Ex-Sanders Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray Says DSA Just Wants to Win

Briahna Joy Gray, the host of Bad Faith, says the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) treats winning office as the end goal. In her view, the group no longer asks whether its winners, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani among them, deliver what they were elected to do.

Gray was national press secretary for Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, so her criticism comes from inside the left. It arrives about nine months into Mamdani's term and two weeks after he stayed away from protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United Nations. During his campaign, Mamdani had promised to have Netanyahu arrested.

Briahna Joy Gray on DSA and 'the Day After'

Gray's guest on the episode, recorded Wednesday, was Norman Finkelstein, the author of Gaza's Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places. He opened the point by praising DSA. "My hats off to the DSA for its organizing in electoral contests," he said, before adding: "The problem is nobody prepared for the day after."

Gray went further.

"I don't think they didn't prepare for the day after. I think that the goal for them is winning," she said. "There's no day after, 'cause they don't care about the day after."

She said DSA members "see AOC, eight years in Congress, as a success. That was the goal, getting AOC there." She called the group "an institution" that "has zero criticisms of AOC," and described Ocasio-Cortez as having "frankly, no accomplishments to her name." That last claim is her own assessment, and Ocasio-Cortez's allies would dispute it.

Gray said the same pattern now covers Mamdani. In her view, DSA members believe "their interests are the same as Mamdani's in terms of the goal is getting him in and keeping him in and showing that we have the power to win."

"Can we actually implement Medicare for all? Can we implement an arms embargo against Israel? These aren't the questions anymore," she said.

What the Record Shows on DSA, AOC and Jamaal Bowman

DSA's record is more contentious than "zero criticisms" suggests, and Gray acknowledged some of it on air. She said that when DSA members moved to "kick AOC out" and "kick Bowman out," the pressure did "get some results."

In September 2021, the House passed $1 billion in Iron Dome funding by 420 to 9. Ocasio-Cortez voted present and blamed both parties for creating a panic. (On air, Gray offered "she voted for the Iron Dome" as an example of a criticism DSA does not make, but the roll call records Ocasio-Cortez as present.) Then-Representative Jamaal Bowman voted for the funding. DSA's national leadership declined to expel him and said it would not re-endorse him unless he showed solidarity with Palestine.

In July 2024, national DSA withdrew its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez after she hosted a panel on antisemitism. The group called the panel "a deep betrayal." The New York City chapter kept backing her.

Gray said DSA members bristle whenever she raises Force the Vote.

"That's why they get so put out of shape whenever I bring out force the vote, because it exposes that there is more that could have been done, that wasn't done, and that was a choice," Gray said.

Zohran Mamdani's Pledges and His First-Year Record

Mamdani retained Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Eric Adams appointed. He also granted about $26 million to an antisemitism effort, a move Gray said struck many as undermining his commitments to Palestine. On his campaign pledge to arrest Netanyahu under the International Criminal Court warrant, Mamdani has acknowledged he lacks the authority. Police arrested 103 protesters on Sept. 24.

The September protests also complicate Gray's account of a passive DSA. The New York City chapter co-led a sit-in with Jewish Voice for Peace that blocked part of First Avenue during Netanyahu's visit.

The Case for Winning First

Gray rejected the defense that left-wing officials must protect their jobs first. "Like Zohran can't say that because he needs to fill the potholes. That's like, what are we doing?" she said.

Ocasio-Cortez polls at 8.8 percent in PolitiKool's polling average for the 2028 Democratic nomination.