In the Litter Box - Jewels and Catturd - The Chameleon Candidate: Mamdani's Masquerade - Dangerous Liaisons
Aired: 2025-10-26
Duration: 16:27


=== Core Of Controversy (05:18) ===

[00:00:00]  Welcome to New York, New York, a city of ambition, resilience, and endless possibility.
[00:00:07]  But today we're not here to celebrate its triumphs.
[00:00:10]  No, today we're here to uncover a story.
[00:00:14]  A story of foreign ties, dangerous ambitions, and a man whose vision for this city could lead it down a perilous path.
[00:00:22]  His name?
[00:00:23]  Zohran Mamdani.
[00:00:26]  He's charismatic, some might say.
[00:00:28]  But beneath the surface lies a troubling narrative.
[00:00:32]  A man who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018, now vying for the keys to the greatest city in the world.
[00:00:41]  How did we get here?
[00:00:43]  And more importantly, where could this lead?
[00:00:47]  Let's start with a moment that's gone viral.
[00:00:50]  In an undated video, an attendee boldly asks, do you denounce Sharia law?
[00:00:56]  And what does Zorhan Mamdani do?
[00:00:59]  He dodges, he deflects, he repeats, what is Sharia law? over and over, refusing to take a stand.
[00:01:07]  Is this the kind of leadership New York deserves?
[00:01:11]  A man unwilling to denounce a system that raises question about its compatibility with American values?
[00:01:33]  But that's just the beginning.
[00:01:35]  Zohran Mam Dani has made no secret of his foreign obsessions, bragging that Palestine is a core part of his politics.
[00:01:44]  He's even vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on American Soul.
[00:01:52]  And then there are the photos.
[00:01:54]  Mam Dani with Imam Mohammed Al-Bar, a man who's openly praised Hamas, a group the United States recognizes as a terrorist organization.
[00:02:07]  He's talking about the Holy Land five.
[00:02:09]  In his rap song in 2017, he said, I'm in love with the Holy Lent Five.
[00:02:19]  So let's explain what the Holy Lent Fives are.
[00:02:22]  They are convicted criminals that have been convicted in 2008 for material support for Hamas.
[00:02:29]  In 2001, the Holy Land Foundation was actually dismantled.
[00:02:33]  In 2001, it was shut down.
[00:02:34]  And in 2008, it was they were convicted.
[00:02:36]  These five people were convicted for supporting Hamas.
[00:02:40]  He is saying that he is in love with those people and asking you to look them up.
[00:02:43]  So I say, absolutely look them up.
[00:02:46]  That guy is so radical.
[00:02:48]  He might be some sort of a Trojan horse, not just for Marxism, which is what he is actually saying, but for jihadism.
[00:02:55]  He is supporting the concept of this.
[00:02:57]  He refuses to acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
[00:03:00]  He's very coy about this, right?
[00:03:02]  So when he goes on national television, he goes, well, yes, Israel has the right to exist.
[00:03:06]  But when asked on the debate stage, do you think Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state?
[00:03:10]  He refuses to answer.
[00:03:11]  This is a terrible news, not just for Jews, for every single American and everybody who supports Western values.
[00:03:17]  It's horrible.
[00:03:19]  Imagine that.
[00:03:21]  A man with Hamas ties in City Hall.
[00:03:25]  The safety of New Yorkers and the integrity of our constitutional republic hanging in the balance.
[00:03:31]  I am someone who co-founded my colleagues for students and dozens in Palestine.
[00:03:40]  We must organize at every level.
[00:03:53]  It is our job to destroy imperialism, destroy the United States.
[00:03:59]  For greater empires of destruction have fallen before it, and so will these.
[00:04:07]  The struggle for Palestinian liberation was at the core of my politics and continues to be.
[00:04:15]  B-B-S!
[00:04:19]  And then there's the hypocrisy.
[00:04:34]  Zoran Mam Dani, the self-proclaimed true socialist, pushes to defund the police, branding the NYPD as racist and violent.
[00:04:45]  Yet while he'd got their funding, he's been spotted with private security detail.
[00:04:51]  He'd leave the streets lawless while guarding himself.
[00:04:55]  This isn't leadership, it's betrayal.
[00:05:01]  Are you for defunding the police?
[00:05:03]  Are you for a serious reform that people can see on the ground?
[00:05:08]  I am in favor of defunding the police.
[00:05:11]  Yes, what that means is that right now in New York City, we have a budget of close to $6 billion for the New York City Police Department.

=== Defunding The Police Debate (08:01) ===

[00:05:18]  And that is an astronomical figure.
[00:05:21]  Wow.
[00:05:21]  And I think that what we need to do is not chip away a million dollars or five million.
[00:05:26]  I think in this first year, we need to take a billion dollars out of that budget.
[00:05:30]  And I think that we need to reinvest that money into social services.
[00:05:56]  But perhaps the most puzzling part of Mam Danny's persona is his ability to shift and adapt depending on the audience.
[00:06:05]  From rapper to politician, Mam Danny's transformation is striking.
[00:06:10]  Another reminder that the world is full of actors.
[00:06:14]  Like Zelensky, who went from comedian to president, Mam Danny seems to be playing a role becoming whoever his audience wants him to be.
[00:06:27]  This is Zorhan Mamdani.
[00:06:29]  He's running for mayor of New York.
[00:06:31]  Here's what he normally sounds like.
[00:06:33]  We gather tonight in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
[00:06:40]  But in an interview in South Africa, he sounded a little different.
[00:06:43]  I actually created a playlist for Mira, who also happens to be my mother.
[00:06:48]  You know, nepotism and hard work goes a long way.
[00:06:52]  And in an interview with the Turkish American podcast, Mamdani sounded different again.
[00:06:56]  I'll be honest with you, brother Mansoum, is that at this point, not many people are thinking about it.
[00:07:01]  And here is Zoran during his rapper days.
[00:07:04]  You know, it would have been here earlier, but a worldwide tour is a worldwide tour is a worldwide tour.
[00:07:31]  This isn't authenticity.
[00:07:33]  It's a performance.
[00:07:35]  And New Yorkers deserve a leader who is consistent, transparent, and true to their values.
[00:07:42]  Not someone who plays a different character in every room.
[00:07:46]  One finds it's curious, doesn't one?
[00:07:49]  Mr. Mamdanny, a man who wishes to represent the interests of New York City, seems to hold on rather tightly to his citizenship with Uganda, a place whose reputation in certain circles is, shall we say, less than sterling.
[00:08:06]  It makes one wonder if a man is unwilling to part with a passport from such a complicated nation.
[00:08:13]  How can the people of New York be assured that their interests, and America's, truly come first?
[00:08:21]  It's the sort of detail that tends to linger in the mind.
[00:08:27]  Why would you keep a citizenship in Uganda, which is a country that outlaws the LGBTQ community?
[00:08:41]  You are a citizen of Uganda running for mayor.
[00:08:49]  Why wouldn't you say, I am going to give up my citizenship because I will not be the citizen of a country that would kill gay people.
[00:09:02]  Andrew Coma walked into an afternoon press conference loaded for bear, pouncing on a newly surfaced picture posted by Uganda Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kagaga.
[00:09:11]  The photo and another one that includes Zeram Momdani's dad were taken as the Queen's Assemblyman was flying home from a summer wedding at his family's home in Kampala.
[00:09:20]  It would be a total act of hypocrisy to be this citizen of a country that abuses LGBTQ people.
[00:09:31]  Kim Momdani did not address the Uganda officials' years-long anti-gay crusade.
[00:09:39]  And here's something else to consider: Zohran Mamdani is heavily favored by foreign-born voters.
[00:09:46]  While there's nothing wrong with immigrants participating in democracy, it raises questions when a candidate support base is so deeply tied to those who may not share the same long-term investment in American values.
[00:10:01]  And let's not forget, this is a man who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
[00:10:08]  Shocking that New York would even consider handing over the keys to the city to someone with such a short history in this country.
[00:10:20]  We came here to remake this state in the image of our people.
[00:10:25]  But the most troubling part?
[00:10:27]  His refusal to denounce dangerous rhetoric.
[00:10:30]  When confronted with the chant, Globalize the Intifada, he twists it into a vague justification, calling it a struggle.
[00:10:39]  A man who cannot or will not distance himself from such divisive language is not fit to lead a city as diverse and complex as New York.
[00:10:54]  I am someone who, I would say, am less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words, and that I think it is more evocative of a Trump-style approach to how to lead a country.
[00:11:13]  And I think especially when we've seen you uncomfortable, like the phrase globalize intifada from the river to the sea, does that make you uncomfortable?
[00:11:22]  Or do you think that's a different thing?
[00:11:22]  Okay, those are different.
[00:11:24]  Those are super different.
[00:11:26]  Not really different genres.
[00:11:27]  I'm sorry, I'm asking Zoran.
[00:11:28]  Then they're not really different to me.
[00:11:30]  And so some people are not different.
[00:11:31]  You know, I know people for whom those things mean very different things.
[00:11:36]  And to me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.
[00:11:48]  And I think what's difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it's a word that means struggle.
[00:12:04]  And as a Muslim man who grew up post-9-11, I'm all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.
[00:12:19]  And I think that's where it leaves me with a sense that what we need to do is focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe.
[00:12:26]  And the question of the permissibility of language is something that I haven't.
[00:12:38]  And here's the question that haunts us all.
[00:12:41]  What would the victims and the families of 9-11 think of all of this?
[00:12:46]  What would they say about a man with ties to a group like Hamas?
[00:12:51]  A man who refuses to denounce Sharia law, a man who cozies up to foreign ideologies that threaten the very freedoms they died defending.
[00:13:01]  New York was the epicenter of that tragedy, a city that bore the brunt of that attack on American values.
[00:13:09]  And now a man with such alarming connections wants to lead it?
[00:13:13]  It's unthinkable.
[00:13:16]  But if you ask Ma'am Danny, he's the victim.

=== Careful New Yorkers (02:53) ===

[00:13:20]  There's still, you know, this illusion, and it's partially a result of settler colonialism, that all of us can become New Yorkers, that all of us can settle into the city.
[00:13:29]  And yet there would be these moments where I would be reminded by someone whose intent was to tell me that you do not belong.
[00:13:36]  And one of those first moments was on 9-11, when before I knew what had happened, my teacher had pulled me and a Muslim classmate of mine out of the class and told us that something has happened and you may be bullied.
[00:13:51]  And I want you to tell me if that happens.
[00:13:54]  And frankly, I was lucky because most Muslim students in the city were not given that kind of care from their teachers.
[00:14:01]  And yet in that moment, I realized that I was not simply another classmate in a middle school.
[00:14:07]  I was distinct.
[00:14:08]  And there was a marker of that distinction on me.
[00:14:11]  And it was something that I would be reminded of again and again, something when I, when we came back from a trip abroad, being pulled aside at JFK by immigration agents in a double mirrored room, sitting me down on my own while my family was outside and asking me if I just attended a terrorist training camp and if I had intentions of attacking this country and, if so, what were those plans.
[00:14:33]  And it's something that has continued in the time since where, a few months ago, I went with a client of mine to a bankruptcy court and, as we're going into the court, the security guard takes me aside and pass me down with additional care and asks me multiple times if I have any weapons of mass destruction on me.
[00:14:51]  And in these moments, the sense of not knowing where home is, you know they're amplified by what I would see around me.
[00:15:02]  He's the victim.
[00:15:04]  Can you believe it?
[00:15:07]  Careful New Yorkers, take a look at London two years after they elected a Muslim mayor, and we are already there in some parts of the U.S.
[00:15:18]  And if

=== Glimmer of Hope (00:13) ===

[00:16:13]  you think this couldn't happen here, think again.
[00:16:18]  But here's the glimmer of hope.
[00:16:20]  New York, this city of resilience, diversity, and strength, has seen through charlatans before.