4 hours ago
1
Conservatives are completely losing their mind over Zohran Mamdani’s projected victory in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor, going so far as to warn the residents of the nation’s largest city that electing the 33-year-old Muslim assemblyman will guarantee “another 9/11.”
Representing a complete upheaval of the Democratic establishment in New York, Mamdani shockingly knocked off the presumptive frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, who called his Democratic socialist opponent on Tuesday night to concede even before ranked-choice voting was tallied. According to early results, Mamdani received 4.55 percent of first-place votes to the former New York governor’s 36.3 percent.
“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo told his supporters. “Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”
Mamdani, the Uganda-born son of a decorated Indian filmmaker and a Columbia University professor, differentiated himself from the scandal-plagued Cuomo and current New York Mayor Eric Adams – who is running as an independent – with his populist economic positions, such as promising rent freezes, free child care and free buses.
Of course, it isn’t Mamdani’s progressive policy proposals on making the city more affordable for its millions of residents, or even his promises to raise taxes on the wealthy and create city-owned grocery stores, that have MAGA apoplectic over his stunning rise.
It appears to just be blatant, bald-faced Islamophobia that has them up in arms.
Describing himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Mamdani has described Trump’s ICE raids as “fascist” and has vowed to push back against the administration. He’s also been an outspoken critic of Israel amid its brutal war against Gaza, which he describes as an act of genocide, which has led to accusations of antisemitism – especially after he said the phrase “globalize the Intifada” was a symbolic call for Palestinian human rights.
“These words have different meanings for many different people... I've been clear that any incitement to violence is something that I'm in opposition to,” he told The Bulwark earlier this month, sparking outrage from prominent Jewish figures and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
With the prospect of New York City electing its first Muslim mayor, who is also unapologetically pro-Palestinian, right-wing media personalities, conservative Jewish organizations and Republican lawmakers have painted Mamdani as a radical jihadist hellbent on unleashing further terror attacks on New York, prompting them to “urge all Jews to evacuate” the city.
Laura Loomer, the self-described “proud Islamophobe” who has the president’s ear, reacted to Cuomo’s concession by firing off several unhinged tweets in which she explicitly stated that Mamdani would be responsible for a repeat of the September 11 tragedy.
“@ZohranKMamdani hasn’t even been a US citizen for 10 years. He is literally supported by terrorists. NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0,” she wrote on Tuesday night, adding in another post: “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame.”
The baseless smears, which also included labeling Mamdani a “Communist,” continued through the night. “If the Muslim Brotherhood would have been designated as a terrorist org, @ZohranKMamdani could have been prevented from running for office,” Loomer stated. “Get ready for Muslims to start committing jihad all over New York.”
Piggybacking off the blatant Islamophobia in Loomer’s tirade, Charlie Kirk – the founder of pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA – also invoked the 2001 terror attacks to fearmonger about Mamdani’s likely ascendence to the mayor’s office.
“24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11,” Kirk, who has been increasingly veering towards white nationalism in recent months. “Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.”
Kirk’s remarks, specifically, sparked bipartisan outrage. Liberal Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov called for Kirk to take down the “gross and Islamophobic” post, prompting Kirk to double and triple down. Reminding Kirk that Trump won in 2024 “by winning over Muslim mayors and imams,” conservative columnist Sohrab Ahmari added: “But by all means, promote this sort of dimwitted f*ckery, Charlie.”
It wasn’t just MAGA provocateurs who dove into anti-Muslim tropes while raging about Mamdani’s victory. Elise Stefanik, the GOP congresswoman who has hinted at running for New York governor next year, called the mayoral hopeful a “terrorist sympathizer” in a fundraising email to her supporters.
“My stomach is in knots,” the email read. “The idea that a self-avowed socialist and Hamas Terrorist sympathizer like Zohran Mamdani could become the next mayor of New York City truly makes me sick.”
In a separate tweet aimed at current New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Stefanik said “New Yorkers will defeat you to save our state” because of Mamdani’s Democratic primary win.
“We know you are in full blown panic mode as you frantically draft and send out the congratulatory tweet to the antisemitic, jihadist, Communist candidate you helped elect in your party’s Democrat primary because of your silence, weakness, and ineptitude,” Stefanik wrote. “You own this dangerous insanity and are incapable of defeating it.”
The ugly attacks on Mamdani’s faith are not only bound to continue but to get grander in scope. It was reported on Tuesday night that “allies of President Trump are already gearing up to turn Mamdani into a national figure to attack and tether to other Democrats ahead of the midterms.”
Meanwhile, as he continues to be relentlessly attacked as an antisemite – a characterization he has repeatedly denied and rejected – Mamdani has found himself the target of violence.
“While this is a sad reality, it is not surprising after millions of dollars have been spent on dehumanizing, Islamophobic rhetoric designed to stoke division and hate,” the Mamdani campaign said last week after the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force investigated death threats against the candidate. “Violence and racism should have no place in our politics. Zohran remains focused on delivering a safe and affordable New York.”
