Van Jones This is a new era for the Democratic Party

What do you think Democrats, not in New York City, should be learning from this? Well, first of all, New York City matters because the two most exciting left-wing candidates are here, AOC and Mamdani. But also, this is a stronghold for the establishment. Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. This is a battle between the establishment and this insurgency. And the roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment tonight. If Mamdani gets a hat trick, three out of three, this is a new era for the Democratic Party. And you can't write off New York City because this is the place where both... It's a power center for the establishment and the insurgency. And they're going head-to-head tonight. And right now, this is no longer a movement. This is a movement and a machine at the same time. And there's just no way to sugarcoat this. If Mamdani pulls off the hat trick, it is a new era in Democratic Party politics. Well, and if you're a moderate Democrat who's on the election, who's on the ballot this November van, I mean, they're all going to get asked about the positions that we're hearing from these other fellow Democrats. Well, look, I think our frontline Democrats will be able to make their case for themselves. I think they'll be able to do, OK, we've got a lot of national security Democrats in other parts of the country. But this is a big deal tonight. And I think that, look, I don't know what you want me to say here. This is a straight-up battle between the establishment and the insurgency. And the establishment is getting its butt kicked tonight in New York City. CNN has a projection. I'm going to go straight to John King. And that projection, Abby, means that the mayor, Mamdani, does get a sweep of the three races in which he endorsed in Democratic primaries tonight. The Democratic Socialist candidate, Danieliza Avila Chevalier, beating a powerful Democratic, longstanding Democratic incumbent, Adriano Espaillat. A much more narrow race than the other two districts here. But this is, again, a Democrat. This is a mayor making a statement. This is a candidate making a statement. You're having the conversation with your panel about we want new, we want different. And, yes, we want more liberal in this particular case. Espaillat is certainly a Democrat and a progressive. But this is part of the generational divide. We've also seen the Democratic Party. We want new. We want younger. But there's one for the mayor. There's two for the mayor. And there's three tonight. So the conversation is going to be, Abby, number one, how much power does Zoran Mamdani have in New York City politics? Number two, he's also making some enemies tonight, let's be honest. He's been mayor six months and he's gone against two Democratic incumbents and the wishes of the retiring Democratic incumbent in the third district there. But he's making a statement for the city, for the state. And he's also making a statement of where he thinks the Democratic Party should go nationally. Both for the next five months and into 2028. So as you're discussing with your panel, can you export this? Can you sell what he wants to do in New York City where his candidates clearly are winning tonight, where he won clearly convincingly? Can you sell it? Well, he wants to be part of that debate. And tonight he's proving he gets a big role in it. You know, this is a really important conversation because Zoran Mamdani, thank you, John King. Zoran Mamdani is he took a big swing. Right. As we were just discussing. And you don't take those kinds of swings unless you think you can win. And he did. And this last race that we just called. Just one second, because I think this is super important. Daryliza Avila Chevalier is one of the more controversial candidates. CNN earlier in the year reported that she had deleted previous Twitter posts expressing views for abolishing police prisons, borders, seizing private property, nationalizing major industries, calling into question Israel's right to exist. She spoke to a friend of the show, said Herndon in a recent interview said that all deportations are immoral. So all of that being said, there she is defeating a Democratic incumbent, a powerful member of the Hispanic caucus who's been chairman. He's been there for a really long time. I mean, you could say that all of this is just controversial. She's a bad candidate, but she's likely to just be the congressperson. And does it not suggest, though, that people, the voters looked at that and they were like, we don't really care about that. We care about all these other things. I think that's the problem for the greater Democratic Party in this district or in these three districts. You have the ones who are the furthest to the left, who under no uncertain terms support open borders, do not support any deportation. And even in that podcast interview, I mean, she was given a follow up of even if it's a murderer, even if it's a rapist. No, they shouldn't be deported. Republicans are very obviously going to take advantage of this. And it's going to hurt the Democrats nationwide. You could win in New York. You can win in Seattle. You can win in Portland, in Los Angeles. But that's where you're going to win. And if we're able to define the Democrats who have tried to run away from this label of being socialist, being open borders, being pro crime or anti Israel, if that's the goal of the Democratic Party to run from that, you're not going to get one important thing. People are broke. That's the other part you forget, is that the affordability crisis in this country, I think, is a major win for a lot of Democrats. It's like, again, all those little scary terms I like to use to try to throw people off. And she's open borders. And I'm not saying that I agree with that. Yes, but there's extreme mega candidates, too, that we're on way worse than you call them out as well. And yes, we do. And we don't get elected. We know why. Because there is core things that still resonate with people. And all the scary terms aren't going to get them off of that. At the end of the day, if people are broke, they do not care. Republicans don't lose anything tonight in these districts. But they are going to be dealing with some of these far left candidates in, say, Maine. I mean, to come up for Congressman Golden's position, you guys put someone very far to the left. And that's now going to go into the Republican camp. We're going to pick that seat up. I don't think you will, my friend. I think that's the thing. You guys keep putting out all these scary terms. We've heard all this anti-Semitism and we're able and we're open borders. But listen, that's one candidate that you're talking about in the entire country. No, listen, you cannot make it about scary terms. There are people struggling in this country. And we need representatives that don't disrepresent the donors and the lobby groups and the billionaires. Mamdani is showing us that you can deliver. It is possible to run and keep your promises. I would love to talk without you talking over me the entire time. He's also out there saying that he's going to align himself with the folks that do not believe in Israel's right to. What about what Jamel is saying? I mean, isn't the story of the last 10 years of politics, especially in this Trump era, that there are, even in the Republican tent, plenty of people to the far right that have been welcomed into the tent. And maybe they're toxic, maybe they're controversial, but they still get elected in their ruby red districts. It just seems like a parallel thing is starting to happen on the Democratic side. And part of what's happening is that Democrats are actually learning from what Republicans did. I don't think they're learning. I don't really think they are learning. I mean, I think if you if you look back, this happened to us in 2010 and 2012. You can look at candidates like Sharon Angle and Richard Murdoch and Todd Akin. We left a lot of Senate seats and House seats on the table because we did things that made the most radical people in our party happy. And you guys are celebrating how we're taking our party back. We're finally sending a message. It's a message that swing voters are going to be scared of. Congresswoman Chevalier, Congresswoman Elect Chevalier, I'd like to invite her to come campaign in any of the districts where I'm working with candidates this year. She would be welcome. We might pay her travel expenses. I would like her to be an ambassador of the Democratic Party. But she's not an ambassador of the Democratic Party. Of course she is. She just won tonight. No, she's not. I'm sorry, but aren't you celebrating the unity that she's bringing to the base of the Democratic Party? You're saying that she's energizing everyone. I think we started this by saying her race was the closest, that Mamdani was the thing that we were celebrating, and Mamdani is showing that politicians can... Again, I'm speaking and you keep talking over me. I would love to finish your point. Hold on a second. Just finish your point and then you can respond. My point is, we were talking about Mamdani. Mamdani, in six months, has shown what the Democrats have not been able to show in years. That you can say you're going to get something done, and then you can get it done. That you can look out for the people, and you can actually deliver for them. That if you don't answer to the billionaire class, you don't answer to a lobby group, and you don't answer to your donors, then you can actually keep looking out for the people. And that's why when we're talking about John saying, you know, is this Mamdani's idea? This is what a lot of us in the country want. We want politicians that answer to us, that look out for us, that represent us. How big of a shockwave was this to see all of the people that Mamdani endorsed win? I mean, truly, as Politico put it, there is a new king of New York when it comes to endorsements. I mean, just up and down the ballot from, you know, congressional races on down. If you're Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, you're really taking a tough look at this. Because truly, a New Yorker sent a message last night, and with affordability at top of minds of Democrats, this has got to rattle them going forward. Yeah, affordability was the word, right, that everyone was kind of looking at and using. Francesca, I do wonder if this is a New York anomaly? Or do you see Zora Mamdani's version of democracy as a harbinger of things to come in potentially other places, other states, other cities? There's a more nuanced look if you go across the country. I mean, you have a state like Iowa, where Josh Turick won, and he had a large establishment support. Even looking in New York itself, you have the race where Michael Asher won and had been an aide to Gerald Nadler and had his support. And so, yes, certainly a progressive wave going on in New York and in other parts of the country, for sure. But as Democrats are trying to figure out what kind of message works for them, they're finding that in different states, particularly in red states, in some of these purple states, that the message that might work for voters is going to be different than the one that works in a place like New York that's very blue. And they're having to figure out how to thread that needle as they start to look for a candidate who can try and bring all these different parts of the party together in 2028. But as far as this idea of Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer, I did want to pick up on what Jackie was saying and say, if you're waking up this morning and you're Chuck Schumer and you're looking at that, or you're Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who's trying to figure out what she's going to do in her future, the progressive wave that we've seen last night leans, of course, in the direction of an AOC. Jackie, as Francesca has sort of alluded to, as Republicans watch Democrats wrestle with their own ideological divisions, how might this be used in the midterms in other places? That's the question. I think some of the members who won in New York will be used as the new boogeyman, as the Republicans tried to do with Mayor Mumdani. Now, whether or not that works, I think it depends on where you are. I mean, good luck trying to do that in a place like Texas, for example. But it might work somewhere like Maine, where they have a very progressive candidate running, or around the margins. Somewhere like Maine, where you do have a candidate that is very progressive, M. Graham Plattner. So, as Francesca pointed out, this isn't a one-size-fits-all, but I think as much as we talk about problems that Republicans have, Democrats clearly have some of their own internally. And the other really interesting thing that we're going to see moving forward, potentially into next year, about Hakim Jeffries is how he governs this kind of caucus. He's going to have a very strong vocal left wing, potentially, if they end up taking the majority, or if they don't.