Morning Joe Downplays DSA’s Rise, Makes Fun of Chevalier Policies

Nicholas Spinnato
June 26th, 2026 9:03 AM

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In more of the aftermath of Democratic Socialist victories in New York City primaries, Thursday’s Morning Joe downplayed the rise of the DSA in Democratic politics, alike to many others in the media. While some of the show’s panelists had mixed feelings on what DSA victories meant, co-host Joe Scarborough was not afraid to mention radical DSA policies supported by Democratic House primary winner candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, like the abolishment of prisons.

Frequent host Katty Kay introduced the segment and listed the “scrutiny” she was facing, including old social media posts and an appearance at a post-October 7 rally (on October 8) where there was open support for Hamas.

Kay read Chevalier's newfound regrets for the posts and past beliefs, and likened the situation to Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner before she asked, “are Democrats running into a world where they are nominating candidates who are exciting the base but have a history that may come back to haunt them?”

8 AM host Jonathan Lemire answered, “it’s possible” before he blamed Trump for the rise of the DSA.

Lemire then read from a Wall Street Journal editorial focused on the DSA, and downplayed much of the Journal’s comments, and said we should “reflect on the idea of how far to the right Republicans have swung in the age of Trump. This isn't just a phenomenon for one party here.”

 

 

Scarborough built off Lemire’s not just a phenomenon for one party comments, before he went to go after some of Chevalier's radical policies, especially related to crime issues.

He listed items from a New York Times piece by Michelle Goldberg, as he read details from an interview with Chevalier. Scarborough read, “She said she opposed all deportations, even those of violent criminals. She's a prison abolitionist. She couldn't or wouldn't answer repeated questions about whether even murderers should be incarcerated.”

Scarborough turned to Stein: “Sam Stein, call me crazy. This doesn't look like the way forward for Democrats not only in middle America, but in New York City.”

Stein remarked, “Yeah. I mean, murderers should be incarcerated. I don't think that that's controversial.”

Scarborough and Brzezinski started to joke about Stein's obvious answers: (Click “expand”)

SCARBOROUGH: [Snaps fingers] Look, see. He’ll just say it.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow.

SCARBOROUGH: Look at Sam!

BRZEZINSKI: Good job Sam!

SCARBOROUGH: That’s courage

BRZEZINSKI: Was that - are you okay?

SCARBOROUGH: Courage! As Dan Rather would say. You go, man. You go!

Stein went on to condemn Chevalier's attendance at a rally after October 7 that had some attendees be supportive of the Hamas’ attack, before he said it would be “disingenuous” for Republicans to connect Democratic House candidates across the country to Chevalier

Stein then said everybody had bad social media posts, but she still “should be held to account for them.” He then disagreed with parts of the WSJ op-ed Lemire read from, and said the socialist rise “is somewhat an, if not totally confined, to major cities.”

Panelist and New York Times opinion writer Mara Gay also joined the conversation, and said Chevalier’s comments were “indefensible,” but also stated, “in this environment of Trump and Trumpism, people say a lot of offensive things, and you also have to look at what they do.” 

She later said, while she was “certainly not a socialist,” more competition in the Democratic primaries from Democratic socialists was “good for democracy.”

Morning Joe seemed to still be in a moment of denial over DSA victories, but time will tell if the old guard of the MS NOW show will remain the voice of the Democrat Party or if it will be replaced by more socialist programs.

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

June 25, 2026

6:56:00 AM Eastern

(...)

KATTY KAY: One of the biggest upsets in Tuesday night's primary elections came in New York's 13th congressional district, where a 32-year-old Democratic socialist, Darializa Avila Chevalier, managed to beat incumbent congressman Adriano Espaillat. But Chevalier, who is backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has been facing scrutiny now over previously articulated stances and numerous social media posts that she's since deleted. Plus, her appearance at a rally the day after Hamas's attack on Israel on October the 7th 2023, where attendees reportedly suggested the attack was justified

In a now-deleted social media posts between 2018 and 2022, Chevalier also used expletives to refer to former vice president Kamala Harris and the democratic national committee, and expressed support for abolishing police, prisons, and borders, as well as seizing private property, nd calling into question Israel's right to exist. Other reports noted she called former President Joe Biden a rapist and disparaged white people in some of her posts. 

Chevalier has said she regrets the posts and says she has, quote, “grown considerably since writing them.”

[To Lemire] I'm thinking a little bit of Graham Platner. There are posts for everything. But are Democrats running into a world where they are nominating candidates who are exciting the base but have a history that may come back to haunt them.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: It's possible, but we also live in an age of Donald Trump being president, and he has said more things than I can count that would have disqualified candidates of the past. Perhaps we are moving into a new era. 

Certainly, the New York Post gives its thoughts about these candidates. The Wall Street Journal, another Rupert Murdoch-owned organization, their editorial board has a new piece headlined “The Socialist Democrats of America,” 

(...)

6:59:50 AM Eastern

LEMIRE: So, Joe, we talked about this for a little bit yesterday, too. I mean, certainly the Post and Journal have their opinions. But, you know, this is candidates for certain communities, certain districts, certain states do not necessarily represent the national party. And we should again, reflect on the idea of how far to the right Republicans have swung in the age of Trump. This isn't just a phenomenon for one party here.

JOE SCARBROUGH: No, no, it's certainly not a phenomenon for one party. And of course, Republicans attacking Democrats for shocking social media posts from 4 or 5 years ago, of course, would be exactly what they would do. Democrats would do the same thing. 

But still, it's not just The Wall Street Journal that is expressing concerns. Sam Stein, I want to read you - this is Michelle Goldberg from yesterday. In her column, she said last week in an interview with the New York Times editorial board, a group of veteran journalists who questioned local and civic leaders asked the candidate whether she opposed all deportations. She said she opposed all deportations, even those of violent criminals. She's a prison abolitionist. She couldn't or wouldn't answer repeated questions about whether even murderers should be incarcerated. 

Sam Stein, call me crazy. This doesn't look like the way forward for Democrats not only in middle America, but in New York City.

SAM STEIN: Yeah. I mean, murderers should be incarcerated. I don't think that that's controversial. You shouldn't -

SCARBOROUGH: [Snaps fingers] Look, see. He’ll just say it.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow.

SCARBOROUGH: Look at Sam!

BRZEZINSKI: Good job Sam!

SCARBOROUGH: That’s courage

BRZEZINSKI: Was that - are you okay?

SCARBOROUGH: Courage! As Dan Rather would say. You go, man. You go!

BRZEZINSKI: Wow.

STEIN. Thank you. Maybe I should just leave the set on that high note.

Also, I would say don't cheer Hamas the day or week after what happened on October 7th -

SCARBOROUGH: Yep.

BRZEZINSKI: That’s a good one. Yeah.

STEIN: It's deeply problematic and reprehensible to a lot of people in this country who are Jewish and who are legitimately fearful about what's happening. So, obviously, there are positions being taken here that are troubling. 

And if you look in a larger sense, they're going to be used to paint every single Democrat in the House. That would be disingenuous, of course. But it's true, iy will happen.

I will say this, a couple of things. One is on the issue of social media posts. She should be held to account for them. But we also should recognize that in this modern day and age, it's not just that everyone has social media posts that they're embarrassed by, but young people, a lot, have social media posts that they're going to be embarrassed by. It doesn't negate your responsibility for them, but I do think we need to contextualize this. 

And then secondarily, I do think the Journal’s Op-Ed on - their editorial on this is largely correct. I will say this, though, leaves out some context that I think is important, which is that this is somewhat an, if not totally confined, to major cities, right? It's DC, where we are at currently, and New York City, which had these elections on Tuesday night. But there are plenty of examples where the Democratic party in this election cycle has not veered heavily left, like the editorial implies, including in New York City, Ritchie Torres won his primary. For instance, you go across the Hudson, Mikie Sherrill is the governor. That's not DSA Democrats, right across. Even on Tuesday night and other states in Utah, for instance, there was not, you know, a dsa democratic uprising in Salt Lake City. That would be kind of remarkable. 

But the Democrats have been somewhat pragmatic in places outside of New York. Doesn't mean that Zohran Mamdani doesn't have a power center. Doesn't mean that it is interesting and noteworthy and potentially problematic that the party's veering to the left. But I think holistically, you can't jump to conclusions right away.

LEMIRE: Yeah. And in fact, to that point, Sam, in just a few minutes, we're going to be joined by a Democratic candidate, a veteran who was their nominee to challenge Mike Lawler in his upstate New York district here. So certainly one size does not fit all. 

Let's bring into the conversation opinion writer at the New York Times. Mara Gay. Mara, your thoughts? I mean, certainly some of these stances that she has expressed in the past are abhorrent and or nonsensical. But speak to us about what you're seeing here, this energy from the left. And that includes in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani is playing a bit of a kingmaker.

MARA GAY: Yeah. I mean, first of all, those statements are indefensible, and she knows it, which is why she's apologized. Yes, she was younger. But at the same time - and you hope to see more, frankly, from congressional candidates, from people serving in Congress. 

But I also just want to say that, as you pointed out, in this environment of Trump and Trumpism, people say a lot of offensive things, and you also have to look at what they do.

I think I want to pull back here. I want to push back against this idea that New York City's electorate is somehow exceptional from the rest of the country. Certainly, every district is not going to be representative of the entire country. You could say the same thing about a district in Iowa, okay? But the voters did make a decision, and Chevalier won college-educated voters. She won young voters. She won black voters. She won - lost hispanic voters and lower-income voters, but won 40 percent of them. And so there is something to be said for letting the voters have their say. 

At the same time, you know, these are not voters who are interested in prison abolition. I think the larger context here is that many Americans, not just Democrats, see that the Democratic establishment has failed to win elections in a way that makes their life better, and to prevent Donald Trump from gaining power. And they feel that Democrats have failed - Establishment Democrats have failed to serve them in their everyday lives. And so they're taking a chance on something new, on a different option. 

And I think the DSA, you know, while I'm certainly not a socialist, at the same time, they are introducing competition into democratic primary elections where there was very little competition. And that's what voters are interested in. That's what they're responding to right now in the Democratic party, the competition is coming from the left. That's especially true in New York, also in Michigan with Abdul Sayeed. You know, there are other places in the country where competition may not come from the left, but more competition is good for democracy. And I think we should let the voters have their say.

LEMIRE: All right. So, Steve joins us at the table now,. You have a chart looking at how the three primary winners, backed by Mayor Mamdani, underperformed among voters who are less educated and less wealthy, to sort of the point that Mara was just making. Take us through it.

STEVE RATTNER: Yeah. So, this is interesting, and maybe counterintuitive in terms of how the voters chose between the insurgent candidate and the establishment candidate. What you find when you look at this chart, which is up on the screen right now, and I'm going to try to explain it from here, is the vertical axis is the percent of people who had bachelor's degrees or higher. And this, by the way, incorporates 1100 different precincts across New York in terms of the data. So, all three of those congressional districts that we're talking about.

Across the bottom, you have median income. So, all the way from no income to the right to $250,000 of income. And the blue is the are the places where the insurgent won by large margins. And then, as in the light blue, they won by smaller margins. And the same with the red. 

So, what's interesting here is that the insurgents did least well among the people who you would expect to be the most supportive of them, i.e. people with less education and less income. And the biggest support for the insurgents came from people with more education and higher incomes. And the only other thing I'd point out in the upper right corner, if you can see a little tiny bit of light blue, those are the highest income, highest educated precincts, like Fifth Avenue, for example. They still supported the insurgent, but by a much smaller margin.

So, at the two extremes, you have less support for the insurgents. And so much of it is coming from basically people who are well educated and make a good bit of money, and the people who you would expect to get the most benefit from it are, in fact, least likely to support the insurgents. And this, of course, mirrors a little bit Donald Trump and the famous white working class voters who supported him, at least then, even though there was not a single thing in Trump's policies or practices that actually helped them.

(...)

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