June 18, 2025

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Cuomo should thank Mamdani for making him look like the safe, stable choice for NYC mayor.

In his race for mayor, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has done the impossible: He’s made Andrew Cuomo look like a safe, stable choice.

Mamdani pulled off the remarkable feat by breaking a cardinal rule of politics: Don’t scare ­people.

But he has done exactly that by taking such radical positions in the Democrats’ mayoral primary that the portion of the electorate that hasn’t fallen for his vision of a socialist utopia realizes his policies would wreck New York.

His mantra of free this and free that, combined with a rent freeze on 1 million privately owned rent-regulated apartments, while promising that higher taxes on the rich would pay for everything, is music only to the ears of those who are ignorant about history and the laws of economics and human nature.

He’s also anti-cop to the core, which is the absolute last thing New York needs in City Hall.

Mamdani, just 33 years old, is vying to become the city’s youngest mayor.

He’s got clever videos and a lively presence on social media.

The base of his support comes from young New Yorkers, which proves the wisdom of ­George Bernard Shaw’s observation that “youth is wasted on the young.”

Then there are those ardent leftists behind him who refuse to grow up, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Born in Uganda, Mamdani would also be Gotham’s first Muslim mayor, and his refusal to recognize Israel as the legitimate homeland for Jews is another bridge too far.

New York has more Jews than any other city in the world, and the idea that its mayor would support BDS and other policies that aim to damage and even destroy Israel is unthinkable.

Bill de Blasio smiles.

Related: Mamdani says ‘globalize the intifada’ is expression of Palestinian rights.

Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in next Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” during a new podcast interview with The Bulwark released on Tuesday, arguing the phrase is an expression of Palestinian rights.

In an exchange about antisemitic rhetoric on the left, Mamdani was asked by podcast host Tim Miller to share his thoughts on the phrase, which has been invoked at anti-Israel demonstrations and criticized as an anti-Jewish call to violence.

“To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” said Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel. “And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

A struggle, eh?

Related: Riots for thee, but not for me:

Shot:

Chaser: Zohran Mamdani hires security, citing ‘new level’ of threats in NYC mayor’s race.

CTRL-F “Defund” brings up zero results in the Gothamist’s article.

UPDATE:

Naturally, Mamdani switched into theater kid mode today in response to the outcry:

Posted at 6:45 pm by Ed Driscoll