CNN Presses Josh Shapiro on Whether He Supports Anti-ICE, Anti-Israel Dem Socialist Getting Elected to Congress

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) didn’t sound thrilled about the strong chance Darializa Avila Chevalier (D) will get elected to Congress later this year.

The governor said he has “profound differences” with Chevalier, the anti-ICE, anti-Israel democratic socialist who won her Democratic primary in New York City recently, during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning. But he held off on saying Dem voters should avoid voting for her in November.

Anchor Dana Bash rattled off several of Chevalier’s controversial stances before asking Shapiro whether he supported her.

“She called for the abolition of prisons, open borders, end to deportations, even people convicted of violent crimes,” Bash said. “She attended a pro-Palestinian rally on October 8th, 2023, a rally that reportedly featured some real anti-Semitic rhetoric justifying the attack. How do you feel as a Democrat about someone with those views being in the United States Congress?

Shapiro answered:

Look, her district voted for her. But I have profound differences from that particular candidate, based on the citations that you read there. And she’s not someone, you know, who seemingly I would agree with on many things, or that we share similar values.

She ran on the Democratic ticket, I guess as a socialist, [and] her voters in that district determined that she was the one they wanted representing her.

Bash then asked what her primary victory says about the current state of the Democratic Party.

“I think what our party has to go through, that will be very healthy and something we’ve not really done since the 1992 election cycle, is to have a battle over what we believe in,” Shapiro said. “To have a battle over over the ideas that we are going to hold on to and campaign on, and then deliver on as a way to make people’s lives better.

He continued, “I expect our party, over the course of this next year or so, to go through a title about what we believe in, and then come out unified in a way that we can take the fight to the other side and really deliver for the American people.”

His interview comes after Chevalier was one of several candidates backed by New York City Mayor and fellow socialist Zohran Mamdani (D) who won their primaries.

Two of the candidates, Chevalier and Claire Valdez (D), are card-carrying DSA members, just like the mayor. The third candidate is Brad Lander (D), a former member of the DSA who left the organization after its response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel.

Still, he earned Mamdani’s support by running as a more critical candidate of Israel than incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Lander has claimed American support for Israel made the USA “complicit in genocide.”

Beyond their shared socialist beliefs, the three candidates agree with Mamdani that ICE needs to be abolished.

The socialist wave was celebrated by Mamdani on election night and in interviews soon after, but a number of establishment Democrats were unsettled by it. One centrist House Democrat told Axios that 2027 would be a “headache” for the party with them around.

Bill Maher similarly vented that the Democrats would “blow” the midterms if they embrace the “crazy” socialists, and James Carville urged congressional Democrats to shun any socialists who enter Congress.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump sardonically congratulated Mamdani on getting “3 solid Communists” elected. His tone shifted a few days later, when he said the communists have started to make “their move” in the USA.

“The game is on,” Trump said. “Enjoy watching!”

Trump has ripped the socialists and socialism plenty of other times recently. He said during his Fourth of July speech that communism is a “cancer” that must be dealt with ASAP.

Watch above.

The post CNN Presses Josh Shapiro on Whether He Supports Anti-ICE, Anti-Israel Dem Socialist Getting Elected to Congress first appeared on Mediaite.