Democratic strategist Matt Bennett tore into the Democratic Socialists of America’s agenda on a CNN panel, arguing its priorities—including universal rent control, expanding voting access for illegal immigrants, and public ownership of major corporations—are “
For Matt Bennett, the fight wasn’t abstract. It was numbers, districts, and a message Republicans could turn into a weapon the next time Democrats tried to win on the national stage.
On Saturday. Bennett— a veteran Democratic strategist and senior vice president at the Democratic think tank Third Way—took aim at the Democratic Socialists of America during a CNN panel with DSA co-chair Ashik Siddique. The exchange followed a segment in which host Michael Smerconish flashed a graphic laying out DSA priorities.
The list included allowing illegal immigrants to vote, universal rent control and childcare, and public ownership of major corporations. Bennett argued those ideas may play well with “ultra-liberals in New York City,” but he said they won’t work elsewhere.
“The kinds of things that you just read out in the DSA platform are wildly unpopular in those places, and we have just handed Republicans a very potent weapon to fire at those kinds of Democrats,” Bennett said.
He didn’t stop at politics as persuasion. He framed it as politics as vulnerability.
Bennett continued: “And it’s not just like, free stuff. We’re talking about closing prisons and releasing prisoners. I mean. we now have people that are going to be members of Congress who don’t think murderers should be in prison. You don’t have to be a political genius to figure out how to weaponize that against other Democrats.”.
The argument landed while the DSA’s political influence has been rising in New York City. The panel came just days after three socialist candidates backed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their Democratic primaries.
Two of those candidates—Darializa Avila Chevalier (D) and Claire Valdez (D)—are card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani himself is also described as a DSA member. The third candidate. Brad Lander (D). is a former DSA member who left the organization after its response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack in Israel.
Lander’s candidacy also reflected a political fight inside the Democratic coalition: he received Mamdani’s backing over incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). The NYC Comptroller at the center of that contest claimed that American support for Israel made the USA “complicit in genocide.”
Beyond their shared socialist orientation, the candidates also align with Mamdani that ICE needs to be abolished.
That NYC momentum has unsettled many Democrats who want to move the party toward what they see as broader electoral appeal. Bennett. in defending his critique. said it mattered that a relatively small number of people voted in the New York City elections last week. His warning to Democrats was direct: they can’t afford to “adopt the DSA playbook” if they want to win “very centrist [and] very purple” parts of the country in the midterms.
The panel also featured a defense of the DSA platform from Siddique, who said millions of Americans are tired of having to “worker harder to get by” while struggling to afford groceries—at the same time, he pointed to SpaceX boss Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
The confrontation over strategy comes as the political pressure around Mamdani’s victories spreads beyond New York. Trump, for his part, sardonically congratulated Mamdani on getting “3 solid Communists” elected.
And inside the Democratic Party, the unease has been visible. The socialist wave was celebrated by Mamdani on Tuesday night. but the primaries’ outcomes left establishment Democrats unsettled—one centrist House Democrat told Axios that 2027 would be a “headache” for the party with them around. while another House Democrat reacted to the sweep by saying “Holy sh*t.”.
Taken together, the Saturday exchange underscored the same tension Democrats are trying to manage right now: whether an agenda built for the activists and cities can survive contact with the rest of the country—especially when the election math and the messaging advantages belong to someone else.
Matt Bennett Democratic Socialists of America Ashik Siddique Zohran Mamdani NYC Democratic primaries Third Way CNN panel ICE abolition rent control universal childcare universal rent control
Rent control forever sounds like a trap.
So he’s mad DSA wants immigrants to vote?? Like isn’t that already a thing if you live here long enough or whatever? This just feels like Republicans using fear again.
Universal rent control and childcare is gonna sound good to me, but I didn’t catch the whole thing. Also “public ownership of major corporations” means like… the government just takes them? because that’s what it sounded like. Then he goes into prisons?? I’m confused how that connects.
Matt Bennett always talks like New York is the whole country. People keep saying illegal immigrants voting is a huge problem but I swear half these clips get twisted. If someone said murderers shouldn’t be in prison then yeah that’s gonna be a headline for sure. Also releasing prisoners sounds like he’s saying crime goes up, but I’m not sure if that’s what the DSA actually means. Either way, CNN loves turning everything into a fight.