Very soon, Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as the mayor of New York City.
In just the last few days, however, he has taken some major hits.
Elon Musk blasted Mamdani's choice for fire commissioner, and yet again, a nasty video has surfaced from a member of the mayor-elect's transition team, this time, one in which the appointee is heard disparaging the police.
Over the weekend, Mamdani announced his choice for fire commissioner, and it did not sit well with Musk.
Mamdani named Lillian Bonsignore as his pick. And while Bonsignore had served three decades in the FDNY, most of her time was spent in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
This drew a rebuke from Musk, who responded, “People will die because of this.” Musk was clearly referring to her lack of firefighting experience.
Mamdani responded, "Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?"
Catherine Almonte Da Costa served a brief stint in Mamdani’s budding administration, resigning only one day after her appointment.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) vowed to keep an eye on Mamdani due to his antisemitic past and associations, and it uncovered a trove of antisemitic posts by Da Costa that resulted in her resignation from her new post.
Da Costa stated, "I spoke with the Mayor-elect this afternoon, apologized, and expressed my deep regret for my past statements. These statements are not indicative of who I am.”
She continued, “As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused. As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.”
Kazi Fouzia, a self-described “revolutionary organizer,” is now coming under fire after a video surfaced criticizing Asian community members who had joined the NYPD.
In the video, she states, “What are you proud for? That your relative would become a killer one day, or brutally beat our people?” She then categorizes the NYPD as killers, stating, “That’s your proud, because your relative will be a killer someday?”
This woman is on Mamdani’s worker justice committee. Stu Smith, an investigative analyst with the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, responded, “[Fouzia] belittles South Asian families who feel proud when their children become NYPD officers, treating that path as inherently shameful. If this is what ‘Worker Justice’ sounds like, it is less about helping working people and more about policing what they are allowed to aspire to. That kind of determinism is deeply un-American.”
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised, considering Mamdani’s controversial connections, many of which were exposed during the campaign. Yet, New Yorkers ignored it all and elected him as the city’s mayor anyway.
