Zohran Mamdani’s alleged zinger in last night’s debate was a claim that he had “integrity” and Andrew Cuomo did not. Actually, his endless flip-flops exemplify opportunism in the extreme, a direct contradiction to integrity.
Start with the New York City police department. In June 2020, Mamdani tweeted: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”
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He tweeted, “There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.” And in 2022, State Assemblyman Mamdani voted to cut 1,300 officers from a “racist” NYPD.
Now that he needs the votes of regular New Yorkers, he’s executed a perfect somersault on that most unpopular stance. He said, “I’m not here to defund the police — we’re just working to make the city safer and innovate.”
Aw shucks.
That is not a minor adjustment. And those radical views did not date from a high school term paper. They were aired three and five years ago.
Mamdani is on record questioning the need for jails, having called them one of white supremacy’s “many faces.” On the city prison now housing the most dangerous criminals, he said, “Rikers Island’s decades-long history of abuse, neglect and suffering has no place in New York City.” Last month, his campaign announced, “As Mayor, Zohran Mamdani will work to adhere to the 2027 closure of Rikers as required by law, . . “
Fine, but last month he also said that closing Rikers by 2027 is now “functionally impossible.”
What has caused that loss of fervor? Perhaps it is the anger among Chinatown residents that one of the new community jails to be replacing Rikers is slated for their community.
Mamdani is promising free buses and free childcare — all good things — but he refused in this week’s debate to say how he’d pay for them. Painting visions of wonderful new programs and not hinting where the money would come from is an old politician’s card-trick. It is no mark of integrity.
Mamdani has called for loosening criminal penalties for prostitution — a move he insists is not the same as legalizing it. His party, the Democratic Socialists of America, has not been that indirect, calling for the elimination of all misdemeanors tied to prostitution.
Note that Mamdani’s sister-in-arms, Alessandria Ocasio-Cortez, rallied in defense of prostitutes congregating in working-class Corona, Queens. This largely Hispanic neighborhood had been up in arms over open sex trafficking, with prostitutes propositioning their kids on their way to school.
Much has been written about Mamdani’s refusal to denounce “Globalize the Intifada” talk in a city with a large Jewish electorate. The candidate says he distinguishes between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the first being OK and the latter not OK.
But just last week, he told Jews in Brooklyn that Zionists would be part of his administration.
He’s also supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement designed to punish Israel. Or who know? He may have reversed himself by now.
Look. Mamdani is entitled to change his positions but total flipping of very recent opinions are manipulative and dishonest.
They are nobody’s idea of integrity.