A Democratic Socialists of America congressional candidate running in a Florida swing district appeared to bail on a TV interview after the host fact-checked his claim that Israel is committing genocide, days before a primary that will test the far left's reach in competitive races.
Oliver Larkin, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz in Florida's 25th Congressional District, made the accusation during a weekend appearance on "This Week in South Florida," the Local 10 public-affairs program hosted by Glenna Milberg. When Milberg pushed back, citing the United Nations' own definition of genocide, the exchange grew tense, and the interview ended abruptly, with Milberg telling viewers she was "being told we have to wrap."
The New York Post contacted Larkin's campaign for an explanation but had not received a response at the time of publication. The moment captured on camera is a compact illustration of a larger problem for DSA-backed candidates: the distance between their rhetoric and the voters they need to persuade.
During the interview, Larkin alleged that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and claimed the Israeli Defense Force "deliberately targeted women and children." He pointed to the United Nations, Amnesty International, and unnamed Israeli human-rights organizations as support for that characterization.
Milberg did not let it pass. She told Larkin directly that his claim was wrong and drew a distinction between the legal definition of genocide and what she described as a "disproportionate wartime action":
"That is factually incorrect. There's the definition of genocide in the UN. The UN has said this does not apply to what many people might think of as a disproportionate wartime action. Genocide is a very specific thing."
Larkin did not appear to have a ready answer. Shortly afterward, Milberg announced the segment was ending. Whether the plug was pulled by station producers, by Larkin's team, or by Milberg herself remains unclear, and Larkin's campaign has offered no public explanation.
The genocide exchange was not an isolated moment of rhetorical overreach. Larkin's platform reads like a DSA wish list: cut off all U.S. funding to Israel, abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and pass a Medicare for All plan. He has hammered Moskowitz repeatedly over the incumbent's support for Israel and his backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
But his ambitions go further. In an interview with Fox News, Larkin said he supports abolishing the U.S. Senate entirely, calling it "mathematically undemocratic" and rooted in compromises with slave-owning states. He also backs a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine, wants to enforce the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and told Fox News he would refuse to support House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker.
"I do support the abolition of the Senate," Larkin told Fox News, a position that would require amending the Constitution and that has essentially zero support in either party's mainstream.
Larkin is one of only four DSA-endorsed congressional candidates nationally, and the only one running in a district rated competitive. That distinction makes his race a direct test of whether the socialist wing can compete outside deep-blue strongholds.
The mismatch between Larkin's platform and his electorate is hard to miss. Approximately one in four voters in Florida's newly configured 25th Congressional District are Jewish, a community with deep ties to Israel and little appetite for candidates who accuse the Jewish state of genocide on television.
Milberg raised that demographic reality during the interview. She also noted that the district includes large numbers of immigrants who fled socialist regimes abroad. Larkin acknowledged the point but tried to turn it to his advantage, saying his wife's parents left Cuba or Nicaragua in the 1980s "looking for a better life in the United States of America."
When pressed on the "socialist" label, Larkin offered a careful reframe:
"The operative word is democratic, that I want popular collective input over the systems that govern our lives."
He added: "I believe in upholding our civil and constitutional rights." Whether voters who fled Castro's Cuba or the Sandinistas' Nicaragua find that reassurance persuasive is another matter. The Cook Political Report rates the 25th District a toss-up, a designation that reflects the seat's competitiveness in a general election, not the primary dynamics Larkin faces.
Rep. Moskowitz, the incumbent Larkin is trying to unseat, has positioned himself as a Democrat willing to push back against the party's left flank. He has supported Israel openly and accepted AIPAC backing, positions that make him a target for DSA-aligned challengers but that align with a significant share of his district's voters.
The primary is scheduled for Tuesday. Larkin and another DSA-backed candidate, Bri Robinson, who is running in Florida's 4th Congressional District, are among the last socialist-endorsed contenders to face Democratic primary voters in the 2026 midterm cycle. The results will offer a concrete answer to a question the DSA has been dodging: can its candidates win outside safe seats?
The interview collapse matters less as a television moment than as a window into the DSA's strategic problem. Larkin walked onto a local public-affairs show in a swing district with a large Jewish population and made a genocide allegation he could not defend when a host asked him to square it with the UN's own standards. He cited organizations but offered no specific documents, no rulings, no binding international findings. When the pushback came, the interview ended.
His campaign's silence afterward only deepened the impression. The New York Post reached out for comment and got nothing back. Voters heading to the polls this week now have a clear picture: a candidate who makes incendiary claims on camera but cannot sustain them under even modest scrutiny.
If you want to abolish the Senate, defund Israel, and dismantle ICE, you should at least be able to finish an interview.
