Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America member running for New York's 13th Congressional District, refused to explain past social media posts in which she blamed the United States for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, comments that mirrored the Kremlin's own talking points as Russian tanks crossed the border in February 2022.
Reporters from the New York Post pressed Chevalier in Harlem on Friday about the posts, reading them aloud to her. Her response was a study in evasion.
"I'm not sure about the context of those tweets, where they are coming from," Chevalier said. Then: "I do not remember the context of those tweets in 2022." A Politico reporter on the scene noted that the outlet had already shown Chevalier the posts a day earlier.
"She has definitely had time to review the context."
That observation from the unnamed Politico reporter undercuts Chevalier's claim of ignorance. Politico first reported on the posts earlier Friday. By the time the Post confronted her, the candidate had been on notice for at least a full day, and still offered nothing beyond a shrug.
In February 2022, as Vladimir Putin launched the largest ground war in Europe since World War II, Chevalier posted: "Cause the Cold War ended and we've been bullying Russia ever since." In another post from the same period, she wrote: "Also war is lucrative for these sociopaths."
Her campaign refused to say who "these sociopaths" referred to.
Putin himself used the word "bullying" at a rally roughly a year before ordering the invasion, the Post reported. Whatever Chevalier's intent, the overlap between her language and the Kremlin's public justification is striking. She blamed America. Putin blamed America. The Ukrainian civilians caught in the crossfire had no say in either version.
The Russia-Ukraine comments are far from the only entries in Chevalier's social media record that raise questions about her judgment and fitness for Congress. The trail runs back at least to December 2019, when she bragged about wiping her hands on American flags when she needed a napkin.
By August 2020, Chevalier retweeted a post that read "Israel suddenly disappears, your third emoji is your reaction." Her reply: "Trick question, Israel doesn't exist!" In May 2021, she wrote: "I'm an anti-Zionist full stop."
She also posted a series of attacks on former President Joe Biden, calling him a "war criminal," a "rapist," and an "f-ing disgrace" in separate posts. Another post referenced "fetishizing ugly colonizer women." The pattern is not one stray remark. It is a yearslong public record of inflammatory rhetoric, from a candidate now asking voters in Upper Manhattan and portions of the West Bronx to send her to Washington.
The willingness of progressive-aligned candidates to wave away their own online histories when reporters come calling has become a recurring feature of Democratic primary politics. Chevalier's non-answers fit the mold.
Chevalier attended an anti-Israel rally in Times Square the day after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, a massacre that left 1,200 dead. When pressed Friday about why she was there, she offered a qualified answer.
"Listen, like so many other rallies, sometimes there are people there who are who share a different view from you. I have always condemned the celebration of acts of violence, that is not that's not a view I share."
She said she had already condemned Hamas. But her explanation for attending the rally focused not on the attack itself but on Israel's response.
"I have seen a pattern in which whenever there is an incident, the state of Israel engages in a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life, and that was what that is what I was there to stand against."
One day after the deadliest attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, Chevalier was in Times Square to protest the anticipated Israeli response, not to mourn the victims. That sequence speaks for itself.
At a time when political hostility toward institutions and public figures continues to escalate, the rhetoric of candidates seeking federal office matters more than ever.
Chevalier's candidacy drew national attention after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed her last week over longtime incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican-American member of Congress, in the June 23 Democratic primary. Chevalier volunteered on Mamdani's mayoral campaign. The endorsement put her social media history under a spotlight it had not previously faced.
Mamdani has his own pattern of associations that raise questions. His wife, Rama Duwaji, has faced scrutiny for what the Post described as anti-Israel behavior, including a playlist featuring songs such as "hungry but sexy for palestine."
And Mamdani briefly tapped Catherine Almonte Da Costa to serve as the city's director of appointments. Da Costa resigned in December after she was exposed for antisemitic posts, including one that read "Money hungry Jews smh." The vetting failure was Mamdani's. The endorsement of Chevalier now raises the question of whether it was a failure at all, or simply a reflection of the political circle Mamdani inhabits.
Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Espaillat, drawing a clear line between the Democratic establishment and the DSA-aligned wing of the party in this race.
The broader pattern of Democratic officials courting controversy while claiming the moral high ground is not limited to New York. But the concentration of inflammatory posts, evasive answers, and questionable associations in this single congressional race is hard to dismiss as coincidence.
Chevalier's defense, such as it is, rests on two pillars: she does not remember the context, and she has already condemned Hamas. Neither holds up under basic scrutiny.
She was shown the posts at least a day before the Post confronted her. She had time. She chose not to prepare a substantive answer, or decided that stonewalling was the better strategy. Either way, voters in New York's 13th District deserve more than "I do not remember the context."
Her claim to have condemned Hamas is contradicted by the timing of her actions. She showed up at an anti-Israel rally the day after the massacre. Her posts from 2020 and 2021 deny Israel's existence and declare anti-Zionism "full stop." These are not ambiguous positions. They are clear, repeated, and documented.
The question now is whether Democratic primary voters in Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx care, and whether Mamdani's endorsement carries enough weight to override a record that would disqualify a candidate in most districts in America.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party's ongoing struggles with internal accountability show no signs of resolution. When candidates can post that a former president is a "rapist," deny the existence of a U.S. ally, parrot a foreign adversary's war propaganda, and still earn a mayoral endorsement for Congress, the party's vetting process is not broken. It is absent.
The June 23 primary is less than three weeks away. Chevalier has not withdrawn. Mamdani has not rescinded his endorsement. And the candidate herself has offered no explanation that rises above "I don't remember."
Voters in the 13th District will decide whether a candidate who blamed America for Russia's war, attended an anti-Israel rally hours after a massacre, and posted that "Israel doesn't exist" belongs in the United States Congress. The posts are public. The record is clear. The only thing missing is accountability, and in this corner of Democratic politics, that seems to be a feature, not a bug.
When a candidate for Congress sounds more like the Kremlin's press office than a representative of American interests, the problem isn't the context she claims to have forgotten. It's the convictions she put in writing.