socialist candidates: ‘There are many Mamdani’s popping up’

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said “there are many Mamdanis popping up,” referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) in talking about democratic socialists winning recent Democratic state primaries.

Johnson echoed President Trump’s claim that “communism” is a threat to the country.

“There are many Mamdanis popping up, running for Congress around the country, and you better be very serious about this,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday” in an interview with Shannon Bream. “This is a serious threat to our whole system of government.”

The Speaker added the claim that “deviations of Marxism begins with the opposite of the premise of America, and it is a serious threat to us.”

“Ronald Reagan used to warn about communism, he talked about it, but it was a distant threat across the world,” Johnson said. “And now the barbarians are inside the gate … This is not your father’s Democratic Party. That party’s long gone.”

Johnson said that Democrats say they want a big tent but added that Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill feel “powerless to top … the energy, the excitement, the money, the grassroots … on the side of the insurgent left.”

Johnson’s remarks follow Trump’s swipes at democratic socialists while giving his speech on the National Mall late on Saturday during the capital’s celebration of the country’s 250th birthday. He described the “evil of communism” as a threat to the U.S.

“It’s like a cancer, you got to cut it out, you got to cut it out fast,” Trump said.

Democratic socialists running as Democratic Party candidates have won several primaries across the country recently, including victories in New York, Colorado and Pennsylvania, along with Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

The movement within the party started with Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) rise to prominence during his two Democratic campaigns for the presidency in 2016 and 2020. These campaigns, though unsuccessful, inspired many other down-ballot campaigns across the country, including Mamdani’s mayoral campaign last year and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) campaign for the House in 2018.

Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks have given some level of praise for these latest victories, with some describing the party as being open to differing ideas. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said he wants the party to unite after the midterms to remember “the enemy is Donald Trump.”

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bernie Sanders

Donald Trump

Hakeem Jeffries

Mike Johnson

Ronald Reagan

Shannon Bream

Zohran Mamdani

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