The ever vapid right-wing windbag Newt Gingrich, for instance, is shocked and appalled that Mamdani is asking New Yorkers to voluntarily keep their a.c. turned up high to conserve power. Other Republicans pile on.
Mamdani says he’s cool that as an immigrant, he can’t run for president. The New York Post claims he “weighs in on changing the Constitution.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville wants Mamdani locked up in Gitmo. In the same spirit, Fox talking head Cheryl Casone pretends that Mamdani would have supported 9/11. Republican Rep. Randy Fine, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim bigot, says Mamdani is a Muslim terrorist.
Israeli’s corrupt, ethnic-cleaning leader Benjamin Netanhayu unsurprisingly claims Mamdani criticizing him is anti-Semitic.
Mamdani continues to make good moves, too. Rejecting a city council-approved pay raise. Moving to eradicate piled trash bags on NYC sidewalks.
As I’ve said before, it shows how strongly rightward the Overton window extends that Mamdani is controversial — he’s a millstone around the whole Democratic Party for doing things like bringing food to food deserts. Meanwhile conservative Democrat and former senator Joe Manchin, whose opposition sunk a lot of legislation, was never considered a handicap. Now Manchin is launching a political group intended to push Democrats further to the right — okay, technically he says it’s to “bring our country and the people who are participating in politics today more towards the center” but I’ve yet to see any group like that focus on pushing MAGA into stances akin to 1950s Eisenhower Republicans. It’s always the Democrats who have to shift.
For an unrelated note, here’s LGM looking at why Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear won’t and probably shouldn’t be replacing Mitch McConnell right now.
