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MS NOW Kisses Up To New York DSA Radicals, Helps Them Downplay Extremism
NYC has a much more alarming meaning after the Democratic primaries this week: New York Communists. Among those victorious Democrats were Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, both of whom were endorsed by the organization Democratic Socialists of America and Mayor Mamdani.
MS NOW’s Wednesday evening shows All In with Chris Hayes and The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi celebrated Mamdani and Chevalier. Both were treated to softball questions and no pushback for any of the problematic statements made by Chevalier or any other candidate endorsed by the Mayor.
Hayes hosted Mamdani on-air to talk about the results of the primaries, which he was happy about on a personal level. He admitted his brother worked on Brad Lander’s (D-NY) successful campaign. He also praised the Mayor for remaining “very on-message” about his key affordability talking points, and asked Mamdani what the elections were about for him, to which Mamdani replied, “they were about clarity… conscience… [and] conviction.”
Hayes then gave Mamdani an opportunity to respond to the accusations of anti-semitism from the Democrats “in the sort of pro-Israel coalition.”
“I don’t necessarily sign on to that,” Hayes disclaimed, but he asked if one of the driving forces behind the Democratic voters pushing out several incumbents was, “the people and the Democratic Party supporting fundamentally, or not doing enough to oppose the actions of the Israeli government over the last several years.”
On @allinwithchris quack @NYCMayor completely DUCKS question about anti-semitism.
He can't deny it because he and his candidates SUPPORT Hamas and other terror groups
Watch here: pic.twitter.com/UNWL47rvYx
— Cici Marie (@Cici_Marie_1776) June 25, 2026
Of course, Hayes never offered a shred of opposition to Mamdani’s answers, not even when the Mayor offered a meaningless jumble of an answer to his question about whether the Democratic nominees were “just a bunch of people who just got out of some college seminar who like to talk socialism?”
Here's an uncomfy truth: Dems do well with college-educated people because they have turned the American education system into a propaganda machine spitting out good obedient little leftists.
Source: @ZohranKMamdani on @MSNOWNews's @allinwithchris pic.twitter.com/4vOHl1gTfk
— Cici Marie (@Cici_Marie_1776) June 25, 2026
There was also no mention of anti-American statements made by Mamdani’s chosen candidates, such as Aber Kawas claiming that 9/11 was the fault of America’s “system of capitalism, racism, white supremacy, and islamophobia.”
Three hours later on The 11th Hour, Ali Velshi welcomed Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won the Democratic nomination for a Congressional seat. He asked her about squaring her socialist views with her new position of power, and offered no pushback as she ducked the truth that socialism was fundamentally opposed to America’s success.
.@AliVelshi kisses up to @DarializaforNY, lets her avoid talking about her radical communist views, then asks if her insulting tweets about Biden and Harris were just because she's a "digital native."
The media will kiss the feet of any libtard they can find. pic.twitter.com/mmoRZ9Xt8P
— Cici Marie (@Cici_Marie_1776) June 25, 2026
Velshi also mentioned the problematic posts that Chevalier had made on her now-deleted social media accounts, including one where she bragged about using the American flag as a napkin. Velshi painted her as a sympathetic entity, saying that he knew she “probably want[ed] this conversation to go away,” and enforcing her answer about a tweet where she said “F— Kamala Harris.”
“Is that the kind of thing that just because you're sort of a digital native and that you do on the internet, or do you believe that?” Velshi asked, practically offering her a multiple-choice answer. He also let her supporting Hamas after the October 7 attacks slide without much comment, other than joining with her in smearing AIPAC, which donated to her opponent’s campaign.
.@DarializaforNY SUPPORTED the mass r-pes and murders of Oct. 7, then has the audacity to say she values "human dignity and human life."
With that in mind, I wonder what her view on abortion is... pic.twitter.com/Pc139PtQvu
— Cici Marie (@Cici_Marie_1776) June 25, 2026
And at the end of the interview, Velshi avoided directly mentioning Chevalier’s involvement with the DSA. He only asked the incredibly softball question, “How do you avoid becoming the ad for Republicans? (…) [Y]ou're going to appear in all sorts of people's ads, all sorts of Republicans' ads, to say, 'This is what you're going to get if you vote for the Democrats. A communist.'”
Velshi managed to turn the most important question about Chevalier’s radical socialist and communist stances into an attack on Republicans, one she was all too proud to state she won't dignify their accusations with a response. When you refuse to answer the question "Are you a communist?" people can get a clue about what that means.
Radical leftist that just won an NY Congressional seat refuses to disavow her extreme communist views.
They will turn America into a failed state like the Soviets if we keep electing people like them. pic.twitter.com/u7Iq41730M
— Cici Marie (@Cici_Marie_1776) June 25, 2026
The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW's All In with Chris Hayes
6/24/26
8:24:02 p.m. Eastern
(...)
CHRIS HAYES: Joining me now is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who will be speaking with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries later tonight. Mayor, congrats. I know my colleague Jen Psaki has Leader Jeffries on the next hour to discuss what's going on.
What are you looking for in your conversation with Leader Jeffries tonight?
(...)
HAYES: You know, I - obviously I'm a lifelong New Yorker, know New York politics well. I should disclose that my brother actually worked on the Lander campaign, which I basically didn't cover for that reason--
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: And did a great job.
HAYES: --in the runup to this entire race.
You know, when you're in your race, I think you can really say like you had a laser focus on affordability. You really did. You were very on message. Interviews where I tried to push you off the message, you kept coming back to it. You know what you're doing.
I think it's much harder to make that argument about these wins last night. I cover these races pretty closely. I mean, I follow them. They weren't really about affordability. I don't think you can say there was some big difference between Claire Valdez and Antonio Reynoso. So what were they about from your perspective?
(...)
8:26:55 p.m.
HAYES: There's a lot of folks, I would say, in New York who, let's say broadly in the sort of pro-Israel coalition, I think that's how they would describe themselves, who view last night as about that single issue. Basically, what they will say is, particularly if you look at Goldman and Lander, like this was really about Israel. And it was motivated by people's feelings about Israel. And I think the pro-Israel folks would say, you know, their anger, their rage, some even say it's anti-semitism.
I don't necessarily sign on to that. But do you think it was like, fundamentally, is that what it was about the people and the Democratic Party supporting fundamentally, or not doing enough to oppose the actions of the Israeli government over the last several years and continuing actions in Gaza?
(...)
8:28:47 p.m.
(...)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: And all of this is all the more difficult for a New Yorker to accept when, at the same time, they're having trouble affording life in the nation's most expensive city.
At the same time, as we're greenlighting tens of billions of dollars for Netanyahu's wars, we're being told, 'Sorry, we just can't help you make it a little bit easier to afford your rent check, or your groceries, or your childcare, or even your public transit.'
And I think that what we saw is that New Yorkers were fed up with a status quo of our politics, where we're stuck explaining why this is the best we're going to have, as opposed to advocating for the working person who's being left behind by that same status quo.
HAYES: I just feel duty-bound to point out that the federal government budget is like trillions of dollars, depending whether you count Social Security. So in the grand scheme of things, I mean, you're right, there's been about 30 billion dollars to Israel. There's lots and lots of billions of dollars that could be found for those things, even if we were to continue.
You - in doing this, you clearly ticked off a bunch of people. You knew that. I mean, they weren't shy about saying it because generally the way it goes is, you don't endorse against incumbents. Yeah, it really is kind of the unwritten rule in this.
Tish James, who was a very vocal backer of yours when you were running for mayor and even a backer of yours when I think it was pretty politically controversial to be so, had this to say, she 'said she and other political leaders she's spoken to are disappointed in Zohran Mamdani. All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party, but you don't blow it up. That's what MAGA has done.'
What do you say to that?
(...)
8:31:30 p.m.
HAYES: On that point about the working class, and I just want to be clear here, like, you win, you win, right? Like, these were winning - like, all eight won, and different winning candidates assemble different winning coalitions, particularly in primaries.
But it also is the case - and you can go down to the census track level, or you can look at the, you know, the different parts where there is a correlation between the success of the candidates you backed and higher degrees of college education attainment, and even higher degrees of household income in those areas. Right?
I mean, you can run the numbers. The Times had them today in the Bronx, which I know pretty well, my home borough. Darializa was lost by 30 points to the incumbent, Adriano Espaillat, in that part of the borough, which is a very poor part of the borough.
What do you say to people who say this is fundamentally democratic socialism, a kind of college affectation that basically, like you talk about the working class, but really it's just a bunch of people who just got out of some college seminar who like to talk socialism?
MS NOW's The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi
6/24/26
11:40:02 p.m. Eastern
(...)
ALI VELSHI: You have to do and say things in primaries, and then, now, you are the actual Democratic Party representative. That's not always the same as being a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. How do you square that?
DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: You know, I think I have - I'm very proud of the campaign that I've run, one where I am presenting the vision that I have for New Yorkers here in this district. And that has always been the vision that I have for them, right?
(...)
VELSHI: I think you probably, and at some point we'll be done with this conversation, but you probably want this conversation to go away, but there are the social media posts. You have had derogatory posts about Joe Biden and about Kamala Harris. You did apologize for the Kamala Harris one, I guess the Joe Biden one, you did say, you called him a 'rapist.'
Is that the kind of thing that just because you're sort of a digital native and that you, you do on the internet, or did you believe that? And do you believe that?
(...)
CHEVALIER: Now, all that to say, I do regret my tweets. And that's something that I think has brought a lot of division.
And that's something I regret because as an organizer, my goal is always to unify our community and deliver for our community. And I think there is this question of, why is it that when folks who do not have power, political power in this instance, are being held accountable for things, we don't also hold accountable folks who do have political power, where the decisions they are making in office every single day have an enormous impact on millions of people in our country, right?
And I think for folks who feel disempowered, it's important to make sure that we're getting to the heart of where that sense of disempowerment is.
VELSHI: You actually said that with respect to your tweet about Kamala Harris, you said that it came from a place of you feeling disempowered.
CHEVALIER: Yeah. And I think so much - so many folks in our country feel that they don't have representation that is fighting for them, right. And that was part of why I decided to run, because I've felt that abandonment from establishment politics that looks at my community as though it is merely statistics and not people who are worth fighting for and not the policies that will actually better their lives.
(...)
11:43:19 p.m.
VELSHI: So I want to talk to you because you are part of a group of people who want to hold people in power to account. And I want to talk to you about that, with respect to Adriano Espaillat, money that has come into that campaign, including money from AIPAC-affiliated groups.
But I need to set the context on that first, because of this conversation about this rally after October 8th, you have strong beliefs about Israel's targeting of civilians in Gaza, which completely dwarfed what happened on October 7th.
That said, I think - I'm going to guess that you agree that innocent civilians shouldn't be targeted by anybody, regardless of the reason or the grievance. And that stands for Israel and that stands for Hamas.
CHEVALIER: Yeah, of course.
VELSHI: Because people have associated you with being supportive of what Hamas did on October 7th.
(...)
11:45:36 p.m.
VELSHI: It wasn't as central an issue in your campaign as it was in the Brad Lander-Dan Goldman campaign, but the AIPAC and AIPAC-affiliated money that came in against you was bigger. I mean, it was a lot of money.
And you've been very critical of Adriano Espaillat's relationship with Israel and continued acceptance of funding in offensive weapons. Tell me how that played out.
(...)
CHEVALIER: And so, you know, I think the fact that so much money was poured in not only directly into his campaign, but also in outside spending, where we saw over 7 million dollars.
And I - we won't know how much of that was AIPAC for a number of days.
VELSHI: A lot of that funding came in after June 10th--
CHEVALIER: Exactly.
VELSHI: --which means nobody has to report it for--
CHEVALIER: Exactly.
VELSHI: --until the next cycle.
Donald Trump talked about communists being elected last night. There were three of you in the Congressional races, and there were five people who Mamdani supported in state races, all eight of you won.
How do you avoid becoming the ad for Republicans? You know, we've watched Zohran Mamdani and we've - and he's managed it very well. We've watched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has managed it very well. She's become a sort of a very policy-centered person. I don't think she's changed any of her views.
How do you navigate this road? Because now you are a member of the Democratic delegation. You will be a member of the Democratic delegation, and you're going to appear in all sorts of people's ads, all sorts of Republicans' ads, to say, 'This is what you're going to get if you vote for the Democrats. A communist.'
CHEVALIER: You know, I think that is - that framing is one that I've been very proud to be able to say, 'I don't respond to,' one in which I have been very intentional to say, 'I won't be reactive.'
We are presenting a vision of what we're fighting for, and I think for far too long we have had politics that is reactive to what Republicans are doing.
What we need is Democrats who are actually going to present a positive vision, one that sets the tone for what we should be talking about, which is the issue of affordability, which is the issue of how our budgets are moral documents.
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