MAGA is in full-on panic mode after Zohran Mamdani pulled off a stunning victory against former state governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.
Polls had shown a tight race between progressive state assembly member Mamdani, 33, and Cuomo, 67, who served as governor of New York for more than a decade before resigning in 2021 over accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation against the alleged victims.
The race was called late Tuesday as Mamdani lead Cuomo with 43.5 percent of the vote compared to Cuomo’s 36.4 percent, putting the Democratic Socialist lawmaker up by more than 70,000 votes with more than 90 percent of the ballots tallied and ranked preference votes still to be distributed, The New York Times reported.
Cuomo, who was originally the race’s frontrunner and enjoyed backing from MAGA billionaires, left open the possibility that he could run as a third-party candidate during the general election in November.
Mamdani will face off against Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and the incumbent Eric Adams, who was elected in 2021 as a Democrat but is running as an independent.
But as far as MAGA was concerned, Mamdani’s mayoral tenure was already a fait accompli, inspiring a wave of hysterical responses.
Before Cuomo had even conceded the race, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) sent out a fundraising email warning that a Mamdani victory would be a “doomsday scenario.”
“If a socialist and Hamas Terrorist sympathizer becomes the next Mayor of the biggest city in America, every principle we hold dear as freedom-loving Americans will be under threat,” she wrote in an email shared by New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher.
Mamdani, who is Muslim and has spoken out in support of Palestinian rights, has been smeared throughout the campaign as a radical fundamentalist and an antisemite, according to M. Gessen of the Times.
He has said repeatedly he would stand up for Jewish New Yorkers—including increasing funding for anti-hate-crime programming by 800 percent—and that he believes in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, according to the Times.
MAGA diehard and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer nevertheless declared on X, “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame.” In another post she wrote that he is “literally supported by terrorists” and reposted a fake AI-generated photo of a minaret in Times Square with Muslims praying.
In yet another post, Loomer took aim at Mamdani’s support for LGBTQ+ rights, posting a video of the candidate appearing on the Gaydar show. The social media segments feature host Anania asking guests a series of questions and then guessing if they’re “gay, straight or a homophobe” based on the answers.
“Which actress did Ellen DeGeneris come out to in her sitcom in 1997? Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern or Felicity Huffman?” host Anania, who is transgender, asks Mamdani in the video.
“I’m gonna go with Laura Dern just because I love Jurassic Park,” Mamdani replies.
“And you’re going to be correct,” Anania says, eliciting an enthusiastic “Let’s go!” from Mamdani.
After he answers more questions about gay icons, gay bars in New York City, the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate trans people from federal government websites, and his goal of making New York City more affordable, Anania declares Mamdani straight but says he’s earned her vote.
“Enjoy your new Mayor, NYC. NYC has fallen,” Loomer wrote in response to the video.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, meanwhile, called Mamdani an “anarchist-socialist” and used his primary win as an opportunity to push his mass-deportation agenda.
“Unchecked migration fundamentally remade the NYC electorate,” he wrote, even though migrants can’t vote. “Democrats change politics by changing voters. That’s how you turn a city that defined US dominance into what it is now.”
Others MAGA acolytes were more upset about Mamdani calling himself a Democratic Socialist—the same political designation as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned for Mamdani—and promising New Yorkers free public transit, free childcare, and rent control.
“To all my friends in New York who are not communists; Come to Texas! We love freedom and we’re not nuts,” Sen. Ted Cruz wrote on X.
“Thank God we left NYC,” conservative pundit Megyn Kelly said.
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer channeled his inner Trump and wrote on X, “Evacuate New York City now! Thank you for your attention to this important matter.”
Elon Musk’s America PAC posted a montage of social media posts from Mamdani calling on New York to defund the police in response to violence against protesters in 2020. “America, meet New York City’s Democrat Nominee for Mayor,” it wrote.
During a June debate with Cuomo, Mamdani said he supported redirecting some of the New York Police Department’s funding to a newly created “Department of Community Safety” that would prevent crime through social service provision and mental health services.
In response to the primary results, Musk himself wrote simply, “Wow.”
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