Mamdani says his platform would be successful with candidates outside of NYC
New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who appears to have secured a win in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, said Wednesday that his platform would be successful with candidates outside of his city.
'Do you think that is a platform that would work for other candidates running in other parts of the country?' MSNBC's Jen Psaki asked Mamdani in an interview on 'The Briefing.'
'Absolutely. I think ultimately, this is a campaign about inequality, and you don't have to live in the most expensive city in the country to have experienced that inequality, because it's a national issue,' Mamdani responded.
'And what Americans coast to coast are looking for are people who will fight for them, not just believe in the things that resonate with their lives, but actually fight and deliver on those very things,' he added.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, shocked American political observers Tuesday as he seemed to be on the path to winning the Democratic nomination for the Big Apple's mayoral race over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He immigrated to the U.S. from Uganda as a child and has spent most of his life in the nation's biggest city.
If Mamdani clinches New York City's top job, he would be its first Muslim and Asian mayor. The results will be final by July 1.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a recent interview that former Vice President Harris would be president if she had used the same campaign playbook as Mamdani.
'Look, he ran a brilliant campaign. And it wasn't just him. What he understood and understands — campaign's not over — is that to run a brilliant campaign, you have to run a grassroots campaign,' Sanders told Politico Magazine in a piece published Wednesday.
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Newsweek
16 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Key US Ally Quietly Prepares for China's Pacific War With America
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Japan will begin building bomb shelters next year on its remote islands closest to Taiwan amid fears that its far western territory could become a legitimate target for Chinese missiles if China and the United States go to war. The plans point to a possible scenario in which Beijing orders preemptive strikes against major U.S. and allied bases in the Pacific before launching an amphibious invasion by sea and air across the Taiwan Strait to achieve what strategists call a fait accompli. They also acknowledge the complex reality that Japan—the U.S. treaty ally hosting the most American troops anywhere in the world outside of U.S. territory—will in all probability not avoid the spillover of a superpower conflict so near its shores. The Core of Core Issues The Communist Party claims democratically governed Taiwan as part of Chinese territory, despite Taipei's objections. China refuses to rule out the use of force to unify the island with the mainland, and a widening hard power imbalance across the Taiwan Strait is fueling concerns that Beijing could soon compel Taipei with the threat of a hot war. U.S. officials say Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his armies to be ready to take Taiwan by force by 2027. Whether the military capability will be matched by political intent cannot be known. Taiwan is a core issue in the U.S.-China relationship, Beijing's officials say. At Asia's top security forum in Singapore last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said China's military was "rehearsing for the real deal," and that an attack "could be imminent." Beijing accused him of trying to stoke confrontation. Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei but is bound by U.S. law to arm Taiwan and assist in its self-defense. Former President Joe Biden suggested he was prepared to defend Taiwan with American forces. President Donald Trump has kept his cards closer to the vest. What is certain is that the United States likely cannot win a Pacific war against China without the help of Japan, whose vast territory of more than 14,000 islands spans 1,000 miles across the first and second island chains in the West Pacific. Japan's Self-Defense Force is among the world's most well-armed militaries thanks in part to historically strong heavy industry and U.S. export licenses for the production of platforms like the F-35 stealth jet and the future operation of weapons like the Tomahawk cruise missile. And although Japan's constitution explicitly renounces the use of force, Tokyo's reinterpretation of the document in recent years may allow its military to perform collective self-defense alongside U.S. and allied forces, even if Japan itself is not attacked. The Plan The Japanese government will subsidize the construction of long-stay evacuation facilities in municipalities in the Sakishima archipelago at the end of its Nansei or southwest island chain, starting next year with the westernmost inhabited territory of Yonaguni, less than 70 miles east of Taiwan. More bomb shelters—equipped with facilities for stays of up to two weeks—will be built on the neighboring islands of Iriomote, Ishigaki, Tarama and Miyako by spring 2028, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported this week. Left to right: Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on May 31 shows the Yaeyama islands of Yonaguni, Iriomote and Ishigaki, part of the Sakishima archipelago in southwestern Japan. Left to right: Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on May 31 shows the Yaeyama islands of Yonaguni, Iriomote and Ishigaki, part of the Sakishima archipelago in southwestern Japan. Copernicus Okinawa, the largest of Japan's southwestern islands, hosts around 30,000 of the 54,000 active-duty American service members in Japan. The U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps all operate bases on the Pacific node, with U.S.-Japan joint training exercises reaching all the way to Yonaguni. Officials in Tokyo plan to evacuate residents to the country's main islands long before hostilities begin. However, official estimates indicate sea and air evacuations of more than 100,000 civilians during a Taiwan Strait crisis could take nearly a week. The emergency shelters would act as a backstop to house up to 200 people who are left behind. The buildup to a possible major war is palpable to the islanders, who have expressed angst about being on the front line of what their government calls a "Taiwan contingency." "The plan is very detailed and I felt a strong sense of crisis in the remote border islands," Gen Nakatani, Japan's defense minister, said at a news conference in January while reviewing Yonaguni's evacuation measures. A Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-2 transport aircraft takes off at Miho Air Base in Sakaiminato in Japan's western Tottori prefecture on June 21, heading to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa for a possible... A Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-2 transport aircraft takes off at Miho Air Base in Sakaiminato in Japan's western Tottori prefecture on June 21, heading to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa for a possible evacuation of Japanese nationals from the Middle East. More Kyodo via AP The preparations are as necessary as they are uncomfortable; the worst-case planning does not presume a peaceful end to a decades-long dispute that in many ways resembles China's most formidable hurdle in its pursuit of true superpower status against a resistant United States. "China's military expansion in recent years and its attempts to unilaterally change the regional status quo have aroused a high degree of vigilance in democratic countries like Japan, the United States and in the European Union," Taiwan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hsiao Kuang-wei told Newsweek. Taipei welcomes the international community's continued attention to the security situation in the Taiwan Strait and in the region, Hsiao said. The U.S. State Department referred Newsweek to the government of Japan, which did not respond to written requests for comment. China's Foreign Ministry also did not respond. The Fight Beijing's modern military is on the march, with ambitions of global supremacy that stretch far beyond Taiwan, to the Arctic and even to space. Intensive Chinese military activity in Taiwan's surrounding sea and airspace is now the norm, yet they increase still. Last year, Taipei tracked over 3,000 Chinese warplane sorties in its air defense zone, nearly double the figure recorded in each of the previous two years, according to PLATracker, a public dataset maintained by U.S. analysts Gerald C. Brown and Benjamin Lewis. Taiwan's own defense reforms have progressed steadily, but not fast enough for many of its supporters in the United States. The island's political, military and civic leaders, however, are applying lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine: how to win international support, how to use sea drones and HIMARS rocket launchers and how to resist. The U.S. and Japanese militaries have witnessed some of the biggest shifts in defense posture, both individually and collectively as an alliance. The Pentagon is overseeing a fundamental change in warfighting doctrine across the U.S. armed services as part of a pivot to the Indo-Pacific theater, where seas are wide, islands are many and continental land is scarce. In Japan, the larger of the Sakishima islands—Yonaguni, Miyako and Ishigaki—have each hosted new Japanese army bases in the last 10 years. On Yonaguni, whose population is only 1,500, a Patriot missile unit operates a battery of advanced PAC-3 interceptor systems, and long-range radar stations in the mountains watch Chinese forces daily. Japan's army on June 24 test-fires a Type 88 surface-to-ship short-range missile at the Shizunai Anti-Air Firing Range on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido in its first missile test on Japanese territory. Japan's army on June 24 test-fires a Type 88 surface-to-ship short-range missile at the Shizunai Anti-Air Firing Range on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido in its first missile test on Japanese territory. Japan Ground Self-Defense Force via AP This week, Japan's army conducted its first missile test on Japanese territory, firing a Type 88 short-range surface-to-ship missile on its northernmost main island of Hokkaido. Tokyo is also acquiring long-range counterstrike weapons—the U.S.-made Tomahawk and its own Type 12 missile—that can reach China's coast. Defense planners are not discounting the possibility that China could move on the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, around 100 miles north of the Sakishima group. U.S. and Japanese soldiers have trained together to retake Japan's remote islands from enemy forces and this year simulated anti-ship strikes on maritime choke points used by the Chinese navy. The U.S.-Japan alliance is open about the perceived China threat in ways that the U.S.-South Korea alliance cannot be. Seoul fears that a diversion of American strength from the Korean Peninsula could invite trouble at the Demilitarized Zone with Kim Jong Un's North. The Expert View Bryce Barros, nonresident associate fellow at the Bratislava-based Globsec group, told Newsweek: "The decision to publicize these preparations may also point to deeper coordination between Japan and Taiwan than is openly acknowledged. "More broadly, it raises important questions for other countries in the region. For example, I'd be curious to see what measures Filipino authorities are taking for islands in the Bashi Channel, which would also be on the frontline of any cross-strait crisis." Tsun-yen Wang, associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, told Newsweek: "It should not be ruled out that those shelters may also be utilized for housing and aiding refugees fleeing from Taiwan. "The 'Taiwan refugees' concern was raised about two years ago, and discussion of this issue may well conjure up the Japanese people's memory of finding 'boat people' at the end of the Vietnam War." Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on May 31 shows the island of Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited territory less than 70 miles east of Taiwan. Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on May 31 shows the island of Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited territory less than 70 miles east of Taiwan. Copernicus What Comes Next The Trump administration is prioritizing a strategy of "denial" to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby said in his confirmation hearing earlier this year. Unlike deterrence by punishment, which threatens consequences like economic sanctions, a strategy of denial seeks to convince an aggressor that its objectives are unobtainable, by making the likelihood of a catastrophic military defeat more credible. To achieve denial against a peer adversary like China, the United States may need to clearly signal a readiness to intervene, in what would be a test of the American public's appetite for more war. In a poll released by the Ronald Reagan Institute this month, seven in 10 Americans said they would support U.S. military action to defend Taiwan.
Hamilton Spectator
35 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Donald Trump likens U.S. strike on Iran to WWII atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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The report contradicts statements from U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's The report contradicts statements from U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's Describing as 'scum' those journalists who reported on the assessment that there had been only limited damage to Iran's nuclear program, Trump said that the intelligence was 'very inconclusive' and concluded that the damage 'could have been very severe.' Saying that there had since been additional intelligence reports as well as physical visits, he insisted Wednesday that Iran's nuclear ambitions had instead been set back by 'basically decades.' 'They just went through hell. I think they've had it. The last thing they want to do is enrich,' he said, adding that the American bomb strike 'ended the war.' 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Trump provided no details on negotiations between Israel and Iran that might result in a longer-term peace deal between the bitter enemies, but he suggested that the American strikes on Iran had resulted in 'great progress being made on Gaza.' 'Because of this attack that we made, I think we're going to have some very good news.' Israel is still seeking the return of hostages taken by Hamas in the attack of Oct. 7, 2023. United Nations officials are managing a humanitarian catastrophe affecting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Earlier this week, in a briefing for journalists, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jonathan Whitall, said that more than 400 Palestinians have been killed, most of them 'shot or shelled trying to reach U.S.-Israeli distribution sites purposefully set up in militarized zones.' 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Fox News
39 minutes ago
- Fox News
Ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says there's ‘a lot of exaggeration' over Mamdani fears
Print Close By Bradford Betz Published June 26, 2025 Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told 'Fox News @ Night' Wednesday he believes fears over Zohran Mamdani's win in the Democratic primary are greatly exaggerated. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, claimed victory in New York City's Democratic mayor primary Tuesday after former New York governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race. While the race's outcome will still need to be decided by a ranked count on July 1, Mamdani's far-left policy proposals have caused angst among more moderate Democrats. CITY-RUN GROCERY STORES, DEFUNDING POLICE, SAFE INJECTION SITES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NYC'S NEXT POTENTIAL MAYOR De Blasio downplayed these fears, arguing that many of Mamdani's proposals – such as creating free bus networks, expanding grocery stores and implementing rent control – have been tried in other cities. "These are not staggering ideas. If he wants to tax the wealthy, he has to get the approval of the legislature. They may or may not give it," de Blasio said, arguing that the "wealthy" are poised to get generous tax cuts from President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," which passed in the House last month. DEM SOCIALIST'S NYC PRIMARY UPSET SIGNALS 'GENERATIONAL' SHIFT IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, STRATEGISTS SAY "I just think there's a lot of exaggeration here. And we're not going to see people leaving in droves," de Blasio said. "They said it would happen when I became mayor. It didn't happen. I just don't buy it." De Blasio, who served as New York City Mayor between 2014 and 2022, argued that Mamdani's success was due to his focus on "kitchen table issues" – something Democrats paid the price for forgetting in the 2024 election cycle. "Here's someone who actually talked all day long about affordability, talked about rent. He talked about the basics of life, food, the whole thing that people are struggling to make ends meet," de Blasio said. The former mayor predicted that police would not be defunded under a prospective Mamdani administration. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "I think in the end, he's going to laser focus on the kinds of things that everyday New Yorkers want across the ideological spectrum here, across demographics, because this place is incredibly expensive, and working-class and middle class people are struggling to live here," de Blasio said. Print Close URL
