NY Democrat: Trump 'has no greater friend than the far left'

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) launched a postelection critique of progressive Democrats, claiming they helped Donald Trump win a second White House term.

Torres, who overwhelmingly won his reelection bid in the 15th Congressional District, criticized the “far-left” of his party for what he sees as contributing to Vice President Harris’s loss on Tuesday and sending Trump back in to office.

He held progressives responsible for promoting slogans he said pushed key voting groups apart during an already divisive election. Such buzzwords, he argued, chipped away at core parts of the Democratic coalition.

“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like 'Defund the Police' or 'From the River to the Sea' or 'Latinx,’” Torres wrote on the social platform X.

The congressman, who represents much of the South Bronx, lamented liberals who air grievances on social media about centrist politicians and policies, implying they live in an online echo chamber and are creating a rift that benefits the right wing.

"There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world,” he wrote. “The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling."

Progressives have caught heat for some of their controversial rhetoric around policing, in particular, being used as fodder by conservatives, who have long claimed that all Democrats want to strip law enforcement of its resources. While the phrase “Defund the Police” specifically hasn’t been used by progressives for several campaign cycles, its impact has outlasted its use, causing Democrats to still argue that it hurts their side in elections.