In a mayoral primary that pitted a disgraced former governor against a self-described socialist, Democrats in New York City decisively chose the socialist.
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old rapper-turned-state assemblyman with a very thin work resume and very far-left ideology, is projected to win the Democratic mayoral primary. The ranked-choice voting system means an official winner will not be declared until early next month, but Mamdani held a 43 percent to 36 percent lead over projected second-place finisher Andrew Cuomo hours after the polls closed.
Cuomo called Mamdani to congratulate him and suggested in his concession speech that he will not run on another third-party line in the general election as had previously been speculated. That means Mamdani will likely face off against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (who is running as an independent) and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the November general election that generally goes the Democrats’ way.
So, what does this mean for America’s largest city? On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, to discuss Mamdani’s victory, his extreme policy positions, and who is to blame for his rise to the top.
Meet Mamdani
As Megyn covered on Tuesday’s program with the hosts of The Fifth Column, Mamdani is a failed rapper who was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020 to represent some of the same parts of Queens that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does in Congress.
Reports indicate the millennial, who was born in Uganda to an acclaimed filmmaker mother and political scholar father, was employed for only about three years total between graduating Bowdoin College (where he co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter) with a degree in Africana Studies in 2014 and heading to the state assembly six years later.
But he did run a very slick, grassroots campaign that energized the youth vote via viral social media videos, grand policy promises, and flashy endorsements from the likes of AOC and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“He is a strange man,” Megyn explained, “who wants a $30 minimum wage… He wants no more police. He wants social workers instead… He wants free bus rides, which would cost almost a billion dollars… He wants to make sure rent stabilized departments can’t have any increase in their rent… He wants a lot of government handouts.”
There is also his refusal to condemn the “globalize the intifada” movement, his support for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, his promise for city-run grocery stores, and his plan to generate $10 billion in new taxes from the wealthy to pay for free child care and bus service.
“He basically, when it comes to police and law and justice, looks like Chesa Boudin, the booted out of office D.A. in San Francisco,” Megyn noted. “And when it comes to his philosophy on running a city, when it comes to cops and social safety net and also just giveaways, he looks just like Brandon Johnson in Chicago. He is terrifying.”
Whose to Blame?
Megyn said it is sad to see what is happening to the city she once called home. “New York is becoming a communist Bolshevik town,” she lamented. “How did we go from [Rudy] Giuliani and [Michael] Bloomberg crossover [Bill] de Blasio and Adams to a socialist who now is very likely to win because anybody who gets the Democratic nomination wins now.”
Kirk said Mamdani has “some of the dumbest ideas imaginable,” but he ignited a firestorm on social media with his concerns about his Muslim heritage. “We all know individually good Muslims, but we also must kind of take pause and say: Wait a second, the two financial power centers of the West are London and New York, and are we really going to have two Muslim mayors of the major financial power centers of the West,” he asked. “People say, well, it’s irrelevant that he’s Muslim… He wants to globalize the intifada. That just means globalized terrorism. He is the first mayoral candidate of any significance to say that he supports sanctions of Israel… And we are not allowed to mention that he is also Muslim?”
“Mamdani has to run on his own merits… but he has not given any indication that he is anything but a radical socialist and someone that is trying to continue the Mohammedan march in the West,” he continued. “Individual Muslims can be great members of American society… But in the macro… are we really benefiting the more that we are importing Islamists into the West? I say no, and I think we should have a lot of caution making a Muslim socialist the mayor of America’s largest city.”
While Megyn said it is possible that business leaders and Jewish New Yorkers will unite against Mamdani heading into the general election in a way they didn’t during primary season, she said Democrats have no one but themselves to blame by fielding such weak candidates that Cuomo was only real alternative.
“The Democrat Party is to blame for this debacle. Why did you feel the need to resurrect a tired, worn, sex pest, old grandma-killing, loser Democrat who had already exploited the system $5 million dollars to write his book about how great he is. He was already a failure,” she said. “Can you do no better? You can’t find a young, vibrant Democrat who is not a f-cking loon to run against this kind of a man so that we can prevent his ascension and save America and the world’s greatest city? They are to blame for all of this.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kirk by tuning in to episode 1,095 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.