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“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said at a rally headlined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “It has seen its job as explaining why we cannot instead of showing how we can, and that old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”
Mamdani’s insistence that the Democratic Party as it currently exists will be unable to win a presidential election again marks a new line of critique for the 34-year-old democratic socialist, whose anti-establishment campaign last year broke new ground for the progressive movement.
Now six months into office, Mamdani is testing his political influence, endorsing three progressives in New York’s Democratic primaries: Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who currently represents Queens; Brad Lander, the former city comptroller; and Darializa Avila Chevalier, an educator and immigrant rights’ activist.
During his remarks Thursday night, Mamdani tore into what he called “monsters” that he said include “those who fund television ads that blanket the airwaves with misleading and bad faith attacks” against his three endorsed candidates.
An outspoken critic of Israel’s government, Mamdani then ripped the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has spent millions to boost pro-Israel candidates in congressional primaries this year, often by running ads that reference domestic issues rather than foreign policy.
“They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power, so that they can turn us against one another, instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary,” Mamdani said.
CNN has contacted AIPAC for comment.
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As dark as these days are, it is nice to finally have a few voices in power saying what I believe about this country and the failure of the Democratic Party to do anything about.
I’m all in on Mamdani. He is what we initially thought Obama was going to be before he pulled off the mask.
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Did you never read/listen to Obama?
Not sure what you mean. Bernie is the politician who best represents my views throughout my life.
But, yes, I had some hope that Obama might use some of his political power to change things to help people. I wasn’t super familiar with him before he rose to prominence. He talked a big game and promised change. I supported him easily over Hillary who I knew wanted no change to the status quo. I had doubts during his campaign but wanted to believe.
Obama lost me when he hired Rahm to be chief of staff. I knew no change was coming that would help people.
Many people on the left writ large have still not grappled with the reality that Obama is a big part of the reason for where we are so not sure what angle you’re coming from.
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I’d probably be dead without Obama’s ACA, so take that for what you will.
Oh, I’m not really coming with an angle. I just feel like anyone who read Obama’s work heading into that primary should have understood where he was coming from. I don’t really blame people for thinking he was more progressive than he was, but I don’t think anyone really paying attention to him should have thought he was going to be much different than he was.
Obama is a tough one to handicap because he is simultaneously one of the best Dems of the last 40 years and a big cause of how we got here.
Also I hate to say it but USA in 2008 was much more ready for a black man named Barrack Hussein Obama to be president than we are sitting here in 2026. We have gone backwards and unfortunately part of the blame for that lies with what Obama didn’t do during his term. Most notably not pushing RBG out and wasting his entire time trying to compromise with bad faith republicans rather than using the greatest amount of power any president has enjoyed in our lifetime.
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I think it was a lesson for me. I wasn’t some big Obama person supporting him early on or anything. And I was pretty busy back then.
But I was drawn to the idea of a black man being able to be elected president. And fooled by his rhetoric.
Even still he was the better choice vs Hillary. But not by much.
And, as I started to become familiar with him, I was quickly disheartened.
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Biggest agreement I’ve ever had with WichitaDM. Terrorist fist bump.
What a colossal and costly misread of the moment. And I say that as a BHO fanboy.
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Could he have even done this if he’d wanted to?
He could have put on an enormous amount of pressure sure.
What leverage did he have? She was a dying old woman who gave zero fucks about anything other than getting to be a SCOTUS justice and all the perks that go along with that.
Dude controlled the entire party aperatus for 8 years. Acting like had no leverage is silly. Could he force it? No. But he could have easily put an unbearable amount of pressure on her but didn’t becauae it wasn’t the nice thing to do. Now half the country doesn’t have abortion access.
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What pressure do you think he could have put on her?
Put public pressure on her to resign through the media and his host of proxies. Dig up some dirt and smear her Bernie style. Etc.
Other than possibly asking politely he did nothing and the consequences of that have been grave.
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Choke her out in the Oval Office.
Like what, he could have written a nasty NYT op-ed explaining why she should resign? And after RBG tells him to pound sand, what then? The POTUS by design has no real power to strong-arm the Supreme Court.
You reallize we’re talking about Barack Obama?