While New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani was out on the campaign trail this week, a report broke that his campaign staff yanked him off stage while he was trying to take questions.
Based on recent reports, I think I figured out that there might be a small rift emerging in Mamdani's campaign.
Mamdani reportedly has a meeting set for later this week, and I don’t think his staffers are very happy about it.
While in public, Mamdani is trying to portray himself as a loyal member of the Democratic Party while also pushing a socialist agenda.
His backers, however, are giving a much better picture of what Mamdani really wants to do, and that is to take over the Democratic Party by installing socialists who have the same vision.
To that point, a huge PAC that is supporting Mamdani has put Democrat leadership on notice that nobody is safe from being primaried, especially now that Mamdani, as the Democrat-elect in the race, has some juice.
New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter co-chair Gustavo Gordillo has put House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on high alert, stating, "His leadership has left a vacuum that organizations like DSA are filling. I think that is more important right now.”
Mamdani was on stage, willingly taking questions from the media, when a staffer stepped in to take him off the stage only 20 minutes into the event.
It was reminiscent of Joe Biden’s press conferences, with a staffer telling the media, "I think we're done here. We're going to go. Come on. We're wrapping up, folks. Sorry folks. We're wrapping up." Mamdani remained where he was, that is, until a staffer grabbed his arm to lead him off the stage.
What we found out, however, is that earlier, Mamdani had told the media he planned on meeting with Jeffries, the very man his backers want to primary out of office.
On that meeting, Mamdani stated, "I'm looking forward to that meeting with Congressman Jeffries. I'm looking forward to being a partner to Congressman Jeffries in winning back the House and continuing to fight back against Donald Trump's agenda, and in delivering, at the same time, for New Yorkers across the five boroughs."
This, to me, is Mandani playing the game, and his campaign not wanting anything to do with it. His advisors want to be controversial because that is what gets all the headlines. They also do not want to give the appearance of him playing the game, which is why I believe they yanked him off the stage like they did.
While Mamdani is trying to put on a team player front, not everyone is buying it, and one person who is speaking against him carries significant weight, being that she is a top media backer of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Lucy Biggers, a former senior producer and correspondent for NowThis, a left-wing media company, was all in on AOC when she ran for office, buying into the idea of getting all the freebies, but her viewpoint has since changed. While pushing for AOC’s agenda when she first ran for office, Biggers now writes, "Much of the hyperbole being thrown at Mamdani and his followers goes too far (for example, that Mamdani is a ‘100 percent Communist Lunatic,’ as Trump put it), but I no longer think that giving the government more of our money to run ‘free programs’ for us is the right way to do things. Just spend time at the DMV and tell me if you want a government-run grocery store, as Mamdani is proposing."
Why the change of heart? Well, as Biggers notes in her report, she has grown up. She is now the mother of two, 35 years old, and her ideas have been moderated now that she has a taste of how the real world works. Mandani’s backers like the idea of all the freebies, but they have no plan on how to actually pay for them (I can help… by raising taxes). If AOC's backers fall out of pocket, perhaps that win in New York City is not as automatic for Mandani as we all have been led to believe.
