On Wednesday night time’s The Briefing, MSNBC’s Jen Psaki had on self-proclaimed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, following his win in New York Metropolis’s Democratic Get together mayoral major race. Psaki used phrases like “joyful,” “inviting,” and “genuine” all phrases that downplayed Mamdani’s dangerous insurance policies and hateful rhetoric in the direction of Jewish folks.
Psaki tried to prep the interview by utilizing selective language and false info to make it seem to be Mamdani was a well-liked candidate among the many Jewish folks of New York:
They have been joyful, they have been genuine and humorous, and every one in every of them both defined what he would really do as mayor, or gave voters sensible details about how and the place to vote. Which is extremely necessary if you’re attempting to show folks out who don’t at all times vote.
However Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign was additionally an enormous organizing success, it wasn’t simply on-line. I imply, the marketing campaign says it recruited over 40,000 volunteers who knocked on greater than 1 million doorways earlier than Election Day, and he confirmed up in locations the place he wasn’t anticipated. Which is fairly key and an enormous lesson. Like Crown Heights, which is a traditionally black and Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the place Mamdani held one in every of his closing marketing campaign occasions. Regardless of Andrew Cuomo’s direct enchantment to these precise voters, Mamdani received that neighborhood by 26 factors.
She made the declare that Mamdani “confirmed up in locations the place he wasn’t anticipated. Which is fairly key and an enormous lesson. Like Crown Heights, which is a traditionally black and Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the place Mamdani held one in every of his closing marketing campaign occasions. Regardless of Andrew Cuomo’s direct enchantment to these precise voters, Mamdani received that neighborhood by 26 factors.”
Though Mamdani did win by 26 factors on this district, to assert that the Jewish voters voted for him in an try to make him look extra appealable and fewer anti-Semitic was false.
This election map clearly confirmed Cuomo received essentially the most densely populated Jewish areas in Crown Heights within the space south of Jap Parkway, between New York and Troy Avenue. Polling additionally confirmed Cuomo received 51 % of the black vote in comparison with 34 % by Mamdani, so whereas he may have received the bulk in Crown Heights, he clearly didn’t in all of NYC.
Psaki additionally claimed that Mamdani received by “chatting with the core financial struggles of tens of millions of individuals within the metropolis.” She stated this regardless of Cuomo profitable a 49 % majority of low revenue voters, whereas failing to notice Mamdani’s disastrous insurance policies like freezing lease and creating authorities owned grocery shops.
She then remarked that politics was “about the way you make folks really feel. It’s about inviting folks in, it’s about making the voters who you might be reaching out to really feel that you’re a one that hears them, who desires to talk for them when nobody else will. And there’s no query that at the very least at first, he has an enormous present for that.”
To explain a person who referred to as for, and nonetheless refused to denounce the time period “globalize the intifada,” as having a ‘present’ for ‘inviting folks in’ can solely be described as insane.
The “globalization of the intifada” was recognized by many within the Jewish neighborhood to have important anti-Semitic rhetoric. It’s used within the pro-Palestine motion as a way to help resistance to Israeli occupation, usually via violent terrorist teams like Hamas and Hezbollah, teams who overtly name for the eradication of Israel and the Jewish folks.
After Psaki requested how he deliberate to beat this situation, Mamdani delusionally responded with this:
And finally, it is via the conversations I’ve had with Jewish New Yorkers that I’ve developed a proposal for the Division of Neighborhood Security that would come with an 800 % enhance in funding for hate crime prevention applications, as a result of finally, we can not merely say that anti-Semitism has no residence on this metropolis or no place on this nation, now we have to do greater than discuss it, now we have to sort out it.
It’s exhausting to not speculate as to who will perform the 800 % enhance in funding to forestall hate crimes as a result of in accordance with Mamdani, “The NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a significant menace to public security… What we have to do is #DefundTheNYPD.”
Psaki ended her pro-Mamdani phase by lamenting that he needed to cope with “super assaults from MAGA Republicans,” and the way “they’re already attempting to run an Islamophobic marketing campaign in opposition to you.”
In accordance with Psaki, not wanting the Mayor of America’s largest metropolis to be somebody who overtly referred to as for the destruction of the Israeli state via the killing of Jews was Islamophobic.
The complete transcript is beneath. Click on “develop” to view:
MSNBC: The Briefing With Jen Psaki
9:04:37 PM EST
June, twenty fifth, 2025JEN PSAKI: Zohran Mamdani ran a marketing campaign that might not have been any extra completely different. I imply, for starters, he confirmed up on social media with inventive movies from the very starting, like these.
[MAMDANI CAMPAIGN VIDEOS]
(…)
9:05:24 PM
PSAKI: They have been joyful, they have been genuine and humorous, and every one in every of them both defined what he would really do as mayor, or gave voters sensible details about how and the place to vote. Which is extremely necessary if you’re attempting to show folks out who don’t at all times vote.
However Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign was additionally an enormous organizing success, it wasn’t simply on-line. I imply, the marketing campaign says it recruited over 40,000 volunteers who knocked on greater than 1 million doorways earlier than Election Day, and he confirmed up in locations the place he wasn’t anticipated. Which is fairly key and an enormous lesson. Like Crown Heights, which is a traditionally black and Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the place Mamdani held one in every of his closing marketing campaign occasions. Regardless of Andrew Cuomo’s direct enchantment to these precise voters, Mamdani received that neighborhood by 26 factors.
He received for a spread of causes, partly by sharing his contagious love for New York Metropolis, whether or not it was consuming an egg and cheese at a bodega, or using the Staten Island ferry. He did it by operating a marketing campaign that was optimistic, that was hopeful and aspirational, one the place he thought — he stated what he thought, not essentially at all times what was politically fashionable, and he did it by chatting with the core financial struggles of tens of millions of individuals within the metropolis.
(…)
9:08:23 PM
PSAKI: They’re additionally powerful questions Mamdani might want to reply as he works to construct on the coalition that led to his success final night time. That features increasing his help in New York and discovering a technique to deal with the considerations of some voters who disagree together with his views on Israel and the way he has expressed them.
So, sure, there’s loads of exhausting work forward for Zohran Mamdani, loads, loads of exhausting questions he must reply. However, what he achieved final night time can also be a reminder that politics is meant to be — it’s about the way you make folks really feel. It’s about inviting folks in, it’s about making the voters who you might be reaching out to really feel that you’re a one that hears them, who desires to talk for them when nobody else will. And there’s no query that at the very least at first, he has an enormous present for that.
(…)
9:12:04 PM
PSAKI: [TO MAMDANI] I imply, you’re operating on points which are very related to folks in New York Metropolis. The price of housing, free bussing, some have projected, , that that is the kind of platform that might work in different components of the nation. I imply, you’re a proud democratic socialist. Do you suppose that could be a platform that might work for different candidates operating and different components of the nation?
(…)
9:19:46 PM
PSAKI: I do know you have been working to develop your coalition since you are being very cautious what you might be operating in a normal election, and I perceive that. So, I need to ask you about one side of that, since you’re operating to be the mayor of town with the biggest inhabitants of Jewish folks outdoors of Israel and the world. And at a time which I do know — — since you’ve addressed this earlier than, when there’s been a big uptick in anti-Semitic rhetoric and hate crimes in opposition to Jews. It’s very scary to be a Jewish American proper now, and also you’ve been criticized by numerous Jewish leaders, in addition to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, on your protection of the phrase “globalize the intifada.”
Final night time in your speech, you alluded, so I do know that is in your thoughts, you alluded to considerations from the Jewish neighborhood, even vowing to achieve additional to know their views of these whom you disagree.
(…)
9:21:53 PM
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: And finally, it is via the conversations I’ve had with Jewish New Yorkers that I’ve developed a proposal for the Division of Neighborhood Security that would come with an 800 % enhance in funding for hate crime prevention applications, as a result of finally, we can not merely say that anti-Semitism has no residence on this metropolis or no place on this nation, now we have to do greater than discuss it, now we have to sort out it.
(…)
9:23:30 PM
PSAKI: You’re going to be coping with super assaults from MAGA Republicans, we’ve already seen that during the last 24 hours. Together with from Stephen Miller, Elise Stefanik, the NRCC, they’re already attempting to run an islamophobic marketing campaign in opposition to you.
(…)
