House Speaker Mike Johnson said on July 14 that the United States is facing a rising communist and socialist movement inside the country, warning at a House Republican leadership press conference that the November elections will determine whether the nation preserves its constitutional system.
House Speaker Mike Johnson warned at a House Republican leadership press conference on Capitol Hill that the United States is confronting what he described as a growing communist and socialist movement within the country.
“The barbarians are in the gate,” Johnson said, arguing that voters will be deciding in November “whether we're going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic” or “go down this dark road of death to communism.”
Johnson pointed specifically to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), saying the group’s platform calls for major institutional changes. In his remarks, he said the DSA supports steps such as “pack[ing] the Supreme Court,” moving to a “unicameral legislature” by “abolish[ing] the Senate,” and “abolish[ing] all borders.” He also said the platform includes “mass amnesty” without exceptions, opposition to prisons, and not funding the police.
Johnson contrasted the current moment with earlier eras of partisan conflict, saying that past debates were often about matters such as tax rates and regulation. He invoked former President Ronald Reagan’s warning that freedom is “one generation away from extinction,” and argued that communism—rather than being a distant foreign-policy issue—has become a domestic political fight.
He also framed his remarks in religious terms, saying rights come from “our Creator, God,” not from government. Johnson said communist systems and ideology were responsible for “the murder of tens of millions of innocent people in the 20th century,” calling communism “a nightmare” and “a trail to certain death.”
