Vance says Democrats headed toward communism: ‘This is not raising taxes a little bit’

Administration Vance says Democrats headed toward communism: ‘This is not raising taxes a little bit’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/01/26 1:40 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/01/26 1:40 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Vice President Vance on Tuesday accused Democrats of heading toward communism, citing recent Democratic primary victories by democratic socialist candidates and claiming the policies they propose are “not raising taxes a little bit.”

The vice president appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, where host Laura Ingraham asked if democratic socialist candidates are going to “dominate” the whole Democratic Party. She drew a parallel to the Republicans’ Tea Party movement during the Obama administration and credited them for President Trump’s two election victories.

In his answer, Vance incorrectly conflated communism with democratic socialism.

“I unfortunately fear that’s the direction the Democrats are headed,” he replied. “And it is communism, Laura. This is not — you know, this is not raising taxes a little bit, however much we might disagree with that. This is abolishing the police. This is letting criminals run amok in your cities. This is –– flood your country with low-wage third-world immigrants.”

Vance speculated that the rise of democratic socialist candidates is “a consequence of the fact that the Democrat Party has become run by the universities and by the professors. This is not working-class, union Democrats.”

“This is fundamentally a view that the United States is an evil country that must be dismantled from the ground and then built back up,” he said. “That’s communism at its core, and you see more and more movement in that direction from the Democratic Party.”

Vance’s comments follow the string of wins by progressive candidates running in Democratic primaries across parts of the country, most notably in New York last week. Candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), himself a democratic socialist, won against incumbent Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman.

Former attorney Melat Kiros became the latest democratic socialist to win a Democratic primary, defeating 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) on Tuesday.

Kiros’s primary win and the victories in New York add evidence to the “Mamdani Effect” following the mayor’s successful campaign last year with support from New York City’s chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). It operates as a political organization with candidates running as Democrats, though they largely disagree with the party’s apparatus.

The ideology has seen a rise in prominence over the past decade, greatly inspired by democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) two presidential campaigns. Sanders’s message and challenge brought against prominent Democrats inspired similar campaigns, including Mamdani’s and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) congressional race in 2018.

Trump has used the word communist as an epithet toward some of his more liberal political opponents, typically Democrats, over the years. He, too, reacted to the recent victories, calling democratic socialists the “biggest threat to our nation there is.”

“I think it’s the biggest threat to our nation there is, maybe since our founding,” he added while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “That includes World War I, World War II, Sept. 11, it includes the Pearl Harbor attack.”