'JUST GET IT OVER WITH': Former Tim Scott advisor on NYC Dems waiting to endorse Mamdani
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani's views on Palestine are embarrassing
Zohran Mamdani embraces countless lefty causes, but opposing Israel is — as he himself said on the campaign trail — 'central to my identity.' Believe him, judge him accordingly — and realize this isn't about justice, but hate. He may drop his calls to defund the NYPD or fall short in hiking taxes on the rich, but he'll never stop targeting the Jewish state and vilifying all who support it. Advertisement Only on the topic of Israel and Palestine does Mamdani lose his grin, quit cocking his head and enter a grim space of steely hate. It's a lifelong obsession, soaked up at the knee of his father, a career 'postcolonialist' academic. Palestinian 'liberation' (from Israel, not from the barbaric extremists of Hamas or the corruptocrats of Fatah) was a 'driving force' for Zohran way back in his days at Bowdoin College, where he started a chapter of an anti-Israel club — the only time he has run anything. Advertisement In December 2023 remarks now resurfacing, Mamdani insisted the rest of us are just ignorant: Pro-Israel politicians' 'answers were written around 20, 30 years ago. They speak to a reality that does not exist,' he charged — as if the worldwide growth of antisemitism somehow made the Jewish state less necessary, rather than more. Reality? Israel is an actual country of 10 million (including millions of Arabs!), whereas 'Palestine' is an entity that has never existed, one nobody even imagined before Israel's creation. Democrats' mayoral nominee also slammed Western supporters of Israel's answer to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities as delusional, 'explaining' that 'for so many people, Israel is not a place, it is not a country. It's an idea.' Advertisement Funny: That's surely at least as true of him and his fellow anti-Israel obsessives the world over. He's not a Palestinian nor even an Arab, has never been to Israel and has no plans to go. Nor does he show anything like the concern for other oppressed Muslims, whether the Uighers in China or the Rohingyas in Burma. Those peoples are clearly targeted for elimination by the governments that control their lands, whereas the Palestinian population has grown several times over in the decades that Israel's supposedly been trying to genocide them. Advertisement This obsession isn't about the oppressed: It's about the Jews. We understand that lefties the world over don't consciously see that it's about the Jews, but the double and triple standards allow for no other rational explanation. That Mamdani dresses up this ancient hate in the latest jargon doesn't make it, or him, any less despicable.
Wall Street Journal
5 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Andrew Cuomo Can Still Save New York City
Who can save New York from Zohran Mamdani, the callow Democratic mayoral nominee who would bankrupt the city economically with socialism and morally with antisemitism? Not Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who received less than 28% of the vote in 2021 against Eric Adams. Not Mayor Adams himself, who didn't even seek renomination as a Democrat and is running as an independent. Perhaps counterintuitively, the city's best hope is former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost the primary to Mr. Mamdani. Mr. Cuomo also is running as an independent. Ironically, Mr. Cuomo owes his primary loss to a bill he signed as governor in 2019. Before then, New York City held its Democratic mayoral primary in September, and if no candidate got 45%, the top two finishers faced each other in the runoff. The 2019 law moved the primary to June, when turnout was sure to be lower, and introduced 'ranked-choice voting,' a difficult-to-understand system that effectively disfranchises voters who can't figure it out. As a result, the primary became easy to game. Under the old system, even if Mr. Mamdani had finished first in a September primary, which is doubtful, he would have faced a runoff that would have fully vetted his extreme views. Mr. Cuomo can still give him that runoff. Turnout in city general elections has been dropping—only 23% in 2021—so there are millions of voters who could get involved and stop Mr. Mamdani before it's too late. Democratic Party leaders have to rally behind the best Democrat in the race. They should abandon Mr. Mamdani's Democratic Socialists and affirm that the Democratic Party stands for funding the police, protecting citizens, improving schools, creating good jobs, and making the city affordable through economic growth. Mr. Cuomo is a lifelong mainstream Democrat. But he is a builder and a doer—look at the new LaGuardia Airport—and he knows something about how to create affordable housing from his stint as secretary of housing and urban development. He was elected governor three times, and he apologized for the events that led to his resignation in 2021. Why Mr. Cuomo and not Mr. Adams? In every poll conducted since the primary, the mayor barely breaks double digits. He has very high unfavorable ratings—61% in an American Pulse Research poll conducted a month ago. Mr. Cuomo has a significant base, and in head-to-head matchups either leads Mr. Mamdani widely (50% to 35% in a July 7-8 HarrisX poll) or effectively ties him (Mr. Cuomo leads 42% to 41% in a July 18-20 Wick poll). Mr. Mamdani beats Messrs. Adams and Sliwa in head-to-head matchups. Mr. Mamdani has high negative ratings—43% in the Wick Poll and 45% in HarrisX. Except for one outlier, Mr. Mamdani doesn't get over 50%, and his RealClearPolitics average (in a four-way contest) is 35%. New York's mayor needs experience and leadership ability. Mr. Cuomo has more than any other candidate, and he is the best hope for saving the city. Mr. Penn was a pollster and adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, 1995-2008. He is chairman of the Harris Poll and CEO of Stagwell Inc. Mr. Stein served as New York City Council president, 1986-93.
Fox News
13 hours ago
- Fox News
Don't be fooled. Mamdani isn't the future of the Democratic Party. These two patriotic women are
It has been over a year since President Joe Biden made one of the hardest decisions in political history and announced that he would not seek re-election. Since that day, and the day that Vice President Harris's lost in November, the Democratic Party has been in a full-blown identity crisis. We started a full-blown autopsy, we started looking for new messages, new leaders, new formats, and new language. We are investing millions to "study" how to connect with male voters. The holy grail is "authenticity," which means speak like a normal human. (That includes curse words, which bodes well for this New Yorker—swearing is our native tongue.) We are listening to anyone who says they have the secret formula. That is why, when Zohran Mamdani energized young voters in NYC, everyone, especially the media, turned their attention to him. He capitalized on anger and frustration with inaction in Washington, connected with voters' concerns about affordability, and used social media masterfully, running rings around his older, squarer opponents. He was hip, and he was "real." But all the hyperventilating is premature. Mamdani won a multi-candidate Democratic primary in a deep blue city, held on a 100-degree day in June. He received less than 600,000 votes in a city of over 8 million. So, let's not let social media tell us that he is the future of the Democratic Party. I'm a NYC Democrat and I don't remember anyone outside of the five boroughs caring what Mayor Bloomberg, DiBlasio, or Adams did on the national level. If you are a Democrat running anywhere outside of the blue bubble cities, and especially if you're trying to flip a seat from red to blue, you cast your gaze across the Hudson and south for the blueprint you need. Hop on Amtrak and disembark in Trenton, New Jersey or Richmond, Virginia, and the answer will be right in front of you. What you will see are two candidates who have national security credentials that would let Democrats win back the patriotic and military voters because they can walk the walk, not just talk it like Republicans have in the past. What you will see are candidates that have proven bipartisan track records in Congress of getting shit done. These two candidates are Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger. They are real and authentic. They are what would be created if liberals and moderates, swing voters and suburban moms, young men and military hawks, and values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal all gave their input to ChatGPT. These are two women Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., could campaign with, and Sen. Joe Manchin, my former boss, could work with. To quote Mr Mamdani, we should learn how to say their names because we have to get it right. So why aren't they being elevated as the future or blueprint for success? Don't tell me it's because they haven't won their general elections yet. That has never stopped us before. I'm old enough to remember Howard Dean and Beto O'Rourke being crowned as saviors of the left before they won anything. I've read "What's the Matter with Kansas?" I'm familiar with the Abundance movement. I'm not knocking any of them. But let's be honest: we've gone looking for answers in far less proven places. Maybe it's gender. Maybe we have a harder time seeing two tough, competent, patriotic women as the leaders who could rebuild our Party's coalition. If you look at their records and accomplishments, they've walked the walk, many of their male colleagues just talk about. They're not fantasy candidates. They're not focus-group fabrications. They're real leaders with real records, with national security credentials, bipartisan chops, and electoral success in places that aren't easy for Democrats. They appeal to swing voters, military families, independents, union members, and suburban moderates—all the people we keep saying we need to win back. And they did it without changing who they are, bending to the winds of polling or message-tested language. They did it by being who they have been since they were first elected in 2018. Abigail is a former CIA undercover agent who prevented terrorist attacks and tracked transnational gangs and was also a Postal Inspection Officer who investigated child predators and narcotics traffickers. In Congress, she passed bipartisan legislation to prevent fentanyl overdoses, allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and put more cops on the streets of local cities. Mikie served 10 years as a Naval helicopter pilot and led missions throughout Europe and the Middle East. She was a Russian policy officer aiding in the implementation of our nuclear treaty obligations and oversaw the relationship between the U.S. Navy and Russian Federation Navy. After that, she joined the U.S. Attorney's Office to help people leaving prison gain employment, housing, and education to restart their lives, and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, she prosecuted federal cases to keep illegal guns off our streets. In Congress, she was influential in helping pass the most significant investment in roads, bridges, and transportation in 50 years, as well as the bill that brought manufacturing companies and investments back from China to the U.S. These aren't exactly the career paths of career politicians. These are values-based, pragmatic Democrats with national appeal—people Elizabeth Warren could campaign with, and Joe Manchin could work with. They aren't yelling into the void or stoking culture wars. They aren't on cable news every night and social media all day. They are solving problems that matter to working families, and they've got the records to prove it. And somehow, they've done all that without needing to shout about it to the media. So, instead of searching for new slogans, influencers, or magic polling words, maybe it's time to look up from our phones and social media platforms and see what's right in front of us.
