Chris Matthews says Democrats had better put some daylight between themselves and the socialist left before Republicans make the entire party answer for its agenda.
The lifelong Democrat sounded the alarm Wednesday on “Morning Joe,” arguing that mainstream candidates must forcefully reject the Democratic Socialists of America and the “crap” coming from the party’s progressive wing.
“I like AOC generally, but she came out and said, we’re just a big tent party. Well, the problem with the big tent defense is every Democrat has to defend all this crap coming from the left,” he said.
Matthews’ warning followed a razor-thin loss by democratic socialist Francesca Hong to moderate David Crowley in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Other progressive candidates have rattled the party establishment, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
“The DSA has done a favor to non-DSA Democrats, to regular Democrats who are regular members of the party. They’ve listed what they believe in. Their chair made that clear,” Matthews said.
The former aide and speechwriter to Democratic President Jimmy Carter said the DSA’s positions on immigration, prisons and national defense give traditional Democrats plenty of room to draw a clear line.
“It’s very clear we’re going to get rid of ICE, not just ICE, we’re going to get rid of the border.
“We’re not going to have a border anymore. We’re not going to effectively control people coming in and out of the country, and so I think — we’re not we’re going to get rid of prisons, you know, we’re going to get rid of the Pentagon, we’re going to negotiate.
“Well, what happens when your hostages are your former diplomats, like what happened with President [Jimmy] Carter? People take your diplomats [as] hostages.
“What do you do then? You need an Army. You don’t like to, like to have an Army, but you do need to have one. All these positions can be denied by any regular Democrat.
“All you have to do is go out there and say, thank you, DSA, for telling us what you believe in. I don’t believe in that stuff.”
WATCH:
Chris Matthews, who spent 50+ years in Democratic politics and liberal media, just listed out DSA’s platform on MSNBC and called it CRAP:
“We’re going to get rid of ICE. Not just ICE; the border too. No more controlling who enters or leaves the country. Get rid of prisons. Get…
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 12, 2026
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Matthews warned that Republicans will spend the closing weeks of the midterm campaign trying to tie every Democrat to the DSA, Zohran Mamdani and other figures on the socialist left.
His advice to Democratic candidates was blunt: Stop embracing “crazy stuff” in a bid to win over progressives, tell voters exactly where you stand and make clear that the DSA does not speak for the entire party.
“You’ve got to say, no, no, I’m not a member of the DSA and here’s why. And make it very clear,” he suggested.
“So it’s going to require politicians to be good politicians and say, here’s where I stand, right? This is why I’m a Democrat. I’m for labor unions. I’m for opportunity for everybody. I’m for civil rights. I’m for all the things I believe in as a Democrat, but I’m not with this crowd.”
“And I think that’s going to be a line that has to be drawn by Democrats because I’m telling you the last six weeks of this election is going to be an attack on El-Sayed and the DSA in New York and the [Zohran] Mamdani, and [Republicans] are going to come out and blame every Democrat for everything the DSA is doing,” Matthews continued.
“I don’t believe the DSA plan. I don’t believe in their checklist of what they believe in. I’ll say so. But running for office is going to require that, I think, before the election.”
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