Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the Democratic Party is imploding under the weight of its own divisions, warning that a “civil war” between moderates and socialists threatens to destroy it.
Democrats have “lost their identity” and are banking on President Trump “making a mistake” instead of offering a real plan for America’s future, Cuomo said during an interview on Stephen A. Smith’s Straight Shooter program.
“You have these far-left, extreme-left socialists,” Cuomo said. “They call themselves democratic socialists. Forget democratic—it’s just a modifier for socialists.” He accused party leaders of appeasing the radicals rather than confronting them. “The far left is never going to declare peace,” Cuomo warned. “They’re going to come for power, and they’re going to come to kill them.”
When asked if leaders such as the Senate’s Chuck Schumer and the House’s Hakeem Jeffries shared blame, Cuomo didn’t hesitate. “It applies to all of them,” he said, adding that the party has strayed far from its traditional roots. “That is not my father’s Democratic Party. It’s not Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party. It’s not Barack Obama’s Democratic Party. This is a socialist party. It would be the death of the Democratic Party.”
Cuomo pointed to New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, whom he called a “34-year-old socialist” pushing to decriminalize prostitution and defund the police, as symbolic of the party’s radical turn. “The Republicans are licking their lips,” he said, arguing that Democrats are handing conservatives an edge next year.
“The Democratic Party has no strategy vis-à-vis Trump,” Cuomo concluded. “It’s all about hoping he makes a mistake. The party is lost, disconnected, and alienated from the working-class Americans it once represented.”
The son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, Andrew left office amid a sexual harassment scandal and criticism over sending COVID patients into nursing homes.