Mike Johnson says 'many Mamdanis' are running for Congress: 'Barbarians are inside the gate'

WASHINGTON, DC: House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that "many Mamdanis" are running for Congress nationwide, declaring that "the barbarians are inside the gate" as he sounded the alarm over what he described as the rise of the insurgent left.

Johnson claimed the Democratic establishment understands the threat but feels unable to stop it. He said the movement now holds the party's "energy, the excitement, the money, the grassroots," arguing that it has become a growing force within the Democratic Party.

Mike Johnson warns 'many Mamdanis' are running for Congress

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, July 5, Johnson pushed back after being asked about Steve Bannon’s warning that Republican leaders had failed to grasp the changing political landscape.

"Well, Steve needs to see what we've been saying," Johnson said, arguing that he had raised the issue for years and repeatedly on the campaign trail.

"Since Mamdani got elected in New York, I've been out on the campaign trail countrywide, across coast to coast, every swing district, the blue states, red states, saying the same thing," he continued.

"There are many Mamdanis popping up, running for Congress around the country, and you better be very serious about this," Johnson warned. "This is a serious threat to our whole system of government.”

The speaker branded those candidates "Marxists" and linked communism and socialism to Marxism, saying the ideology "begins with the opposite premise of America."

Johnson then listed a series of positions he attributed to the movement, claiming its members want to "abolish all borders, abolish all prisons, defund the police, abolish the US Senate, pack the Supreme Court" and put production under government control.

Johnson's remarks followed a major Democratic primary upset on June 30, when 29-year-old democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado. The result marked one of the party's biggest incumbent upsets of the election cycle.

President Donald Trump has also used his Independence Day and Mount Rushmore addresses to sharply criticize the rise of democratic socialists and Marxists, according to USA Today. He described the progressive movement as a threat to American liberty and argued that far-left ideologies are incompatible with the US Constitution, the outlet reported.

Mike Johnson says Democrats feel powerless against insurgent left

Asked whether Democrats understand what their party is facing, Johnson said he believed establishment figures on Capitol Hill recognized the problem privately.

"I think quietly the Democrat establishment on Capitol Hill understands that, but they feel powerless to stop it," Johnson said.

He argued that speaking out carried a political cost because "the energy, the excitement, the money, the grassroots is on the side of the insurgent left."

Johnson called it "a threat that we have never seen before in the elected system of our government," escalating his warning beyond a conventional fight between Republicans and Democrats.

"We're no longer just in an election cycle," he said earlier in the interview. "We were saying it was common sense versus crazy, now it's common sense versus communism, and everybody needs to wake up.”

Mike Johnson says 'the barbarians are inside the gate'

Johnson invoked former President Ronald Reagan as he sharpened his warning, contrasting what he described as a once-distant communist threat with the current political fight.

"Ronald Reagan used to warn about communism, he talked about it, that it was a distant threat across the world, and now the barbarians are inside the gate," Johnson said.

He added that "this election cycle is for all the marbles" and declared, "This is not your father's Democrat Party. That party is long gone."