Bill Maher Read the DSA Platform Out Loud and His Own Audience Gasped

August 9, 2026 Cat2, The Media
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When Zohran Mamdani's socialist candidates swept New York's congressional primaries in June, Democrats told you not to worry.

Now Bill Maher is telling you to worry.

What he said to a Los Angeles studio audience may be the most dangerous thing any liberal has done to his own party in decades.

A Lifelong Democrat Just Called Them Communists

Maher didn't editorialize – he just read.

"Donald Trump has told one trillion lies," Maher told his Real Time audience, "but when he says the Democratic Socialists of America are actually communist, that's not one of them."

Then he opened the DSA platform and started reading aloud.

The platform states that members should work "as much as you are able and no more than needed."

Maher pointed out that Karl Marx's famous dictum – "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" – is so close to the DSA language that "they'd be sued for plagiarism."

The crowd went quiet.

He kept going.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the DSA's biggest star, posted Marx's exact words to social media in 2020.

Mamdani's housing aide Cea Weaver declared that "if you don't believe in the government's sacred right to seize property, it's over" – and separately said she wanted to "impoverish the white middle class."

Then Maher read Weaver's 2017 tweet: "Elect more communists."

His audience gasped.

"Good," Maher told them. "I'm glad you're shocked. People gotta realize this is going on."

This Is Not a Fringe Movement Anymore

On July 4 – not a random Tuesday, the actual Fourth of July – the DSA announced it had crossed 120,000 paid members.

That makes it the largest socialist organization in United States history – larger than Eugene Debs' Socialist Party at its 1912 peak of 113,000 members.

But here's the critical difference between 1912 and 2026: Debs ran his own party and never won an election that mattered.

The DSA runs its candidates as Democrats.

They win Democrat primaries, take the party's ballot line, and inherit safe blue seats that were never going to flip Republican in November.

That's how you get three DSA-backed candidates sweeping New York City congressional primaries in June – beating Democrats backed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Governor Kathy Hochul.

That's how a 29-year-old DSA member named Melat Kiros just ended 15-term congresswoman Diana DeGette's career in Colorado – by running as a Democrat.

The DSA celebrated with a social media post: "Only socialism can solve decades of capitalist mismanagement in the US."

What the Platform Actually Demands

Glenn Beck played the Maher clip and called him "the most important man on the planet right now to stop this."

Beck then read directly from the DSA's published platform – not leaked documents, not opposition research, the organization's own website.

The DSA wants to abolish the police and prison system.

They want to abolish the Senate.

They want to abolish the Electoral College.

They want to replace the President and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by Congress – answerable only to Congress.

They want to defund what they call the "Department of War," close every overseas military base, abolish ICE, end all detention and deportation, and grant amnesty to every illegal alien regardless of status.

And they want to end all sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.

The Marxist Unity Group – openly communist in name and ideology – holds three of the 25 seats on the DSA's national board.

"This crowd literally wants to get rid of our form of government," Maher told his audience.

When a lifelong Democrat stands in Los Angeles and says that about his own party, you should believe him.

The Party Leadership Is Asleep

Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York and Adam Gray of California drafted the Promise to America pledge and asked every House Democrat to sign three lines: "We are capitalist, not socialist. We want safety, not lawlessness. We are proud, not ashamed of America."

"You know how many signed it?" Maher asked. "Eight."

Out of 212 House Democrats, 204 wouldn't put their name on that.

That's not moderates being cautious.

Now the people who tweet "Elect more communists" are going to Congress.

And a party that can't sign a piece of paper saying it believes in America had better figure out what it actually believes before November.

Sources:

  • Fox News Digital, "Bill Maher warns that the Democratic Party is being 'colonized' by socialists, says his 'vote is in play,'" Fox News, August 1, 2026.
  • Mike LaChance, "Bill Maher Savages the DSA: 'I Would Vote for Sarah Palin Before This S**t,'" Legal Insurrection, August 2, 2026.
  • "Bill Maher elicits gasps during monologue about rising communism in Democratic Party," Christian Post, August 3, 2026.
  • "Bill Maher Draws Audible Gasps From Audience When He Reads DSA's Own Words," Daily Caller, August 2, 2026.
  • Al Perrotta, "DSA Boasts – on July 4 – That It Has More Members Than Any Socialist Organization in US History," The Stream / AMAC, July 7, 2026.
  • Fox News Politics, "DSA-backed candidates win primaries in push to reshape the Democrats," Fox News, July 2026.
  • "Democratic Party rattled by DSA midterm primary wins," The Hill, July 2026.