No communists in America? Really, Audie?
Friday's CNN This Morning devoted a segment to indications that fewer Americans have a favorable view of capitalism.
Host Audie Cornish began by playing TikToks of three younger men kvetching about capitalism.
The third guy, seen in the screencap below, is literally in bed, dozing off with his head on a pillow. In a voice that makes you wonder if he'd been hitting the bong, he says: "Most Americans are working two jobs now, so they're working sixty hours a week, seventy hours a week." Now, it's possible he's tired from working that hard. But you might be tempted to say: Get out of bed and look for a job, dude!
Á clip was then played of President Trump warning:
"We can't be hoodwinked, we can't be taken advantage of by people that say you're gonna have a free home. You're gonna get free rent, everything's gonna be free. What they don't say is, a year later, everything's gonna end up in squalor, destruction and death, and also death for our country. So we have to stop the threat of the communist rhetoric that you're hearing right now."
Lulu Garcia-Navarro, like Cornish, a former NPR host, dismissed Trump's statement as “scaremongering.” Giving free everything won't end in misery! Lulu loved the solution of: “taxing the very wealthy to make them pay their fair share so that more can be given to those who have less.”
Tax the rich "so that more can be given to those who have less!"
Huh! Where did we ever hear that notion before? Oh, right: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." It was that 19th-century "democratic socialist"—guy by the name of Karl Marx.
Conservative guest Terry Schilling — a member of the board of the Media Research Center, our parent organization — tried to interject the historical record. “We have to articulate the evils of communism,” he said. “It eliminates political dissent, it eliminates religious freedom, it kills a lot of people…”
But Cornish cut him off.
“The socialists who are running around the country, [are] not communists. I wanna say it out loud, because if you say it in passing, it makes it sound like I haven't put all the communists on screen. THERE AREN'T ANY. We're just talking about people who are what they're calling a democratic socialist movement.“
As you see in the screencap, Cornish was so determined to silence Terry that she put one hand on his arm while flashing the stop sign with her other hand!
Cornish Interrupts Guest Warning of Communist Evils: No Communists In America--Just Democratic Socialists! pic.twitter.com/lM9wSr9LgZ
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) July 24, 2026
No communists in America, Audie? The central tenet of communism is government ownership of the means of production. And guess who has expressly called for that? Yup: Zohran Mamdani, the very guy you opened the segment with, saying, "Thanks to Mamdani, democratic socialism is gaining some national attention."
In a 2021 speech to the Young Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani stated that “the end goal of seizing the means of production” was something “we firmly believe in.” (Video — relevant portion begins ~10:00)
And then there's Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Mamdani-endorsed DSA member who just defeated five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th congressional district, who previously posted “Seize the means of production.”
Jake Altman, a long-time member of DSA until he left in 2022, has a column in this week's Free Press: "I Was in the DSA. Here’s What They Really Believe." In it, he writes:
"The Marxist Unity Group—a caucus with three members on the organization’s governing board of 27, operating as part of the explicitly communist coalition that governs the DSA—is clear. The demand is communism. A February 2025 statement on their own draft program for DSA, which influenced 'Workers Deserve More!' is much clearer about the organization’s ultimate goal: 'The maximum program, on the other hand, elaborates the history of capitalist development and the role of the working class within it. It demonstrates our commitment to the long-term struggle for a fully liberated, classless society—in a word, communism.'”
Scratch a DSAer, find a communist. It's not hard, Audie.
But in the meantime, Cornish prefers to silence people like Terry Schilling who raise the alarm about the realities of what the likes of Mamdani and company ultimately seek.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
7/24/26
6:49 am EDT
AUDIE CORNISH: Thanks to Mamdani, democratic socialism is gaining some national attention.
On the flip side, it seems like America's support, or certain segments of America's support, for capitalism is declining.
TIKTOKER 1: Expectations for millennials in 2026 is that you gotta have, like, three income streams, a side hustle, a personal brand.
TIKTOKER 2: Just because we critique capitalism doesn't mean we're socialist or communist. It's just capitalism has reached a stage where it's exploitation at this point.
TIKTOKER 3: Most Americans are working two jobs now, so they're working sixty hours a week, seventy hours a week.
DANCE GROUP: Are you depressed, or is it just C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M?
CORNISH: That last one is my favorite.
A recent Fox News poll showing 50% of voters have a positive view of capitalism, 46% unfavorable. I wanna show you the difference between now and 2019, when it was 57% favorable and 28% unfavorable.
. . .
DONALD TRUMP: We can't be hoodwinked, we can't be taken advantage of by people that say you're gonna have a free home. You're gonna get free rent, everything's gonna be free. What they don't say is, a year later, everything's gonna be, end up in squalor, destruction and death, and also death for our country. So we have to stop the threat of the communist rhetoric that you're hearing right now.
. . .
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: Can I just say, having just sat with Mamdani, and I've interviewed AOC before, and these are of course, the sort of standard bearers of this movement, you know.
What they argue is that, you know, this scaremongering of that everything's gonna be free and you're gonna bankrupt the country. They are talking about taxing the very wealthy, to make them pay their fair share, so that more can be given to those who have less.
CORNISH: You're seeing a lot of billionaire tax requests. You're also seeing people talking about taking cut from AI companies.
Like there's a sense of --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that makes sense to people. People understand that equation that they're making.
So the scare tactic of like, everything's going to be free and everything's gonna fall apart, it doesn't make sense to them in an economy where you see the very, very rich swanning around, and people can't make rent.
TERRY SCHILLING: I agree. Sorry, I was just gonna say, I agree with all of that, but if you -- we have to do two things at the same time, as Republicans, and I'm not talking about Democrats.
We have to articulate the evils of communism. It eliminates political dissent, it eliminates religious freedom, it kills a lot of people --
CORNISH: -- and we should say, the socialists who are running around the country [are] not communists.
SCHILLING: I know, but it's --
CORNISH: No, no, but I wanna say it out loud, because if you say it in passing, it makes it sound like I haven't put all the communists on screen. There aren't any. We're just talking about people who are what they're calling a democratic socialist movement.
