Raskin Calls Out the Irony of the GOP Voting to Condemn ‘the Horrors of Socialism’ As Trump Fetes Mamdani

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-NY) called out the irony of being forced to vote on the evils of socialism while President Donald Trump held a surprisingly friendly visit with democratic socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D-NY).

Raskin appeared on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt Friday, who asked about Republicans working to make Mamdani a “central villain” as they urge Americans to reject democratic socialist policies.

“What’s your reaction to what we saw with this, essentially, embrace from the president to the mayor-elect and back?” Hunt asked.

“The House Republicans literally kept the entire House of Representatives in session today for one purpose, and one purpose only. Which was, to vote on their resolution denouncing and deploring the horrors of socialism. They even conscripted Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison to the cause, even though they died before the word socialism was even being used,” Raskin mused.

He continued:

But in any event, while we were being forced to vote on that utterly ridiculous resolution essentially offending all of our allies in Sweden and Denmark and Norway and Finland and so on, the president was praising Mamdani as a great mayor and someone who is very rational and could be dealt with in the meantime. Again, the Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump were moving in completely opposite directions.

Before the Trump-Mamdani meeting, the House voted 285-98 to approve the resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism.” Raskin voted against it.

Dozens of other House Democrats, however, voted to condemn socialism, even Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who threw his support behind Mamdani.

Mamdani was asked about the resolution during an Oval Office press conference, but he demurred, saying, “I have to be honest with you, I focus very little on resolutions, frankly,” he said.

“I think the focus is on the work at hand,” Mamdani continued. “I can tell you I am someone who is a democratic socialist. I’ve been very open about that. I know there might be differences about ideology, but the place of agreement is the work that needs to be done to make New York City affordable. That’s what I look forward to.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.