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Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., introduced a measure Thursday condemning socialism in all its forms, telling Fox News Digital he wants to use the vote to force moderate House Democrats to take a more public stance against the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
“I keep hearing people like Hakeem Jeffries and others in the Congress saying that they oppose the DSA. Let’s see if they’re willing to vote for a resolution that would oppose them,” Crank told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday.
Crank’s House resolution cites New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory as one of the clearest signposts of the DSA’s growing political momentum.
A recent Brookings Institution analysis found that as of August 12, 123 candidates endorsed or recommended by national, state or local DSA chapters had won primaries this cycle. Most were running for local or state-level office.
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Crank described the DSA movement as “anti-American” and “anti-Constitution,” arguing that its members are often hostile to free speech, one of the core rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.
He also accused DSA members of being anti-Semitic in their advocacy against Israel, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.
“I would almost say the DSA in some ways is the marriage between socialism, the traditional socialism of Bernie Sanders, and the anti-Semitism of this sort of radical Arab movement,” Crank said.
He continued: “If that’s a marriage, their child is violence, right? It’s violence and intimidation. It’s showing up at town hall meetings and trying to shout elected officials down, which, by the way, is completely anti-democratic.”
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One recent example of DSA members disrupting an elected official came in February, when San Francisco DSA led a protest at a news conference held by Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish.
Lurie was announcing a tax-cut proposal when demonstrators repeatedly chanted “Tax the rich.” During the disruption, a woman also shouted “tax the Jews,” though DSA and other protesters said she was not affiliated with the group.
Crank also took aim at several proposals contained in the DSA’s national program, arguing that they undermine “free and fair elections.”
His House resolution calls for passage of the SAVE Act — which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections — while also highlighting the DSA’s support for extending voting rights to “noncitizens.”
According to the DSA’s program, all permanent U.S. residents should have the right to vote, as should incarcerated people and those with criminal convictions.
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The program also calls for abolishing the Senate and replacing the Supreme Court with “a judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”
Crank also criticized the DSA’s explicit opposition to capitalism, arguing that socialism has repeatedly failed both in the United States and abroad.
“I find it ironic that many of the people who are pushing socialism or who are involved in the DSA movement, they’re people who came here from a different country and now they come here and want to impose… the socialism that they left, that didn’t work,” Crank said.
He singled out Mamdani as “the first verified failure of socialism,” citing his pied-à-terre tax.
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“You’re seeing socialism at its worst in places like New York with Mamdani who’s saying, ‘Well, I am just going to tax anybody who has a big house here,'” Crank said. “Well, people can choose to not have a house in New York. So they leave. It doesn’t work.”
He added: “He’s the first one to sort of get elected, and now he’s trying to spread it and get other DSA members around the country elected.”
Crank also mentioned Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old DSA member who won her Colorado primary in July after handily defeating Democratic incumbent Diana DeGette.
“[Kiros] said America deserved 9/11. So tell me why that’s different? When you have a bunch of terrorists on September 11th killing Americans because of ideology, how is that different than what Mao did? It isn’t. This is the insidiousness of this movement,” Crank said.
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Crank’s resolution similarly draws a line between modern Democratic socialists and past communist regimes under leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin, asserting that socialism has led to famine, mass killings and more than 100 million deaths worldwide.
Kiros’ comments on 9/11 stem from an interview she did on June 22 with 9News journalist Kyle Clark, who asked her whether she believed the attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of American intervention.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros said.
Crank’s resolution will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Monday, and there will be a vote likely sometime next week, the congressman told Fox News Digital.
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