Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) brushed aside Republican warnings about the Democratic Socialists of America during a Wednesday appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” arguing that the party’s left flank has a way of moderating over time — and that the GOP’s focus on the label is a sign of weakness rather than strength.
According to Breitbart News, which flagged the remarks, Dean pushed back on the framing that the Democratic Party is being pulled toward socialism by DSA-aligned candidates.
“I don’t see this as DSA vs. whatever,” Dean said. “I think that is an attempt by those who fear they are about to lose to try to point something scary, oh, the Democrats are DSA.”
A Squad Precedent
Dean, who entered Congress in 2018, drew on her own freshman class as evidence that left-wing energy at the ballot box tends to cool once lawmakers are actually governing. She pointed to the group of progressive women first elected that year and quickly dubbed “the Squad” by the press.
“Many of them went on to be very valuable members of Congress, and many of them wound up not staying in Congress,” she said. “People learn, people moderate.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat argued that the Republican emphasis on socialism, communism and the DSA is less a substantive critique than a messaging tactic aimed at voters who might otherwise be drifting away from the GOP.
“So, everyone’s hair is on fire, crazy leftists. It is a sign of the Republicans losing,” Dean said. “So what do they have? Call names, Communism, socialism, DSA.”
Dean Says GOP Rivals Are the Real Concern
Dean went further, saying she is far less concerned about a candidate who adopts a DSA label winning a seat and joining the Democratic Caucus than she is about the Republicans already serving alongside her — whom she accused of enabling the president’s agenda across a range of fronts.
“I am far less worried about some person who espouses some DSA title winning and coming into our caucus than I’m worried about those who are in the Republican Caucus who are complicit with the president in an illegal war, in unconstitutional tariffs, in the cruelty and grotesqueness and un-American nature that is ICE, that has been grotesquely funded,” she said.
Dean added that Republicans “have voted in lockstep with this president over and over again.”
The congresswoman also addressed her own political activity, stating that the candidates she is working to elect are not affiliated with the DSA — a distinction that appears aimed at separating mainstream Democratic campaign efforts from the party’s socialist wing.
Why the Label Fight Matters
Dean’s comments land in the middle of a broader internal argument over how much influence democratic socialists should have within the Democratic coalition. Republicans have increasingly used the DSA label as a cudgel, tying mainstream candidates to the party’s most left-leaning activists — a strategy Dean clearly believes is designed to spook swing voters rather than describe the actual makeup of the Democratic Caucus.
Her response amounts to a two-part defense: first, that the Democratic Caucus is not stocked with what she called “crazy far-leftists,” and second, that even candidates who arrive with strong progressive support tend to shift as they learn the job.
That second argument is a notable one from a lawmaker who has watched the Squad’s trajectory up close. Some of its original members have become influential committee voices and national figures; others have moved on from Congress entirely. Dean frames that churn as a natural filtering process — “people learn, people moderate” — rather than a warning sign for the party.
Whether that argument persuades voters in competitive districts is another matter. Republicans have shown little sign of dropping the socialism line of attack, and the DSA brand remains one of the most reliably effective fundraising and advertising themes on the right. Dean’s answer, essentially, is that the attacks reveal more about Republican anxiety than about the Democratic Party’s direction.
The exchange on “Cuomo” also reflects a wider tactical split among Democrats about how to handle the socialist question. Some in the party prefer to keep distance from DSA-aligned candidates and organizations; others argue that amplifying Republican framing only validates it. Dean’s approach — acknowledging that DSA-labeled candidates exist, predicting they will moderate, and redirecting fire at the GOP — sits in the second camp.
For now, her message to Democrats worried about the label is that the other side’s focus on it is a tell. “It is a sign of the Republicans losing,” she said.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/09/23/dem-rep-dean-on-dsa-people-learn-people-moderate/