Zohran Mamdani shocked the establishment by becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, drawing ire from Republicans who are engaging in mongering tactics against the candidate, including Donald Trump, who called him a “pure communist” and “a 100% Communist Lunatic.”
“No, I am not,” Mamdani said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, denying that he is a communist as Trump alleged. “I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”
Mamdani: “I’ve already had to start get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, ultimately bc he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting for the the very working people he ran a campaign to empower that he has since betrayed.”
More than just name-calling, Trump threatened in an interview that aired Sunday to cut off federal funds to New York City if Mamdani “doesn’t do the right thing.” Mamdani has said if he is elected, he plans to keep New York as a sanctuary city, limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, “Let’s say this: If he does get in, I’m going to be president, and he’s going to have to do the right thing, or they’re not getting any money. He’s got to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money.”
“We have to stand up and fight back,” Mamdani said. “And we haven’t seen that from our current mayor, who has instead been working with the Trump administration to assist in their goal of building the single largest deportation force in American history.”
Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is campaigning on a platform largely based on economic issues. “I call myself a Democrat socialist in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. King from decades ago, who said, ‘Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country.’”
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His platform advocates for for rent freezes, free busing, no cost childcare, new affordable housing, the creation of city-owned grocery stores, and increased taxation of billionaires. He resoundingly earned more votes than former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the first round of the primary last week. A Muslim born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani became a U.S. citizen in 2018 after he graduated college.
Mamdani has received criticism not just from the right but also from establishment Democrats. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand went on an extended rant falsely accusing Mamdani of calling for “global jihad” when he had not done so. (Gillibrand, through a spokesperson, later claimed she “misspoke.”)
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday refused to endorse Mamdani, saying, “We don’t really know each other well.”
Jeffries added, “Globalizing the intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrasing. He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.”
To be clear, there is no evidence Mamdani has ever called for “global jihad” or to “globalize the intifada,” although he was asked about the latter phrase on a podcast earlier this month. On Meet the Press and on the podcast, the candidate responded similarly, saying he does not want to engage in debating what speech is permissible.
“I am someone who I would say am less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words,” Mamdani said on The Bulwark’s June 17 FYPod podcast. “And that I think it is more evocative of a Trump-style approach to how to lead a country.”
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“As a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m all to familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning,” Mamdani added.
On Sunday, Mamdani told host Kirsten Welker, “That’s not language that I used. The language that I used and the language that I will continue to use to lead the city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights.”
Mamdani on “globalize the intifada”: “That’s not language that I used. The language that I used and the language that I will continue to use to lead the city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights.”
“My concern is,” he continued, “to start to walk down the line of language and making clear what language I believe is permissible or impermissible takes me into a place similar to that of the president.”
Mamdani reaffirmed his commitment to making all New Yorkers safe. He vowed to combat antisemitism, including increasing “funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800 percent.”
He then spoke about pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, a student detained by the Trump administration after speaking out against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since released Khalil following a judge’s order, but the administration has detained and threatened to deport more students over their political views.
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“I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech in the manner, especially of that of Donald Trump, who has put one New Yorker in jail who has just returned to his family, Mahmoud Khalil, for that very supposed crime of speech,” Mamdani said. “Ultimately, what I think I need to show is the ability to not only talk about something but to tackle it and to make clear that there’s no room for antisemitism in this city. And we have to root out that bigotry, and ultimately, we do that through the actions. And that is the mayor I will be, one that protects Jewish New Yorkers and lives up to that commitment through the work that I do.”
Some Democrats have come to Mamdani’s defense, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who posted on social media, “We should all be disgusted by the flood of anti-Muslim remarks spewed in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC mayoral primary — some blatant, others latent. Shame on the members of Congress who have engaged in such bigotry and anyone who doesn’t challenge it.”