
Mamdani stokes Italian American outrage after resurfaced tweet shows socialist giving the finger to Christopher Columbus statue: ‘Take it down'
Italian Americans were outraged at mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani Monday after a social media post resurfaced showing him flipping the bird at a statue of Christopher Columbus and calling for its removal.
The socialist Mamdani is seen in the tweet from June 2020 giving the middle finger to the back of the towering figure in Astoria, which is part of his state Assembly district.
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5 Italian Americans were outraged at mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani Monday after a social media post resurfaced.
Stephen Yang
'Take it down,' wrote Mamdani, who was running for state office at the time.
The tweet left a bad taste in the mouth of Italian American groups in the Big Apple this week, including the Columbus Heritage Coalition.
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Angelo Vivolo, the group's president, vowed not to support the lefty candidate come November.
5 The socialist Mamdani is seen in the tweet from June 2020 giving the middle finger to the back of the towering figure in Astoria.
Zohran Mamdani/X
'We will defend Columbus Day and Columbus statues,' he told The Post.
'He is being disrespectful to the Italian American community' said Vivolo, who is the former head of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which runs the city's Columbus Day Parade. 'If you offend one community, you offend all communities.
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'I don't think he will be mayor for all the people of New York City.'
5 'Take it down,' wrote Mamdani, who was running for state office at the time.
Matthew McDermott
The Italian voting bloc that Mamdani disrespected makes up about 8% of the city's population, noted Joseph Scelsa, the founder and president of the Italian American Museum.
'To eliminate such a large population of people would be a travesty,' he said. 'It's not inclusive. It's exclusionary.
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'Who's to say who is a hero and who is not a hero? Columbus is our hero.'
5 The tweet left a bad taste in the mouth of Italian American groups in the Big Apple this week, including the Columbus Heritage Coalition.
Robert Miller
An email to Mamdani's campaign about the brewing controversy was not immediately returned.
The wet behind the ears socialist shocked ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June's Democratic primary, putting him in the driver's seat for November.
Mamdani could face Cuomo again in the general election — the longtime Italian American pol is mulling a run as an independent — along with Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, and GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.
5 An email to Mamdani's campaign about the brewing controversy was not immediately returned.
Matthew McDermott
Lefties have made a habit of targeting Columbus statues and Columbus Day because of the famed explorer's treatment of Native Americans when sailing to North America.
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But supporters argue he's important to Italian Americans and his voyage was a critical moment in history.
The statue Mamdani condemned in his tweet is one of the five in Big Apple parks, according to city officials.
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NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
David Valadao battles backlash in his swing district after voting for Medicaid cuts that hit close to home
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — When Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., was knocked out of office in 2018, Democrats around the country were riding a wave of backlash against President Donald Trump and the GOP's attempts to cut health care. Now, after Valadao provided a critical vote for a sweeping tax cuts and spending package that slashed Medicaid and food stamps, Democrats see an opportunity for a repeat in California's Central Valley, where many low-income residents depend on social safety net programs. Valadao has already drawn at least two Democratic challengers in his battleground district, which will be key to Republicans' efforts to hang on to their narrow majority in next year's midterm elections. These include Jasmeet Bains, a doctor and member of the California state Assembly who officially jumped into the race last week. She told NBC News she was motivated by Valadao's support for the bill and plans to make health care a defining issue in the campaign against him. 'This isn't something that I ever envisioned for myself. I'm a doctor,' Bains said of her decision to run for Congress. 'When I saw Valadao vote for the 'big, beautiful bill,' I was shocked. As was everyone. How could you do that in a district that has some of the highest needs? Some of the highest Medicaid patients in the country?' Randy Villegas, a school board trustee who is affiliated with the Working Families Party, is also mounting a bid in the 22nd District. Even prior to his vote on the megabill, Valadao was seen as one of the more vulnerable Republicans up for re-election in 2026. After he lost in 2018, Valadao made a comeback bid and returned to Congress the following cycle. But his vote for Trump's bill could now put his swing seat even more at risk. Valadao's district has the highest share of Medicaid recipients and households receiving food stamps of any represented by a Republican in Congress, according to an NBC News analysis. In a preview of the attack ads to come, House Majority Forward, a nonprofit group aligned with Democratic leadership, and the League of Conservation Voters are launching new ads next week hitting Valadao over his support for the bill, according to a source familiar with the matter. The agriculturally rich region, which relies heavily on migrant farmworkers, is also bracing for mass deportations that some fear could disrupt the local economy and national food supply chains. Valadao has urged Trump to prioritize deporting criminals over undocumented laborers, but the administration has sent mixed signals about its approach. It all has the community here on edge. 'I'm definitely scared. I'm worried about it,' 53-year-old Rick Garcia, a local resident who relies on Medicaid after he was permanently paralyzed in his early 20s, told NBC News in an interview about the health care cuts. Valadao had repeatedly vowed to oppose the 'big, beautiful bill,' warning just several days before final passage that he couldn't support the Senate product. But he ended up supporting that version without any changes to the legislation. When asked how he felt about Valadao's vote, Garcia told NBC News: 'Betrayed.' 'If you're a politician and you're gonna say you're gonna do something, you're relying on that politician to do something about that problem,' Garcia said. 'Be a man of your word.' Republicans argue that only those they say don't deserve to be on Medicaid, like undocumented immigrants and able-bodied adults who don't work, will be kicked off the program. But Garcia said the state's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, has already tried to remove him twice before, so he worries people could erroneously get swept up in all the new changes or will struggle to navigate the more frequent eligibility check-ins. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected Trump's new law will increase the number of people without health insurance by 10 million by 2034. Valadao's office said the congressman was not available for an interview for this story. In a statement after the House vote on the bill earlier this month, Valadao defended his decision. 'I voted for this bill because it does preserve the Medicaid program for its intended recipients — children, pregnant women, the disabled, and elderly,' he said. Christian Martinez, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, said the bill that Valadao voted for will 'ease the burden on hardworking Californians' and took a swipe at Villegas and Bains. 'Their far-left agenda will continue to wreck California's economy, raise taxes, and put illegal immigrants ahead of California families,' Martinez said. Valadao has stood up to his own party before. Most notably, he was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But Trump has since further tightened his grip on the party, even threatening to back primary challenges to Republicans who stood in the way of his 'big, beautiful bill.' The sprawling domestic policy bill extends Trump's 2017 tax cuts, removes some taxes on tips and overtime, and beefs up funding for immigration enforcement and the military. While the legislation is generally unpopular in public polling, Republicans are betting once they start selling it, their members will be rewarded for supporting it. Some local business owners in Valadao's district hailed the bill and praised Valadao for backing it. Rob Taylor, who has owned Stafford's Chocolates in Portersville for the last 14 years, said he thinks some of the bill's tax provisions will be a boon for small businesses like his. 'I appreciate Valadao sticking up for himself and his constituents here,' Taylor, who has voted for Valadao in the past, told NBC News. 'He's not just a rubber stamp. He does look at both sides [of an issue].' In order to partially pay for the bill, Republicans opted to scale back Medicaid and food stamps. That includes instituting new work requirements for able-bodied adults, making undocumented immigrants ineligible for the program and putting new restrictions on the state provider tax, which is a significant source of revenue for rural hospitals. Moderate Republicans fended off even steeper cuts to Medicaid that had been in the mix during the negotiations, such as reducing the federal cost-sharing formula. But Valadao acknowledged he still harbors concerns over some of the Medicaid changes, particularly those impacting rural hospitals. Access to health care in rural areas can already be difficult. Often, facilities are dependent on help from the government to stay afloat. Kern Hospital in Bakersfield, a social safety net hospital, gets 72% of its patient revenue from Medi-Cal. Then there are rural health clinics, like the Bakersfield American Indian Health Project, where Garcia receives some of his care. These clinics rely on various revenue streams from the federal government and provide critical preventive care services to many low-income patients on Medicaid. 'There's no frills here. No one's taking advantage of anything. They're trying to survive,' Dr. Carson Chambers, a clinical psychologist at the Bakersfield American Indian Health Project, told NBC News. Asked about the impacts of the Medicaid cuts, Chambers said: 'It may be well-intentioned, it may be fiscally sound, but in the long run, I think it's going to cost more.'

3 hours ago
Some of Mamdani's platform is surprisingly similar to Bloomberg's, experts say
He proposed free crosstown buses. He pushed for steep tax hikes on the wealthy—including an 18.5% property tax increase— insisting none of his rich friends threatened to leave the city over higher taxes. He championed millions to build supermarkets in long-neglected neighborhoods. And under his plan, city workers could give privately raised cash to New Yorkers booking dental appointments or keeping their children in school. These progressive policies, however, are not from New York City's Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Experts said they were from Michael Bloomberg, New York's billionaire former Republican mayor and a prominent supporter of Andrew Cuomo's run for mayor. As Mamdani reshapes the city's political map, some experts told ABC News a striking parallel is emerging. Behind the labels of "socialist" and "technocrat," both men share aligned goals: taxing the rich during crises, promoting expansive transit ideas, and bold plans to bring fresh food to low-income communities. Still, experts said, even when policies overlap, most New Yorkers do not see them as similar. They point out many people know Mamdani as an organizer who has posted that capitalism is a form of thef t; Bloomberg as a businessman who built a fortune managing the free market that Mamdani is critiquing. Mamdani identifies himself as a democratic socialist and has stated, "I don't think that we should have billionaires." Bloomberg is one of the richest people in the world. Neither Mamdani nor Bloomberg provided statements to ABC News. Mamdani recently acknowledged in a private meeting with business leaders that he hopes to emulate Bloomberg on a few issues — even as he draws fire from many in the business community, sources familiar told ABC News. "There's a resistance from a lot of powerful forces ... And it doesn't have to do with Mamdani's politics, it has to do with the fact that he doesn't come from them," Democratic strategist Peter Feld told ABC News. Bloomberg spent $8 million backing Cuomo's failed bid to become the Democratic nominee for mayor. "If you said which of these things go together, you probably wouldn't pick Bloomberg and Mamdani," Christine Quinn, the former city council speaker who helped Bloomberg pass key policies, told ABC News. "But when you peel away at the onion, there's a lot of similarities." Free buses As early as 2007, Bloomberg spoke about his public transit goals, telling WABC, "If you were to design the ultimate system, you would have mass transit be free and charge an enormous amount for cars." During his 2009 re-election campaign, Bloomberg proposed making some Manhattan crosstown buses free of charge. An archived screenshot from his campaign website states, "The MTA should eliminate fare collection..." At a campaign event, he called the MTA "bloated" and "inefficient." The New York Times contrasted observers calling the proposal "radical," and a Regional Plan Association official saying it "captured people's imaginations." A Mamdani campaign pillar calls for free fares on all bus lines. After piloting a fare-free program on five lines as an assemblymember, Mamdani compared it to Kansas City and Boston's free programs. Cuomo's bus plan for mayor includes evaluating the "expansion of a fare-free bus pilot program" that Mamdani championed, and expanding a 50% discount on public transportation for low-income residents. Regional Plan Association's Kate Slevin, who served in city government under Bloomberg, said she "can't remember other mayoral candidates" with a similar plan for free buses. Slevin told ABC News, "When it comes to fares, those are the only two I can remember." After Bloomberg won, a transportation website reported he removed the proposal from his website. The plan was never implemented. Both men faced criticism over feasibility - the MTA controls bus fares. Mamdani has not publicly highlighted Bloomberg's old bus proposal, but he's aware of at least one Bloomberg transportation initiative: in a recent video about expanding dedicated bus lanes, he said, "It's not a new proposal, Mayor Bloomberg suggested it in 2008." Taxing the wealthy After 9/11, during New York City's financial crisis, Mayor Bloomberg increased property taxes by 18.5%, short of his original 25% push. Months later, Bloomberg raised sales and income taxes. Single filers earning over $100,000 were among those impacted. "[Bloomberg] knew that to make New York livable, you had to raise taxes, and he put that as a priority, rather than to simply cut the budget and vital services," NYU Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, Mitchell Moss, told ABC News. "Taxes were not a peripheral part of his fiscal policy. They were a central part." In a 2007 USC speech, Bloomberg reflected, "As a last resort, we even raised property taxes and income taxes on high-earners," recalling backlash, saying "raising taxes didn't make me the most popular..." In response to concerns New Yorkers may leave, Bloomberg told WNYC: "I can only tell you, among my friends, I've never heard one person say I'm going to move out of the city because of the taxes ... Not one." Former Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to raise taxes on the wealthy to fix subways, but was not successful. Mamdani proposes permanent additional 2% tax increases for earners making over $1 million and raising corporate taxes. Bloomberg framed his hikes as temporary, specifically tied to emergencies. However, even Bloomberg acknowledged that his tax revenue supported broader ambitions. "Mike Bloomberg raised taxes following 9/11 out of fiscal necessity, not ideology," Ed Skyler, a senior executive at Citigroup and former deputy mayor for Bloomberg, told ABC News. At USC, he said increases, "allowed us to close the huge budget deficits, balance the books and continue investing in the future: building new schools, revitalizing old industrial areas, creating the largest affordable housing program in the nation, supporting our cultural institutions, parks, libraries, and universities, and expanding world-wide advertising to attract businesses and tourists." Food policy for low-income communities Under Bloomberg, starting in 2009, dozens of FRESH grocery stores opened. Many are still operating today. The program offered public subsidies to private grocery operators to boost access to fresh food in underserved neighborhoods. Quinn, then city council speaker and a key player in passing the program, said they always asked: "how do we use the powers of the city of New York to jolt the private sector into action?" Bloomberg frequently sought to merge public and private efforts—through initiatives like his Green Carts program —which supplied permits for vendors selling fresh produce in "food deserts," and Health Bucks, which enabled discounted food to be purchased at farmers markets. Mamdani proposes one municipally owned, nonprofit grocery store in each borough, offering goods at wholesale prices. On " Plain English," Mamdani said his plan would cost less than FRESH. CUNY School of Public Health Professor Nevin Cohen said he believes Mamdani's plan would cost less than Bloomberg's, too. He wrote a piece titled " Guess What? Government Is Already in the Grocery Business," mentioning existing markets in Madison and Atlanta. Mamdani's idea isn't new to the city. Former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia created the first public market network and several still remain today. Under Bloomberg, one such market—Essex Market—was rezoned and relocated to a new, modern space. Cohen said Bloomberg and Mamdani's plans "are not just similar. They actually had the same underlying goal." Cohen said, "Bloomberg very much intervened in the market" and sent an old advertisement of Bloomberg, dressed as a nanny, labeled, "You only thought you lived in the land of the free." Quinn also notes that many of Bloomberg's plans faced resistance, but once implemented, became part of the city's fabric. "What is radical on Monday often becomes widespread by Wednesday," Quinn said.


New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
NYC Board of Elections asks Brooklyn DA to launch voter fraud investigation after Post expose
The city Board of Elections asked Brooklyn prosecutors to open an investigation into possible voter fraud Friday after The Post revealed two absentee ballots in a close primary council race were cast on behalf of deceased people. The BOE said it was asking the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to look into two incidents surrounding the District 47 race, including the votes cast in the name of people who died over a decade ago and another 22 ballots that were deemed as 'potentially fraudulent.' The BOE didn't say what made the more than two dozen ballots suspicious, but that the votes had been invalidated following an internal investigation, which was then referred to the Brooklyn DA. Advertisement 3 After The Post revealed two absentee ballots were cast on behalf of two deceased individuals in a close primary council race, an investigation has been launched to determine possible voter fraud. Michael Nagle The razor-thin margin primary between Brooklyn Republican Party Chair Richie Barsamian and entrepreneur George Sarantopoulos could be decided by only a handful of votes. Unofficial election night tallies had a mere 32-vote difference between the two candidates. The 22 ballots were discovered during a manual recount process earlier this week a source told The Post, adding that lawyers from the BOE had been reviewing them in recent days. Advertisement Sarantopoulos was maintaining a 16-vote lead as of Friday, gaining two ballots in a manual recount that started Tuesday, sources said. He had been maintaining a 14-vote lead as of Wednesday, according to a statement from his campaign. A source who spoke to Barasamian — who as head of the Brooklyn GOP gets to appoint BOE employees — about The Post's original reporting Tuesday, said that the candidate confided he was 'very worried.' The Barasamian campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday. Advertisement 3 The city Board of Elections (BOE) asked the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to look into the District 47 race to look into the two ballots of those cast that were registered in the name of two individuals who died over 10 years ago. Facebook/ George Sarantopoulous Sources said multiple people from the Brooklyn BOE who were involved in the south Brooklyn GOP primary had been reassigned from their roles during the internal investigation. 'The workers from that section were reassigned pending the results of the investigation,' Brooklyn Democratic BOE Commish and retired NYPD detective Frank Seddio told The Post. Personal devices and computers were seized from BOE employees as part of the probe, sources said. Advertisement The BOE previously the election would be certified next week after the manual recount of votes is completed. 3 The BOE also wants another 22 ballots looked at that were deemed as 'potentially fraudulent.' Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post 'While any attempt to compromise the electoral process is deeply troubling, this case underscores the strength of the Board's existing safeguards,' the BOE said in a news release. 'These irregularities were identified early, investigated thoroughly, and resolved swiftly – demonstrating the Board's commitment to upholding the integrity of our elections.' A representative for the BK DA said the office doesn't comment on investigations. The Sarantopoulous campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.