New York City's homeless population exploded to 61,000 people on Bill de Blasio's watch.
Now the man who turned Gotham into a tent city is telling Americans they're "hungry" for more of the same – but nationwide.
And the DSA just admitted on national television that it wants to abolish ICE, erase America's borders, and hand amnesty to every illegal alien in the country.
The Man Who Broke New York Wants to Run the Country
Bill de Blasio served two terms as mayor of New York City.
He left office with homelessness at historic highs – tens of thousands sleeping in shelters despite billions spent on the crisis.
His own police commissioner said the administration failed to even recognize the scale of the problem.
Murders spiked nearly 50 percent during his tenure.
His wife's mental health initiative – the ThriveNYC program – burned through $850 million in taxpayer money with no meaningful results.
De Blasio himself called homelessness his "greatest failure" on his way out the door.
That's the expert now going on Fox News to declare that Americans are starving for socialist leadership.
On Tuesday, de Blasio told Laura Ingraham that candidates like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are winning because they're "pointing in a specific direction."
He's right about that part.
The Direction They're Pointing Is Straight Off a Cliff
The Democratic Socialists of America – the organization de Blasio is championing – just showed the country exactly what that direction looks like.
DSA co-chair Megan Romer sat across from Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday last month and answered a true-or-false quiz about her organization's platform.
Abolish the Senate? "True."
Replace the presidency and Supreme Court? "Absolutely."
Abolish ICE and borders? "As a long-term plan, yep."
Defund the Pentagon? "Absolutely."
No prisons? "Yeah."
Government ownership of most large corporations? "Yeah, absolutely."
https://twitter.com/Arkadalo/status/2089861973504651559?s=20
That's not a conservative's caricature of the socialist agenda – that's the DSA co-chair confirming it on camera, item by item, without hesitation.
And just five days ago, the Democrat National Committee voted to pass a resolution directing Democratic lawmakers to pursue legislation that would dismantle ICE entirely.
The DNC – the official party apparatus – took a demand that lived in DSA activist documents and put it on the record as party business.
This Is What 35 Primary Wins Looks Like From the Inside
De Blasio is not fringe.
DSA-backed candidates have racked up more than 35 primary victories this cycle, knocking out longtime Democrat incumbents along the way.
One of them unseated the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in upper Manhattan.
Another knocked off a Democrat congresswoman who had held her Colorado seat since 1997.
Abdul El-Sayed – aligned with the socialist insurgency – won the Michigan Senate Democrat primary.
The DSA started 2016 with 6,000 members.
It now claims over 100,000 – and controls New York City, the largest city in America.
De Blasio told Ingraham there's "a reason they're winning" – and he's right about that too.
They're winning Democrat primaries because the Democrat base has moved hard left since 2024.
What de Blasio won't say is that the record in cities where this ideology has actually governed tells a different story.
In the urban cores where socialists have held power longest – New York, Chicago, San Francisco – rents are the highest in American history, crime surged for a decade before Trump took office, and the homeless populations these mayors promised to fix are still sleeping on the same sidewalks.
De Blasio Wants to Abolish ICE and He Ran a City Where Murders Spiked 50 Percent
De Blasio wants to abolish ICE and replace it with an agency that – in his words – won't "create so much violence in our cities."
https://twitter.com/FoxNews_Flash/status/2090089014124847602?s=20
That argument comes from a mayor whose city saw murders climb nearly 50 percent while he was running it.
The DSA candidates he's endorsing want to stop deportations entirely, shut down immigration detention, and extend amnesty to every illegal alien in the country regardless of what they've done.
Darializa Avila Chevalier – one of the DSA's newest congressional primary winners in New York – has said flat-out that "all deportation is wrong" and called for "a world without borders."
She also wiped her hand on an American flag in a 2019 tweet, apparently satisfied that she'd found a better use for it than a napkin.
These are de Blasio's people.
The workers paying $4,000 a month in rent in cities these socialists already run, the families whose neighborhoods got less safe while the mayors who ran them gave speeches about equity – they're not going to get relief from the people who created the problem.
They're going to get more of what New York got under Bill de Blasio: bigger promises, more spending, and a bill that comes due long after the politicians who signed it have moved on.
Sources:
- Taylor Penley, "Bill de Blasio backs Democrats' socialist wing, says Americans are 'hungry' for far-left vision," Fox News, August 19, 2026.
- Scott McClallen, "Democratic Socialists' Co-Chair Admits Platform Includes Open Borders, Amnesty for Illegals," Townhall, July 26, 2026.
- "DSA co-chair reaffirms calls to abolish the Senate, ICE, and borders in interview," Washington Examiner, July 27, 2026.
- "Over 30 socialists have won primaries this year," Washington Examiner, June 25, 2026.
- "The DNC Just Endorsed Abolishing ICE. That Is Not a Minor Gesture," Self Reliance Central, August 17, 2026.
- Sean Duffy, "Unpacking de Blasio's lamentable legacy," Fox News, January 2022.
- "DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer Embraces Abolishing Senate, ICE, and Borders," political.org, July 26, 2026.