New York socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing renewed backlash over his past anti-police rhetoric following a mass shooting inside a Manhattan skyscraper that left four people dead.
Authorities say a man opened fire Monday morning inside a high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan, killing four individuals before turning the gun on himself, according to The Guardian.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Mamdani rose to national prominence after defeating former governor and longtime Democratic figure Andrew Cuomo in the city’s Democratic primary. His campaign platform included policies to defund the NYPD, tax the wealthy, create city-run grocery stores, and support Palestinian causes, Newsweek reported.
Now running as an independent, Cuomo has seized on Mamdani’s record on public safety in the wake of the deadly shooting.
“He has said the NYPD are racists, the police are a threat to public safety,” Cuomo told Fox News. “I think he’s dangerous because he doesn’t understand the need for public safety in this city.”
The New York City mayoral race has tightened in recent weeks amid growing scrutiny of Mamdani’s past remarks. The federally regulated prediction market Kalshi currently places Mamdani’s chances of victory at 72%, down sharply from 94.8% in April, The Dallas Express previously reported.
Facing mounting criticism, Mamdani has attempted to distance himself from some of his earlier statements, claiming they were made in frustration following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
“I’m proud of the public safety platform we’ve put together,” Mamdani told Fox News. “For the former governor to have spent an entire day speaking almost exclusively about me and barely about the New Yorkers who have been killed is indicative of the very politics New Yorkers want to leave in the past.”
Social media posts from Mamdani’s earlier campaigns included statements such as:
“We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”
He has also advocated for eliminating cash bail, banning all guns, decriminalizing sex work, and ending city cooperation with federal immigration authorities.