A Democratic Socialist candidate sitting down with a Fox News anchor is a big deal. The nation’s two most prominent elected officials affiliated with Democratic Socialists hosting a town hall on CNN on the same day suggests a potential inflection point. Is a new moment for the left on cable news finally here?
While we may not be at the cusp of a cable news revolution, two high-profile events on Wednesday — Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s interview on Fox News and the CNN-hosted shutdown town hall featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — point to a potentially promising recalibration.
With Wednesday’s pair of appearances on prominent cable outlets, the left showed it is no longer content to shout from the sidelines. Progressive politicians will now be unashamedly on the field — and seeking to create a moment of dissonance.
Progressive voices have long been treated as punchlines, typically serving as foils to conservative voices on mainstream and cable news. With Wednesday’s pair of appearances on prominent cable outlets, the left showed it is no longer content to shout from the sidelines. Progressive politicians will now be unashamedly on the field — and seeking to create a moment of dissonance.
Mamdani entered enemy territory already under sustained attack. For months, Fox News has been hammering him, painting the New York assemblyman with Islamophobic tropes, and calling him an anti-semite and a communist. His decision to appear on Fox was a risky political gambit that holds lessons for the left’s broader media ambitions. On the campaign trail, the 33-year-old mayoral front-runner — who turns 34 on Saturday — has been relentlessly focused on economic issues. But he did not shy away from tackling Fox News’ culture war questions head-on.
Host Martha MacCallum opened the interview with a question reminiscent of the one that arguably propelled Mamdani to the head of the pack in the crowded Democratic primary: If he thought Hamas should disarm following its tenuous peace agreement with Israel. She pressed him on whether he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York, a pledge that Mamdani made in a September interview with the New York Times.
As with his standout primary debate answer, in which he vowed to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers “wherever they are across the five boroughs” when asked if he planned to visit Israel as mayor, Mamdani attempted to center his response on domestic concerns and diffuse a potential liability. He also forcefully pushed back when MacCallum seemed to push Thatcherism on him, pressing him about “running out of other people’s money” hours after the White House’s announcement that it is working to double a $20 billion private sector bailout to prop up the moribund currency of Argentina after MAGA-friendly President Javier Miele’s reforms.
But perhaps the most consequential gesture of his appearance came when Mamdani, whose mother is a celebrated filmmaker, showed off his command of stagecraft.
MacCallum challenged Mamdani’s past criticism of New York Police Department officers, whom he referred to as “racist” and “wicked” in social media posts. “Police officers that I spoke to, they don’t want a behind closed doors apology,” she said, pressing him to apologize live on-air. The giant smile on his face was an indication that Mamdani relished the opportunity Fox News provided. Looking straight into the camera, Mamdani apologized for his criticism, continuing on after MacCallum interrupted his apology, demonstrating a willingness to learn and grow that was refreshingly human. Before President Donald Trump’s ascent, it was a trait lauded in a leader.
Mamdani also directly addressed Trump and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent and is Mamdani’s top rival in the mayoral election.
“I want to take this moment, because you spoke about President Trump, and he may be watching right now, and I just want to speak directly to the president,” Mamdani said, again turning to camera. “I will not be a mayor like Mayor [Eric] Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won’t be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own. I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living.”
Within minutes of his appearance, Mamdani was vilified. Fox News host Will Cain called him a “threat to Western civilization” immediately after the interview aired. But on “Special Report” that night, Fox News contributor Brit Hume begrudgingly admitted that Mamdani “is a big talent.” As Hume explained to the television audience, “the striking thing about him is not only is he polished and articulate, but very disarming. He’s got this ready smile, and he seems so easygoing and friendly and affable.”
Indeed, beyond the charisma Mamdani is widely praised for, his appearance demonstrated the very strength and dominance that Democrats and the left are too often lacking. By speaking not just to hostile Fox News viewers, but also to conservatives more broadly and to Trump himself, he asserted agency without emulating Republicans.
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But Mamdani wasn’t the only one who took flak from the right. Across social media, Fox News viewers seemed displeased with MacCallum’s performance. As hard as she tried to paint Mamdani’s proposals as unreasonable, she often muttered “right” under her breath as he answered her questions, serving to unintentionally bolster his talking points.
For all the attention given to Mamdani, it’s certainly easier to win adulation and skirt scrutiny when you don’t have the baggage of being in office. That’s why it’s notable that, armed with the knowledge that cable loves conflict, congressional leaders on the left turned to the medium to directly confront a government shutdown that is stretching into its third week.
On the same day as Mamdani’s Fox News debut, CNN hosted the “Shutdown America” town hall. Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders took the opportunity to call out the “common lie” that’s been spread by Republican leaders, including Vice President JD Vance, about emergency care and undocumented immigrants at the heart of the shutdown fight.
“I don’t know about you, but me, as a human being, I don’t want to live in a world where if a human being is struck by a car or is getting rushed into a hospital, that people in the ER surgical room are asking for your insurance information or asking for documents before they save your life,” said the congresswoman, defending the law signed by Republican President Ronald Reagan that requires all hospitals that participate in Medicare to provide emergency treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of immigration status.
An audience member noted that about 80% of people who benefit from the health care subsidies Democrats are fighting to extend live in states that voted for Trump. “If the Republicans are so insistent on sticking it to their own voters on this issue,” they said, “why don’t the Democrats just let them?” Ocasio-Cortez offered a powerful rebuttal: “Trump believes that if you don’t vote for him, he doesn’t have to be your leader. I don’t care if someone voted for me or not. I don’t care if someone is a Republican or an independent or a Democrat… That will never change the fact that I’m going to fight for them to have health care.”
“And that is the difference,” she continued, “between a strongman and an authoritarian, and a leader of a democracy.”
Sanders, for his part, used his time to push back against corporate media.
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“I think the Republicans are effective,” he said in response to another audience question. “They have learned a lot about social media. And by the way, it doesn’t hurt that their friends own all of the major social media platforms,” calling out billionaire media owners like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who is rumored to be interested in CNN after his son David recently purchased the parent company of CBS News. “Mr. Ellison’s going to own you pretty soon,” Sanders told host Kaitlan Collins.
In an era of cable news grifting, bickering and blatant bigotry, progressive voices like these are a breath of fresh air. Trying to shift the terms of debate, especially via a medium like cable news, is structurally inhospitable. That’s why a successful media strategy is not mere cable presence but involves multiplatform reach. Within hours, both Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani had posted clips from their respective appearances to YouTube and social media. They understand that cable presence gives legitimacy for potentially viral clips.
Still, every time the left breaks through, the backlash is swift and brutal. Ocasio-Cortez’s minor verbal slip (suggesting corporate polluters include Deloitte, an accounting firm) was gleefully amplified by opponents in an attempt to overshadow her broader points. “Eff that woman,” Megyn Kelly ranted on her podcast about Ocasio-Cortez after the debate. The conservative pundit claimed the congresswoman’s town hall appearance inspired her own political aspirations. “If she runs for president, I might run… I’ll find my way into the ticket somehow. ” Even under such pressure, progressives cannot retreat or self-censor.
A couple of high-profile events like these do not build institutional momentum. But if the left’s performance this week on cable news has taught Democrats anything, it’s that media training should be as vital as polling or fundraising.
