New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is speaking out after The New York Times reported that advisers for Donald Trump have discussed giving Eric Adams, the city’s current mayor and an independent candidate in this year’s election, a position in the administration to “clear the field” for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
On Thursday, Mamdani addressed the reported plan on “All In.” He told Chris Hayes that the Times’ reporting was “outrageous” and that it constituted a wider attack on New York City’s electoral system.
“I think oftentimes in a race such as this, it’s tempting to think of this solely in the question of, how does this impact the race?” Mamdani said. “But this is an affront to our city’s democracy. This is an affront to the values that make so many of us proud to be Americans — that we could choose our own leaders, not that our leaders pick themselves or their friends.”
This isn’t the first reported interaction between the former governor and the president. In August, three people familiar with the matter told the Times that Trump and Cuomo had held a phone call to speak about the mayoral race directly. (Cuomo has denied that a phone call took place.)
The democratic socialist said that the reported communication between the two showed how “threatened” Trump is by the prospect of a Mamdani administration, and that the president was “willing to use every single tool and tactic at his disposal to try and assist Andrew Cuomo” to prevent that from happening.
Mamdani also criticized his competitors for reportedly working with the administration at a “time when Donald Trump has taken SNAP from hungry New Yorkers [and] has passed legislation that would throw millions of New Yorkers off their health insurance.” Mamdani said the report highlights what “so-called leaders are willing to give up in the name of securing power” and reinforces why so many voters have lost faith in their elected officials: “That is why so many New Yorkers are turned off by our politics, because they see no relevance of their struggles in the conversations that are taking place.” You can watch Hayes’ full interview with Mamdani in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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