Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Kara Swisher on the "Pivot" podcast that Republicans are deploying what she called a "very effective" anti-communist attack against the Democratic Party's rising class of far-left candidates, who are increasingly defeating establishment Democrats in primary races.
Clinton told Swisher that Abdul El-Sayed's narrow victory in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary is a wake-up call for the party. She said El-Sayed must unite the party by winning over supporters of moderate Rep. Haley Stevens and reassuring independent voters ahead of his general election contest against Republican Mike Rogers.
"The real fight will be, how do we make sure that people who voted for Haley feel comfortable voting for Abdul El-Sayed, and how do we get independents to feel comfortable," Clinton said.
"It's not just about Michigan, but the Republican messaging is 'communist, socialist.' It's going to be a very effective attack," she warned, adding, "People on the left have to be prepared to answer that and be effective in answering that."
Clinton said President Trump's repeated use of "communist" and "socialist" labels was likely informed by polling and shouldn't be dismissed by the Democratic left. She said El-Sayed campaigned on Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, ending US aid to Israel, and raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires, positions that could alienate moderate voters.
The Democratic Socialists of America's "Dismantle America From Within" platform is an odd political pitch when most Americans simply want lower prices and lower taxes.
Clinton's warning comes one month after Mark Penn, the former chief White House pollster and strategic advisor to President Bill Clinton for six years, used a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "The Socialist Threat Is Real" to warn about far-left radicals hijacking the Democratic Party.
Penn's warning was very blunt: "America will be in serious trouble if Democrats fail to defend their party."
He added, "Lawmakers, law-enforcement agencies and journalists should investigate the Democratic Socialist of America to see if foreign governments and interests are funding it."
Another Clinton insider, Jamie Metzl, who served in the Clinton White House, sounded the alarm about "radical extremists" known as DSA:
I am a lifelong Democrat. I served on President Clinton's National Security Council and in the State Department under Madeleine Albright. I am also a lifelong human rights and civil rights advocate.
But every Democrat and every American should recognize that the DSA represents a fundamental threat to our party and our country.
This is not a story about a few idealists seeking to reduce healthcare costs. It is about a small group of radical extremists pursuing a strategy to take over the Democratic Party and ultimately our country in order to impose an agenda that would devastate our economy and fundamentally dismantle our system of government.
Don't take my word for it. Listen to the full conversation between Fox News' Martha MacCallum and New York City DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo and judge for yourself.
Clinton is part of the Democratic establishment elite class that is fighting to preserve its grip on power as progressives and reformist socialists gain ground in local elections, with some openly promoting the dismantling of capitalism and running with anti-American rhetoric.
DSA Marxist leaders are hellbent on "destroying America from within."
DSA spokesperson Hasan Piker tells followers to "kill capitalist" ...
Hasan: "FLOOD illegals into the United States so they can 'f*ck your sisters and daughters' to 'destroy the white race'."
To understand the composition of competing forces within the American left, Karlyn Borysenko, who describes herself as an anti-communist analyst, produced the five-tiered "rainbow cake" view that ranges from establishment Democrats who favor incremental reform within capitalism to revolutionary socialists seeking to abolish capitalism and destroy the nation from within.
Tiers 4 and 5, the DSA, the Mamdanis, the Hasan Pikers, the El-Sayeds, and the list goes on and on, all under the DSA tent, are what the establishment fears.
Their ties to revolutionary Marxism and Islamists are what we said last week were "the gift that keeps on giving" for Republicans and their messaging.
So why is the DSA so radical and why do they want to overthrow capitalism and the nation?
Well...
Remember in Decemeber 2025 we asked the question:
Seven months later:
A multi-agency task force is already working to identify and disrupt far-left networks and potential foreign subversion linked to actors in Cuba, China, Europe, and the Middle East, including networks associated with Neville Roy Singham. The effort appears focused on the intersection of revolutionary Marxist movements, foreign influence operations, and domestic political destabilization.
The US has already witnessed political assassinations, attempted assassinations, riots, firebombings, and other militant operations by the far left, and the situation will only worsen because the Democratic Party allowed the far left to grow as it sought to bring more people into its tent. Now, the far left is eating the establishment alive.
We must remind readers that Colombia offers a warning of how far-left militancy can escalate into intimidation and violence. Trump-backed President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella has taken power, but ahead of Friday's inauguration, Marxist terrorist groups detonated vehicle bombs. When revolutionary movements cannot secure power through popular support, they often turn to coercion, intimidation, and political violence. That's exactly what's happening in the US.
The rise of the far left and Marxist revolutionaries inside the DSA that are hellbent on destroying capitalism and the nation has only been a gift to the Republicans...
...who will be ramping up anti-communist messaging as the Red Scare is back.