Elon Musk took to his social media site on Friday to decry New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s pick to lead the city’s fire department, claiming that she couldn’t do the job. The commissioner-to-be, Lillian Bonsignore, is a 31-year FDNY veteran who led the department’s emergency medical services during the Covid-19 pandemic. She will be the second woman to hold the position and the first openly gay person to lead the department.  That was enough for Musk to weigh in. “People will die because of this,” he wrote, adding, “Proven experience matters when lives are at stake.” As Gothamist reported, before her retirement in 2022, Bonsignore was both the highest-ranking uniformed woman in FDNY history and the first woman to achieve a four-star rank. At the press conference announcing her appointment, Mamdani praised Bonsignore, saying that “her record speaks for itself,” before detailing her career in the city that spanned from before 9/11 through the worst of the pandemic.  “I know the job,” Bonsignore said this week. “I know what the firefighters need, and I can translate that to this administration that is willing to listen. I know what EMS needs. I have been EMS for 30-plus years.” Musk is the richest person on the planet and a rabid opponent of diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, or DEI. He appeared to be claiming that the new head of the FDNY was a diversity hire. He’s written: “Time for DEI to DIE,” “DEI has caused people to DIE,” “DEI is a Civil Rights Act violation,”  “DEI kills art,” “DEI puts the lives of your loved ones at risk,” and “DEI is just another word for racism,” amongst his other previous observations about these efforts. > DEI kills art https://t.co/LG9lmDSHjF > > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2024 This isn’t the first time Musk, who is not a resident of New York, has weighed in on Mamdani or his campaign.  A day before the mayoral election in November, Musk endorsed Mamdani’s leading opponent in the race, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo had resigned in disgrace after the state’s attorney general reported that he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. (A later DOJ investigation put that number at 13.) In Musk’s endorsement post, he called the soon-to-be-mayor-elect “Mumdumi.” Then, on the morning of Election Day, Musk shared a false claim that because Mamdani was listed under both the “Democratic” and “Working Families” party lines on the NYC ballot, the election was a “scam!” But in New York, candidates can appear more than once on a ballot if they are nominated by multiple political parties. Musk also pointed to the layout of the ballot as a problem, since Cuomo’s name appeared in a lower spot on the ballot than Mamdani’s. He failed to mention that this took place because the former governor lost in the Democratic primary and chose to run as an independent later in the election season.  > The New York City ballot form is a scam! > > – No ID is required > – Other mayoral candidates appear twice > – Cuomo’s name is last in bottom right pic.twitter.com/676VODWFRI > > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2025 Despite his recent interest in the FDNY’s leadership, Musk’s work during his time with the federal government imperiled some of NYC’s firefighters. His DOGE team threatened cancer research funding for firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center attacks and were exposed to toxins. Back in February, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, tried to cancel a $257,000 contract for 9/11-related cancer research. At the time, according to CBS News, “FDNY confirmed researchers working on the career firefighter health study received notice of the CDC contract termination.” Days later, after public backlash, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention restored the contract.   As he spoke about the FDNY during his commissioner announcement, Mamdani called the first responders, “the heroes of our five boroughs,” who “save lives at a moment’s notice.” “They deserve a leader who cares about their work,” he continued, referring to Bonsignore, adding, “because she did it herself.”

AMID A CHORUS OF GREAT JOY AT THE ELECTION OF A SELF-DESCRIBED SOCIALIST IN NEW YORK, IT FALLS TO THE ANARCHISTS, AS EVER, TO SOUND A DISCORDANT NOTE OF CAUTION ~ Andy and Simon discuss Zohran Mamdani’s victory, which has energised much of the left even in Britain—but at regional level the purse is much tighter and vulnerable to the interference of greater power. This side of the pond, we’re seeing Reform UK implosions in Kent, Cornwall and Lancashire well before Nigel Farage gets a sniff of national power. Over in the activist scene meanwhile we’ve had a pair of sentences handed down for Just Stop Oil members, with two being found not guilty of criminal damage to Stonehenge after a cornflour and orange dye incident, and six being convicted for climbing a gantry on the M25—notably, having been denied the right to offer their reasoning to the jury. And we round off with a bit of chat about Freedom stories of the week, including the targeting of Elbit Systems insurer Allianz in Europe, the conviction of ten students in Leicester for protesting the university’s complicity in arms trading, and the infamous, lethal police raid on a favela in Rio. The post Anarchist News Review: Mamdani’s win, Reform’s travails and JSO jailings appeared first on Freedom News.

When Curtis Sliwa called me on Wednesday afternoon, the failed New York City Republican mayoral candidate sounded chipper, even a bit boastful. “Everybody loves Curtis,” Sliwa told me. “It’s just a question of getting them to vote for you.” But everybody does not, in fact, love the red beret-wearing, subway vigilante-turned mayoral candidate. His unusually optimistic stance, despite his resounding loss to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, came amid a sustained fury against him from those who see Sliwa as directly responsible for Andrew Cuomo’s loss. That includes Republicans turned reluctant supporters of the former New York governor and conservatives who claim Sliwa siphoned votes from Cuomo. There was disgraced ex-congressman and recently-commutated felon George Santos, who wrote on X: “Fuck you [Sliwa] I HATE YOU, your dumb wife, that stupid Beret of yours and all your fucking cats!” “You fucking sold out like fucking Judas sold out fucking Jesus,” David Rem, former failed mayoral and congressional candidate and a self-described “childhood friend” of President Donald Trump, was also recorded shouting at the Cuomo watch party. But Sliwa is, in a word, unbothered. He dismissed Santos as “the most corrupt of all of our recent electeds—and that’s saying a lot.” As for the allegations that he split the anti-Mamdani vote, Sliwa resents the implication he should have stepped aside for the man he repeatedly called “the Prince of Darkness.” When I asked if he really believed he had a chance at winning, Sliwa replied emphatically: “Of course!” As Sliwa, who took home about 146,000 votes, compared to Cuomo’s approximately 855,000, and many political pundits have pointed out, even if he had dropped out and all his votes went to Cuomo—an unlikely prospect in itself—the tally would still fall at least 35,000 votes short of Mamdani’s 1,036,000. To Sliwa, that’s because Cuomo ran a minimal ground game. “He was entitled, and he didn’t run a race,” Sliwa said. “He doesn’t run races, do retail politics. I treat the public like a mosh pit. I was down in the subway every day.” “Friends or foes, I love people,” he continued. “I’m a happy warrior. Cuomo thinks he’s above it all.” For Sliwa, such pompous thinking could be attributed to Cuomo’s heavy backing by “the most powerful people in the world”—namely, the billionaire Bill Ackman, who reportedly backed Cuomo to the tune of nearly $2 million as of late last month. “He’s a hedge fund guy,” Sliwa said, referring to Ackman. “They always hedge. This guy lives in Chappaqua. He doesn’t know anything about the streets.” Then, there are the wealthy Cuomo backers whom we don’t know. When I asked about his previous claim to the New Yorker that he had received seven bribes trying to get him to drop out, Sliwa painted a picture of a rather dramatic bidding war. “Each offer would be topped by another offer until it capped out at 10 million, and that’s when I basically put everybody on blast and said, ‘This better stop, because this sounds criminal to me.'” Sliwa still refuses to identify who offered the alleged bribes—”I’m a man of honor…they spoke to me in confidence”—but he claimed that they were from childhood friends dispatched by the Cuomo campaign. ‘”This is classic Cuomo,” Sliwa said. “He is a muckraker. He is nefarious.” In a statement provided to Mother Jones, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi called Sliwa “a liar, a fool, and a clown. New Yorkers saw it for themselves,  which is why his voters deserted him in droves.” So, what does Sliwa think comes next for Cuomo? “He is like Napoleon. He will return to his island of Elba, called the Hamptons, to his billionaire friends, and he will spend every day plotting a return one way or the other. That’s all he does.” As for Mamdani, Sliwa says he plans to be “the loyal opposition.” “The problem that I know is going to come about is the fantasy of everything he advocated,” he said. “All sounds good, but the money ain’t there.” For now, though, Sliwa plans to lie low. “Every mayor is entitled to a grace period.” Mamdani, he added, “won a mandate.” (Sliwa was the only candidate to call Mamdani to concede, the mayor-elect said.) But for all his critiques of Mamdani, Sliwa can’t help but sound like him sometimes. “I’m a populist Republican representing the working-class people,” he continued. “This was people power, democracy in full effect. The people united will not be defeated. You don’t hear those words from a Trump Republican.”

Timothy Rodriguez has lived in New York all his life. But the notion of a Muslim mayor never entered the realm of possibility for him. That changed Tuesday when Zohran Mamdani’s victory made him New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor-elect. “It’s a big win for New York City, of course, it’s a big win for Muslims,” Rodriguez, 35, told me after news of Mamdani’s win broke on Tuesday night. “I’m happy to see change and that these things are possible.” I first met Timothy a few hours earlier, in downtown Brooklyn, outside the Al-Farooq Mosque. It sits on a block of Atlantic Avenue, home to two Middle Eastern grocery stores and shops selling goods such as spices, Islamic decorative arts, and clothing. When we spoke, he and his sister, Ally, 33, had just wrapped up the Asr prayer, one of the five daily prayers for observant Muslims. Neither had voted yet, but they both hoped to see Mamdani elected.  “A lot of Muslims don’t feel like they have a place here,” Timothy said. He hopes that, like former President Barack Obama, Mamdani can “inspire” other Muslim New Yorkers to run for office and help “break the stigma that Muslims aren’t good people.” The siblings cited Mamdani’s relentless focus on affordability for their support. “Prices are high, rent is high,” Timothy said. “ “Especially food,” Ally chimed in, her young daughter hoisted on her hip. The fact that Mamdani is also Muslim, she said, was merely “a bonus.”  Throughout his historic campaign, Mamdani has been outspoken about his faith. According to the New York Times, the 34-year-old democratic socialist visited more than 50 mosques on the campaign trail, with members of his campaign visiting nearly 200. Mamdani has also addressed Islamophobia head-on, in visits to city mosques and online, detailing his and his family members’ experiences with racist attacks after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo laughed at a conservative radio host’s suggestion that Mamdani would be “cheering” in the event of another 9/11. “That’s another problem,” Cuomo added. (Cuomo later rejected allegations of Islamophobia, claiming that Mamdani was trying to “divide people” by making an issue out of the radio exchange.) But the comments by Cuomo were only the latest in a series of escalating attacks, which started in earnest on the night of Mamdani’s primary upset back in June. As I wrote at the time:  > Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Donald Trump Jr., Laura Loomer, and Charlie Kirk > were among the right-wingers who fired off Islamophobic smears about Mamdani > and Muslim New Yorkers to their millions of followers after Cuomo’s surprising > concession. The posts come days after reports that Mamdani has faced threats > and attacks prompting an investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force. Since then, others have piled on. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa baselessly accused Mamdani of supporting a “global jihad.” Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams also decried the rise of “Islamic extremism” in Europe. Even on Tuesday, as New Yorkers headed to the polls, NBC News reported that a pro-Cuomo super PAC was running a last-minute ad depicting Mamdani in front of the Twin Towers on 9/11, accompanied by a quote from leftie streamer Hasan Piker, saying “America deserved 9/11.” (The Cuomo campaign has sought to tie Mamdani to those comments, even after Mamdani disavowed them as “objectionable and reprehensible.”) “What a lot of this anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobia has done for a lot of people in the city is that people feel like they have their Muslim identity on the sidelines,” Saman Waquad, president of the Muslim Democratic Club, of which Mamdani is a member, told me. Though Waquad said that the racist attacks “put a target on all of our backs,” she was encouraged by Mamdani’s decision to stand proud in his identity as a Muslim New Yorker. “When we see Zohran show up as a Muslim and not shy away, it gives people more courage to come out for him,” she added. “In many ways, he’s one of us.” Noting that the city is home to an estimated one million Muslims, Waquad added: “That’s a lot of folks that are going to feel seen.” Tazul Islam, a 40-year-old office manager from Queens, whom I also met outside the Al-Farooq Mosque on Tuesday afternoon, told me he hopes Mamdani remains proud of his faith once he is officially sworn in as mayor.  “Hopefully, he can fix some of the misunderstandings and myths about the religion,” Islam said. The faith, he added, “has a lot more to do with making the world a more beautiful place than the scare tactics we hear.” 

A little more than four years ago, Zohran Mamdani announced from a lectern in Manhattan’s City Hall Park that he was about to go on hunger strike. He hoped that, by doing so, he would push politicians to provide debt relief for New York City cab drivers. “I will be on strike for as long as it takes,” Mamdani said. “We are going to be moving all of my meetings. All of my calls. All of my office duties. I will be taking them from this protest site.” As I stood in the park that day, it wasn’t clear just how long “as long as it takes” might mean. Or if it would be enough at all. Mamdani had been an Assemblymember representing Astoria, Queens, for less than a year at that point. Fresh off a birthday, he was only three days clear of his twenties. But when I spoke with Mamdani and taxi driver Richard Chow a few minutes after both stopped eating, there was uncommon resolve and humility. “What I will go through pales in comparison to what Richard is going to go through and what so many other of the drivers are going to go through,” Mamdani told me. “The face of this hunger strike are people who have ruined their bodies for the city. Sitting in a chair for up to 16 hours a day.” Looking back, all the key elements of Mamdani’s mayoral campaign were there. Debt relief for taxi drivers who’d been the victims of financial schemes was, in many ways, a fight for a more affordable city. Then there was the already obvious charisma. The specific knowledge of New Yorker’s struggles. The message discipline. The moral core of solidarity rooted in leftist organizing. The contagious optimism. And, most importantly, the belief that he could win. Five days later, Mamdani had traded his suit for jeans and a New York Taxi Workers Alliance sweatshirt. In an act of civil disobedience, he and other New York elected officials then sat down to block traffic in Lower Manhattan. With cameras watching, NYPD officers lifted them to their feet, zip-tied their hands, and loaded them into a waiting police van. Mamdani being placed into a NYPD van following an act of civil disobedience. The next time I returned was Day 13. Chow, then 63 and living with diabetes, had started using a wheelchair. “We don’t have a choice,” he’d told me nearly two weeks before. “I don’t know how long I can stay here. This is our last moment to fight.” The fight was one tinged with tragedy for him. In 2018, Chow’s brother had died by suicide after purchasing a medallion for more than $750,000 and ending up deeply in debt. It was not clear then, but the end was in sight. Two days later—on Day 15 of the hunger strike—the taxi drivers won. Reversing course, Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to a deal that capped debt loads at $170,000 and monthly payments at about $1,100. At the protest site, Mamdani took the bullhorn. “This is just the beginning of solidarity,” he shouted. “We are going to fight together until there is nothing left in this world to win.” Moments later, Mamdani, Chow, and other hunger strikers broke the fast as they bit into halves of avocados. Chow stood briefly, then returned to his wheelchair—a fist raised in solidarity. Others celebrated with unrestrained joy. Years later, in May 2025, I ran into Chow and his fellow taxi drivers again. This time, at a Williamsburg music venue, as they waited for Mamdani to take the stage at the first major rally of the campaign. Mamdani was still the underdog at that point, but they’d seen him overcome the odds before. And soon did so again when Mamdani beat former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary. On Thursday night, as his campaign came to a close, Mamdani was back where he began—with members of the Taxi Workers Alliance. “Hello, Mr. Mayor Mamdani,” Chow said as they embraced. “I love you. We miss you.” “I miss you, too,” Mamdani replied.

In a wide-ranging Sunday night interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” President Donald Trump put his desire for unchecked power on full display. He bragged to correspondent Norah O’Donnell that, thanks to the Insurrection Act of 1792, he can invade your city whenever he wants. He said immigration raids—including acts of police violence such as using tear gas in residential neighborhoods, throwing people to the ground, and breaking car windows—”haven’t gone far enough.” And he said the government shutdown will last until Democrats in Congress bend to his will—or until Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) agrees to eliminate the filibuster, which Thune, so far, has rejected. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Trump’s comments on domestic policy: Trump blamed the shutdown on the Democrats As the federal government shutdown enters its fifth week—on pace to be the second-longest in history after the one that stretched from December 2018 into January 2019—O’Donnell had a straightforward question for Trump: “What are you doing as president to end the shutdown?” His answer? Blaming the Democrats. “The Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” Trump said. “They’ve lost their way,” he added. “They become crazed lunatics.” Senate Democrats have said they will vote to reopen the government if the legislation includes an extension of Obamacare subsidies; without those, the health policy think tank KFF has estimated, average monthly premiums on people who get their insurance through the ACA marketplace would more than double. Trump also claimed Obamacare is “terrible,” adding, “We can make it much less expensive for people and give them much better health care.” But, yet again, he failed to outline his alternative. (Remember his “concepts of a plan“?) > What is President Trump doing to end the government shutdown? > > “What we're doing is we keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost > unanimously to end, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” says > Trump. pic.twitter.com/f6smwqi8Jn > > — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 3, 2025 He defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s violent tactics Citing videos of ICE officers tackling a mother in court, using tear gas in a residential neighborhood in Chicago, and smashing car windows, O’Donnell asked Trump if some of the raids have “gone too far?” Trump gave what may have been his most direct answer of the interview: “No, I think they haven’t gone far enough,” he said. “We’ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in [the federal courts] by Biden and by Obama.” “You’re okay with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed. “Yeah, because you have to get the people out,” he replied. > "I think they haven't gone far enough," says President Trump, defending ICE > raids. In one case, ICE tackled a young mother and in another tear gas was > used in a residential neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/b7tEYqWyUv > > — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 2, 2025 He bragged that he can send the military into any city, at any time O’Donnell asked Trump what he meant when, at a speech in Japan last week, he said: “If we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard.” Trump has already sent guard troops into Washington, DC; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; Chicago; and Memphis, Tenn. Trump seemed delighted to remind O’Donnell and viewers of what he sees as his vast power: “Well, if you had to send in the Army, or if you had to send in the Marines, I’d do that in a heartbeat. You know you have a thing called the Insurrection Act. You know that, right? Do you know that I could use that immediately, and no judge can even challenge you on that. But I haven’t chosen to do it because I haven’t felt we need it.” > “If you had to send in the Army or if you had to send in the Marines, I'd do > that in a heartbeat,” says President Trump. He has ordered the National Guard > to five major U.S. cities. https://t.co/GAtK4KJNAf pic.twitter.com/Yx0SoiGDFQ > > — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 3, 2025 This is not the first time Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to override federal law that prohibits the military from acting as law enforcement, in order to “suppress rebellion.” But the law has not been used in more than three decades and is widely seen by legal experts as having a frightening potential for abuse. “So you’re going to send the military into American cities?” O’Donnell pressed. “Well, if I wanted to, I could, if I want to use the Insurrection Act,” Trump responded. “The Insurrection Act has been used routinely by presidents, and if I needed it, that would mean I could bring in the Army, the Marines, I could bring in whoever I want, but I haven’t chosen to use it. I hope you give me credit for that.” He claimed he has been “mild-mannered” when it comes to political retribution In only nine months, Trump has made good on his long-running promise to prosecute his political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. “There’s a pattern to these names. They’re all public figures who have publicly denounced you. Is it political retribution?” O’Donnell asked. Trump promptly played the victim: “You know who got indicted? The man you’re looking at,” he replied. “I got indicted and I was innocent, and here I am, because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me.” (He was, indeed, found guilty in New York last year on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.) > “I think I've been very mild-mannered. You're looking at a man who was > indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap,” says President Trump after > the recent indictments of high-profile figures who have publicly denounced > him. https://t.co/XHoIr77Eh1 pic.twitter.com/tLH0fxW2wI > > — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 3, 2025 Despite posting a Truth Social message in September demanding that Attorney General Pam Bondi speed up the prosecutions, just days before Comey was indicted and a couple weeks before Bolton and James were, Trump insisted he did not instruct the Department of Justice to pursue them. “No, you don’t have to instruct them, because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt,” he said, proceeding to praise the work of Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. “I think I’ve been very mild-mannered,” Trump continued. “You’re looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap, otherwise I couldn’t have run for president.” He think he’s “better looking” than Zohran Mamdani Trump insisted that the frontrunner in New York City’s Tuesday mayoral election, 34-year-old self-described Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, is a “Communist.” When O’Donnell asked Trump what he makes of comparisons between himself and Mamdani—”charismatic, breaking the old rules,” as O’Donnell put it—Trump replied: “I think I’m a much better-looking person than him.” He then reiterated his threat to withhold federal funding from his home city if Mamdani wins over ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “It’s going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump said. He claimed that he is “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other,” but added, “If it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.” > Some have called Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist front-runner for New > York City mayor, a left-wing version of President Trump. > > "I think I'm a much better looking person than him," says Trump, after calling > Mamdani a "communist." pic.twitter.com/p9FDWNcoGs > > — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 2, 2025

Where’s Obama, you ask? The better question may be, where’s Trump? Former President Barack Obama spent Saturday supporting Democratic candidates in three of the most consequential races of this week’s elections. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, spent the weekend partying and golfing at Mar-a-Lago—a reflection of what has been his uncharacteristically reserved approach to Tuesday’s vote. Obama delivered speeches in support of two congresswomen-turned-gubernatorial candidates: Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. In both, he lauded the candidates, criticized their opponents—former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, respectively—and characterized votes for the Democrats as acts of resistance against the Trump administration. “If you meet this moment, you will not just put New Jersey on a better path,” Obama said at the Newark rally for Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor who currently represents the state’s 11th Congressional district. “You will set a glorious example for this nation.” In Norfolk, Virginia, he delivered a similar message about Spanberger, a former CIA officer who served three terms in Congress: “If you believe in that better story of America, don’t sit this one out. Vote. Vote for leaders like Abigail who believe it too. Vote for leaders who care about your freedoms and who will fight for your rights.”  > Trump, meanwhile, spent Friday night hosting a Great Gatsby–themed Halloween > party at Mar-a-Lago, just hours before tens of millions were set to lose > access to food stamps. Also on Saturday, the former president called New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani—again—to wish him luck on election day and offer to be a “sounding board” in the future, the New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the call. According to the Times: > Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the > election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new > administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. > Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said. > > […] > > Mr. Obama spoke admiringly about how Mr. Mamdani has run his campaign, making > light of his own past political missteps and noting how few Mr. Mamdani had > made under such a bright spotlight. > > “Your campaign has been impressive to watch,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Mamdani, > according to the people. According to the Times, Mamdani told Obama that his 2008 speech on race inspired the mayoral candidate’s own recent speech on Islamophobia in response to comments made by his main opponent, ex–New York governor Andrew Cuomo. If he is elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim mayor—a fact that his critics, especially those on the right, have used as the basis for an onslaught of Islamophobic attacks against him for months now. Mamdani and Obama also reportedly discussed meeting in Washington DC at some point in the future. Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said in a statement to the Times that the candidate “appreciated President Obama’s words of support and their conversation on the importance of bringing a new kind of politics to our city.” The former president first called Mamdani back in June, after his primary upset, the Times reported. Trump, meanwhile, spent Friday night hosting a Great Gatsby–themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, just hours before tens of millions of low-income Americans were set to lose access to food stamps due to the ongoing government shutdown and Republicans’ refusal to use contingency funds used to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operating in the interim. And on Saturday, Trump golfed and ranted on his Truth Social platform—but made no mention of Tuesday’s elections. While Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in the spring and participated in a telephone rally for him this week, he only voiced support for Earle-Sears last month and has yet to formally endorse her. Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s activities this weekend and why he has not more strongly backed the Republican candidates. But polls may provide the answer: The Democrat candidates are leading in both Virginia, which is set to elect its first female governor regardless of who wins, and New Jersey, where the current Democratic governor is term-limited and no party has held the office for three consecutive terms since 1961.

On election night a couple weeks ago, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was in an unusually good mood for a man about to lose the mayoral primary. Once heralded as a potential frontrunner, he had consistently been polling in a distant third place to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.  Lander has a record of progressive policy accomplishments and the self-assurance of a seasoned technocrat. But, wonkish and unassuming, he struggled to gain traction in the Democratic primary. There were bigger, showier personalities competing for attention, and Lander receded to the background of a crowded field. Though in 2021 the New York Times Editorial Board had weighed in on behalf of Kathryn Garcia—that year’s unassuming technocrat—it managed to dismiss all the candidates in this race. The editorial described Lander as an effective manager who “exudes competence if not inspiration.”  A few weeks ago, though, Lander was thrust into the national spotlight when he was detained by federal agents while escorting a migrant out of an immigration court in Lower Manhattan. In videos, Lander can be seen holding onto the man and demanding to see a judicial warrant. (He was released several hours later without being charged.) It was a forceful side of Lander, tuned to a burgeoning resistance under the second Trump administration, that voters had not seen before.  Ultimately, Lander’s star turn came too late to make his candidacy viable, but it amplified his never-Cuomo message. Lander had spent the last stretch of the race doing everything in his power to, at the very least, keep Cuomo out of office. He spent $750,000 on ads attacking the former governor and landed some punches during the second debate. On the eve of the election, Lander cross-endorsed with Mamdani and appeared with him on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—an important sign of support, as Mamdani has been repeatedly and baselessly accused of antisemitism. In this way, Mamdani’s win is also partly Lander’s, and the comptroller has been on an extended victory lap. On election night, Lander was addressing supporters at his campaign’s watch party in Park Slope when news of Cuomo’s concession came in. Lander was nothing short of gleeful. “Andrew Cuomo is in the past. He is not the present or future of New York City,” he told the crowd. “Good fucking riddance.”  This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  You took a more traditional route to the mayoral race—first as a city council member, then as the comptroller. In this primary, we’ve seen some rules of electoral politics get completely rewritten. Has this changed your understanding of New York City politics? It did not go as I had mapped it out. That said, I was aware of the following fact when I got in the race: I am the 45th comptroller of the city of New York. The vast majority [of comptrollers] wanted to be mayor, and only one made it that was [Abraham Beame], and no one writes songs about Abe’s mayoralty. Comptroller is a job that teaches people about the inner workings of government and how to make it work better. But it isn’t so easy to make competence sexy or compelling. I knew that going in and was excited to get out there and talk to New Yorkers. It’s taken a bunch of twists and turns. I’m proud of the campaign we ran and feel very optimistic about the future of the city. As a competitor to Mamdani, what did it feel like—and did it challenge ideas that you had about electoral politics—to see his surge in momentum? Zohran ran a brilliant campaign—with a relentless focus on affordability, a mastery of the communication tools of the moment, and an understanding that people are being crushed by the cost of living. But he also had a real hopefulness that the city could be something better for working people in challenging times. He did that in a really compelling way. And I don’t know that that’s breaking the rules of politics. People get excited by someone who speaks to the things they’re feeling and projects a very hopeful vision that government can make it better. But when it comes to the typical experts—editorial column writers, political consultants, and pollsters—they might have missed part of the story as the campaign was unfolding. Even Mamdani’s supporters were surprised by the outcome in the first round of ranked choice voting, right? I think he over-performed everyone’s expectations—certainly mine, and I think even his own. One thing that has certainly changed is that, traditionally, in a race of this scale, you raise money, build a coalition, and reach voters primarily through paid TV and digital [advertising]. You would be helped in that greatly if you had the New York Times Editorial Board or a few marquee endorsements. That’s the way I won the comptroller’s race four years ago.  The attentional landscape has changed dramatically. Zohran’s videos, door-knocking, and volunteers broke through in a way that was different from many prior citywide races. It’s always a challenge to get people’s attention. And there’s so much else going on, with Trump, with Eric Adams still in City Hall, and with the sense of dark inevitability that Cuomo was bringing. That was even harder.  Look, until a few weeks before the election, I had not succeeded in enabling New Yorkers to see the parts of me I wanted to show and the kinds of leadership I could provide. And I give Zohran credit that he found powerful ways to do that. Your campaign took a strong swing at social video, too. There’s been a lot of postmortem analysis of Mamdani’s online success—is it the form of the message? Is it the messenger or the content itself? I’m curious about what your read might be. For myself, what I will say is that I come across best when I’m acting, when I’m leading, when I’m showing up. And I don’t think it was a coincidence for me that it was the arrest and the debate and the cross endorsement that helped me show leadership. I am just less telegenic. I made this joke throughout the campaign, but it really is true: All my daughter’s TikToks do better than mine.  So it’s definitely medium and messenger. There are things I’m really good at, and that form of viral video content just turns out not to be one of them. We got better at it; we brought in a new digital team a little later in the race. I think our earned media was good throughout. But Zohran really captured the spaces of attention. And I don’t only mean the videos. He made it cool for young people to meet others and socialize and by volunteering and knocking on doors. An issue that’s risen to the forefront of the mayoral race is Israel’s war in Gaza, which has deeply divided the Democratic Party at large. Last year, a group advocating for a ceasefire was denied a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. And now New York City may elect a Muslim mayor who’s been outspokenly pro-Palestine. To you, is this a sign that Democrats should rethink how they’re talking about Israel and antisemitism? I have long believed that we need a different dialogue that doesn’t divide Jews and Muslims. The cross endorsement that Zohran and I did showed that. We can have different points of view on foreign policy, but share a belief in the equal worth of humanity. And we can have a conversation about what the best ways to provide every single New Yorker with a home they can afford, a neighborhood they feel safe going to worship in, and a great school for their kids. Democrats have to get better at doing that.  And that is not easy. The days since October 7 have been excruciating. This conflict, this war, is horrible in the cost it’s taking over there and the divides it has imposed here. I hope that what we did in the closing days of the campaign—to reach out and try hard to listen and understand—can be a model for bringing our party and our city back together. Meanwhile, you have Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams, who are three non-Jews weaponizing antisemitism and Jewish anxiety for their own craven political purposes, and it’s just critical that we don’t fall for it.  One thing that’s on a lot of people’s minds right now is what comes next for you after your term as comptroller ends—whether that might be potentially joining a Mayor Mamdani’s administration or running for Congress. Do you want to stay local? First, I’ll say I’m really flattered by all the interest. I’m moved, and honestly, still a little bewildered by the way in which the cross endorsement and the arrest generated so much goodwill and hopefulness. That all sits on top of the energy generated by Zohran and his campaign.  There’s a lot still to do in the comptroller’s office, and I am deeply committed to ensuring that we elect Zohran Mamdani mayor in November. There’s a lot of work to do there—continuing the campaign and building a bigger coalition. He has a very big mandate for change, and it will take a lot of hands to make it happen. And I’d be happy to help in any way I can. And to end on a lighter note: A few weeks ago, you tweeted at the comedian Tim Robinson and asked him to a New York Liberty game. I have two questions. The first is, did you hear back? And the second is, do you see the resemblance? [Laughs.] For better or worse, it’s hard to miss the resemblance. He did not get back to me, sadly. But the offer stands. I have a half season ticket package to the New York Liberty, and he’s welcome to join me anytime.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As she canvassed for Zohran Mamdani in New York City on Tuesday last week, Batul Hassan should have been elated. Her mayoral candidate—a 33-year-old state assemblymember—was surging in the polls and would within hours soundly defeat Andrew Cuomo on first preference votes in the Democratic primary election. But Hassan’s spirits were hampered by record-breaking temperatures. In Crown Heights, where she was the Mamdani campaign’s field captain, the heat index soared into the triple digits. “I couldn’t think about anything but the heat,” she said. “It was so dangerous.” Early that morning, Hassan had visited a public school polling site, where elderly workers sweltered without air conditioning. The city Board of Elections sent over paper fans, but they were no match for the heat. If Mamdani is elected mayor, that school could be retrofitted with air conditioning and green space to bring down temperatures as part of his green schools plan, or could even be transformed into a resilience hub for communities to shelter amid extreme weather events > “We need to expand mass transit to fight the climate crisis,” and also > “because we want to improve people’s lives right now.” “Seeing total infrastructural failure on Election Day emphasized the stakes of what’s happening with the climate crisis and the importance of the election,” said Hassan, who took time off from her day job at the leftist thinktank Climate and Community Institute to canvass. Mamdani’s green schools plan is just one of his schemes to slash carbon emissions and boost environmental justice. His plans for New York City would make residents “dramatically more safe” from extreme weather, said Hassan. But the democratic socialist, who was endorsed by the national youth-led environmental justice group Sunrise Movement and student-led climate group TREEAge, did not place the climate crisis at the center of his campaign, instead choosing to focus relentlessly on cost-of-living issues. The model could help build popular support for climate policies, supporters say. “Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns,” Mamdani told The Nation in April. “They are, in fact, one and the same.” Over the past two decades, Democrats increasingly focused on the climate. But often, their proposed schemes have been technocratic, Hassan said. Carbon taxes, for instance, can be impenetrably complex, making them difficult candidates for popular support. They can also be economically regressive, with “working class people experiencing them as an additional cost,” Hassan said. More recently, Joe Biden coupled climate plans with green industrial policy and plans to boost employment. But even those projects can take years to effect tangible change, critics say. As president, for instance, Biden achieved historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act. But its green incentives disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and its job creation remains invisible to most people around the country. One poll found only a quarter of Americans felt the IRA benefited them. “Now with Trump, we see the pitfalls of the IRA, where there is real difficulty in consolidating enough political support to defend those climate policy achievements,” said Hassan. Mamdani “learned from some of the mistakes” of the Biden administration, said Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Mamdani’s campaign. His housing plan, for instance, aims to lower planet-heating pollution by boosting density, but his signature promise is a rent freeze. That pledge could ensure residents are not priced out of New York City and forced to move to more carbon-intensive suburbs, and prevent landlords from passing the costs of energy efficiency upgrades or air conditioning installation to renters, preventing displacement, said Hassan. Similarly, Mamdani’s headline transit goal was to make buses faster and free, which could boost ridership and discourage the use of carbon-intensive cars. “Public transit is one of the greatest gifts we have to take on the climate crisis,” Mamdani said at a February mayoral forum. Biden’s IRA placed little focus on boosting public transit, said Gordillo. This was a missed opportunity to cut emissions and also lower Americans’ fuel costs, he said. “We need to expand mass transit to fight the climate crisis, which hasn’t been a priority for the Democratic establishment,” said Gordillo, who is an electrician by day. “But we also need to expand it because we want to improve people’s lives right now.” As a New York assemblymember, Mamdani has backed explicitly green policies. He was a key advocate for a boosting publicly owned renewable energy production. The effort aimed to help New York “live up to the dream of our state as being a climate leader,” he said in 2022. He also fought fossil-fuel buildout. He coupled that climate focus with efforts to keep energy bills low, consistently opposing local utilities’ attempts to impose rate hikes, said Kim Fraczek, director of the climate nonprofit Sane Energy Project. “His growing political influence is a clear win for communities demanding a just transition: renewable power, democratic control and relief from crushing energy costs,” said Fraczek. Progressive cities like New York are often climate leaders. But if they price out working people, only the wealthy get to see the benefits of their green policies, Mamdani’s backers say. By crafting popular climate policies, the Democratic nominee is also building a base of New Yorkers who will work to defend those plans in the face of threats from the Trump administration, they say. “New Yorkers want an affordable city, clean and green schools, fast and free buses, and a rent freeze,” said Daniel Goulden, a co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America ecosocialist working Group. “But most importantly, New Yorkers want a future—one where they can live and thrive in New York.”

It didn’t take long for conservatives to lose their minds after Zohran Mamdani’s apparent upset over Andrew Cuomo in the Tuesday night Democratic primary in the New York City mayoral race. Why? He’s a 33-year-old democratic socialist who has promised free buses and free child care, and to freeze the rent. But the fact that seems to most trigger some on the right is that he is Muslim, and would be the first Muslim ever elected the city’s mayor if he wins in November. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Laura Loomer, and Charlie Kirk were among the right-wingers who fired off Islamophobic smears about Mamdani and Muslim New Yorkers to their millions of followers after Cuomo’s surprising concession. The posts come days after reports that Mamdani has faced threats and Islamophobic attacks prompting an investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force. Stefanik, who has teased a potential run for governor of New York, called Mamdani “antisemitic, jihadist, Communist” in a post on her personal account on X, which has one million followers. (Mamdani is not a Communist.) Addressing her post to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.), who did not endorse a candidate in the race, Stefanik wrote: “You own this dangerous insanity and are incapable of defeating it.” > Tick tock, tick tock Kathy Hochul… > > We know you are in full blown panic mode as you frantically draft and send out > the congratulatory tweet to the antisemitic, jihadist, Communist candidate you > helped elect in your party’s Democrat primary because of your silence,… > > — Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) June 25, 2025 Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and informal advisor to Trump who has described herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” fired off a torrent of baseless allegations about Mamdani to her 1.7 million followers on X. “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and [Mamdani] will be to blame,” Loomer wrote in one post. “New Yorkers forgot all about the victims of 9/11 killed by Muslims. Now a Muslim Communist will be the mayor of New York City. Get out while you can,” she wrote in another. “He is literally supported by terrorists,” Loomer baselessly claimed in a different post. “NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0” (The 9/11 attackers were members of the Islamic extremist terror group Al-Qaeda.) > There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame. > > — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) June 25, 2025 “If the Muslim Brotherhood would have been designated as a terroist [sic] org, [Mamdani] could have been prevented from running for office,” Loomer wrote. “Get ready for Muslims to start committing jihad all over New York.” Loomer and Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, also targeted Mamdani for his prior stances calling to defund the police. Like Loomer, Kirk—who has more than five million followers on X—showed the depths of his bigtory: “24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11,” he wrote. “Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.” > 24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11 > > Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City > > — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 25, 2025 Spokespeople for Mamdani, the Mayor’s Office, Hochul’s office, the NYPD, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the posts. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor, did not directly attack or reference Mamdani’s faith, but called him “extreme” and “radical.” Earlier this year, Mamdani told my colleague Serena Lin that as a Muslim and a socialist, he is “no stranger to bad PR.” Indeed, he has been consistently accused of antisemitism, despite the fact that he has rejected those accusations, pledged to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers, and has said he believes “that Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights.” Mamdani also alleged earlier this month that a mailer proposed by a super PAC supporting Cuomo’s campaign was Islamophobic for altering the appearance of his beard to look longer and darker than it is. The New York Times reported Tuesday night that Trump’s allies are preparing to turn Mamdani into a national target, particularly leading up to the midterm elections next year. If the comments some of them unleashed tonight are any indication, expect the GOP to continue to show that there is no bottom.