Eighty-six House Democrats oppose resolution condemning ‘horrors of socialism’

Dozens of House Democrats opposed a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism” that
passed
on Thursday, though all of party leadership voted for it.

The 86 “no” votes mostly hail from the progressive wing of the party and included “Squad” members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY),
Ilhan Omar
(D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), as well as Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

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Despite calling the resolution a waste of time earlier Thursday, Minority Leader
Hakeem Jeffries
joined with 108 other Democrats and all present Republicans to support it. Additionally, 14 Democrats voted “present.”

Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Democratic Conference Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) also voted for the resolution. At a press conference Thursday morning, Jeffries blasted the resolution as a distraction from issues such as the
debt ceiling
.

Instead of revealing a budget, he said, Republicans are “bringing to the floor of the House of Representatives today a resolution on socialism to condemn some dictators that we all already condemn. But understand, the goal of this phony, fake, and fraudulent resolution is just to somehow provide cover for extreme MAGA Republicans to try to undermine an agenda that is designed to lift up the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.”

The measure was introduced by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), whose family fled Cuba, and ties socialist policies to the human rights violations under regimes in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Venezuela, China, and elsewhere, arguing they should never be implemented in the United States.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the number of Democrats who wouldn’t vote to condemn socialism is “a real concern.”

“100 Democrats couldn’t say socialism was wrong. That’s a scary point of view,” he
said
following the vote.

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Several other Republicans condemned the results of the vote. Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) called it “unbelievable,” and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said this record would come up whenever Democrats accuse the GOP of “fear mongering” about socialism.

The socialism vote followed Republicans’ successful attempt to boot Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee for past antisemitic statements.