Way back in March of 2025, when Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was at 1% in the Democratic primary polls, he promised THE CITY’s FAQ NYC his very first sit-down interview as mayor.
On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Mamdani made good on that promise joining, talking hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel in City Hall’s Blue Room for a wide-ranging conversation.
He talked about what would happen if an ICE agent here committed a murder like the one he said took place on Wednesday in Minneapolis:
If you violate the law, then you have to be held to account. And there’s no amount of mischaracterizations of what we all saw happen in Minneapolis that can tell us to believe anything other than our own eyes. And the horror of what we saw is not just in that murder. It’s also knowing that this is just a glimpse into what has been a year of cruelty.
And Mamdani responded to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s appearance in New York this morning, where she said the new mayor and the NYPD “have not been productive” partners:
What I want my NYPD to do, and what I would also say my entirety of city government to do, is to follow the law. And the law here in New York City includes our sanctuary city policies. Going beyond NYPD, this extends to New Yorkers knowing that ICE agents don’t have the right to enter into a school unless they put forward a judicial warrant signed by a judge. It extends to any city property, in addition to properties that are owned or operated by city contractors. And for a long time, City Hall was not clear about the rights that New Yorkers had in those instances. And I’m unsurprised to hear that this would be described as being unproductive when, in fact, it is just being clear about the fact that we do not want our city government, our city officials, public servants, to be operating in violation to these laws.
The interview closed with the new mayor’s message to the significant majority of Jewish New Yorkers who polls show have been largely unconvinced so far by Mamdani’s messaging:
For many New Yorkers, including many Jewish New Yorkers, rhetoric rings hollow when they hear it from politicians. And what’s so exciting to me is that I now say these things as the mayor, which means I can also do these things. You know, we were sitting at this exact table when we spoke about the Williamsburg Bridge bump, and I was sitting here, and I was saying, ‘Well, this is something I’ve been asked about, how quickly could we do it?’ And my Deputy Mayor for Operation said we could do it tomorrow. So we did it tomorrow.
And to me, that also comes back to the heart of — when you talk about \taking on the scourge of antisemitism across the five boroughs of New York City. I’ve talked about adding additional investments to hate crime prevention programs. Now, as the mayor, I can do it.
And that is something that I think many are waiting for — to see, is it right to believe? Is it right to hope? And we’re going to show them that it is.
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