‘The Democratic Party Is Dead’: Former CNN Anchor Chris Cuomo
Chris Cuomo assessed the state of the Democratic Party during an interview with Benny Johnson on his podcast, delivering a blunt conclusion: “The Democratic Party is dead.”
Cuomo said his view is shaped by family experience and a political upbringing that no longer matches what he sees from party leaders today.
“My brother’s a Democrat. I don’t know why, but he is. Uh, my father was a Democrat. I know exactly why he was, but his party doesn’t exist anymore,” Cuomo said.
“And while I had disagreements with my father about different issues, I knew what principles were guiding him.”
He contrasted his father’s era with the present, describing a platform that he said centered on protecting ordinary people while keeping government limited.
“My father’s battle was against trickle-down economics and Reagan Republicanism,” he explained.
“The Democratic Party that he fought for and the Republican Party that he fought against — neither exists anymore.”
He characterized his father’s party as one that told voters: “Take care of the little guy, take care of the little guy, take care of the little guy. Stay out of our bedroom. Stay out of my heart. Just do all the government we need, but only the government we need. And we’re a secular society. Don’t put anything else on me.”
Cuomo added that the version of the party he remembered embraced market opportunity while supporting essential public services.
He said it was “a capitalism that offered opportunity in a free market,” and not an embrace of socialism, while still backing education and entitlements.
“No Democrat ever argued for anything else. No Democrat would’ve argued for open borders. You know — none of this. My father would’ve done none of this,” he said.
According to Cuomo, political roles have shifted since his father’s time. He argued that cultural gatekeeping has become a defining feature on the left, while Republicans now draw support from voters who feel overlooked by elites.
He said the parties “flipped in terms of their operative animus and their constituencies out of convenience and time.”
Cuomo also reflected on his family’s immigrant experience to explain why he believes a freer market once defined his father’s politics.
“So, my father’s party is no more,” he said.
“He believed that the opportunity to be part of a free market was exactly why his parents — illiterate, okay? Uh, unsophisticated, untrained except, uh, with a heart, you know, three sizes too big, filled with ambition and dreams, [came here], to be able to compete, you know? Without some feudal system on your head in rural Italy, where they were telling you who you could be and how you could be. [They believed that] was worth everything.”
Turning to the current media and political climate, Cuomo expressed frustration with what he described as a cycle that rewards provocation over accountability.
“Today, it’s all provocative bullsh*t all the time. No responsibility. No accountability. You just move on to the next. And it gets us views, it gets us clicks, but it’s not getting us to a better place,” he said.
Chris Cuomo declares the Democrat Party is DEAD
Cuomo tells me elitism, open borders, socialism and defund the police killed the modern Democrat Party.
Cuomo says the Democratic Party that his father was apart of “no longer exists” and he “doesn’t know why” his brother… pic.twitter.com/1KfpZgRhFQ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 19, 2025
Cuomo’s remarks, delivered during the podcast conversation, framed his view that the party he grew up with has changed in both priorities and tone.
He tied that shift to a broader realignment in which traditional labels and constituencies no longer match the politics he remembers, while emphasizing that the principles he associated with his father’s era—limited government, individual freedom in private life, and a focus on “the little guy”—are not what he sees in the party today.
