A Democratic civil war over socialism burst into the open after Rahm Emanuel accused some of the party’s newest left-wing stars of rejecting the country they want to govern.
Wolf Blitzer put the party-split question directly to the former Chicago mayor and possible 2028 contender after playing strategist James Carville’s viral warning about socialist candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Chevalier’s late-June win came as part of a three-candidate streak by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed slate, turning her far-left record into a flashpoint for party traditionalists such as Carville.
Carville framed Chevalier’s record as a breaking point for Democrats. “She has attacked interracial relationships and the American flag. Lady, I ain’t in the same party as you. I’m sorry,” Carville said on his podcast.
“I’m just not, and I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk ‘the S-word.’ ‘Schism.’ I really do.”
James Carville: “The party may have to splinter. “People always talk about the end of the two party system and we might seem pretty close to the end of it. pic.twitter.com/aABxheSsFu
— MCBN (@MCBNNEWSS) July 3, 2026
The clip teed up Blitzer’s question to Emanuel on CNN, who answered by turning the ideological fight into a map problem for Democrats.
“There are candidates out there, specifically like in New York City, who don’t like America,” Emanuel responded. “I happen to think being an American means you win the lottery ticket of life.”
For Emanuel, patriotism meant admitting the country falls short while still believing it is worth fighting for.
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“There are challenges in America that it’s not living up to its potential, as outlined here on the 250-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, where America falls short, but you always struggle for that better,” he added.
“There are people in the Democratic Socialist Party who literally do not like America, think it is a bad country.”
Then he drew a line between that worldview and his own party identity.
"She is the Democratic nominee, I would vote for her, yes."
New York congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier has supported abolishing borders, prisons and police, and called America a "f—ing disgrace" — but former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he would… pic.twitter.com/z2ZSoDtVpF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 2, 2026
“They don’t have any identity,” Emanuel pointed out. “And that is not the Democratic Party that I’m a part of, it is not the Democratic Party that struggles to make sure that other people get a chance to be in the winner’s circle.”
His larger warning was that progressive energy in safe seats will not be enough to reopen the national map. Emanuel used New York and Michigan as the contrast.
“Winning something on the Upper West Side doesn’t help you flip the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” he noted.
“And that is the only way to not only advance progressive agendas, win and unlock the electoral map that has kept Democrats out of the White House, but it also allows you to hold this administration accountable.”
The point ended with a red-state pun aimed at Democrats mistaking safe-seat wins for a national strategy.
“Unless we start flipping red to blue, you’re going to just hear it get red in the face, and that’s all the only other red you’re going to see,” he assessed. “So I’m not impressed with flipping blue districts.”
The backlash did not stop with Mamdani’s New York slate. In Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, Melat Kiros’ Tuesday primary win quickly revived scrutiny of her remarks about the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Her most explosive remark centered on whether American foreign policy helped make the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans, unavoidable.
Asked whether the attacks had been avoidable, Kiros blamed U.S. actions abroad.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East. That forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response,” Kiros said.
This is light years worse than AOC beating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley.
Melat Kiros just ousted a 15-term Democrat incumbent in Diana DeGette. https://t.co/AC9pTwt0Dq
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 1, 2026
In a campaign video, Kiros leaned into her working-class biography. “As someone who’s working as a barista to pay for school and health care, I know what it’s like to work so hard to get ahead while Washington is so far behind,” she said.
Her foreign-policy remarks have also extended to Israel, with Kiros describing the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against the Jewish state as the “inevitable consequence of apartheid.”
Republican Christy Peterson is her opponent for the Nov. 3 general election.
For GOP strategist Steve Guest, the comparison point was Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset — and he argued Kiros’ win was worse.
Guest wrote on X that Kiros’ victory eclipsed the shock of Ocasio-Cortez’s rise.
“This is light-years worse than AOC beating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley,” Guest wrote, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
The progressive push has also reached battleground Michigan, where Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
El-Sayed faces an Aug. 4 primary against two more moderate Democrats, including centrist Rep. Haley Stevens, who has support from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has long backed El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected.
In the New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez framed the endorsement as a unity move despite ideological fights inside the party.
“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”
The Michigan candidate’s résumé runs through public health and academia, including a recent role leading Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services.
His campaign agenda includes “Medicare-for-all,” abolishing ICE and accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
El-Sayed treated Ocasio-Cortez’s support as validation of the campaign.
“I’m honored for what her support says about what this campaign is building and what we’re fighting for,” he told the New York Times.
Schumer became part of El-Sayed’s outsider pitch. The Democratic Senate leader “doesn’t want to see me on the inside of the U.S. Senate,” El-Sayed told the outlet.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., offered the progressive counterattack, accusing parts of her own party of insulting the voters behind the socialist wins.
Jayapal said the backlash was aimed not only at candidates, but also at their supporters.
“I think that there are a lot of very disrespectful comments that are coming from some parts of the Democratic Party that are dismissing the voters who elected these individuals,” she told CNN.
As chair emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Jayapal read the results as a rejection of old establishment politics.
“I think people are sick and tired of the old establishment politics that too many Democrats were part of moving forward, and they’re ready for something bolder,” Jayapal said.
Her frustration centered on what she described as a double standard between moderate and progressive wins.
“Why is it that every time a moderate wins an election, people are like, ‘That’s the new blueprint for the Democratic Party.’ But if a progressive or a Democratic socialist wins, ‘Oh, the whole party’s falling to hell in a handbasket.’”
Jayapal closed with the argument that the party should study the voters returning to progressive candidates instead of dismissing them.
“I find it really insulting to say that Democratic socialists are just making noise,” she continued.
“I think you have to ask, ‘Why is it that we’ve lost so many Democratic voters?’ In these races, where democratic socialists are winning, where progressives are winning, even in very tough swing states, it’s because they are bringing voters back.”
