Zohran Mamdani Congratulates Cuomo on Trump Endorsement -

Kiss of Death

President Trump acknowledged during his “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday that if he had to pick between the Democratic nominee in New York City’s mayoral election this week, Zohran Mamdani, and New York’s former Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, he’d go with the latter.

The shrug in Cuomo’s direction is representative of the MAGA movement and the far-right in general’s interest in casting Mamdani as a new MAGA boogeyman. He does, after all, represent a number of concepts that are in regular rotation in venues such as Fox News and Republican Party social media feeds: He’s a Democratic socialist, he’s young, he’s non-white, he will soon, quite possibly, run New York City.

The disinfo wave around Mamdani reflects a confusion in both parties about exactly how to explain the 34-year-old insurgent candidate. He’s raised funds through small dollar donations and a sophisticated but simple social media presence, putting an unwavering focus on the city’s affordability crisis. He’s been aggressively opposed by wealthy interests in the city to no noticeable effect. Some see Mamdani’s rise as a potential blueprint for the Democratic Party moving forward, a reality that, unflatteringly, has chagrined and wrong-footed that party’s leaders.

Accordingly, Trump and his allies have been trying to paint Mamdani as a “communist.” At the end of September, Trump claimed that if Mamdani won the election, he would withhold federal funding from New York City (something the Trump White House started doing just hours after the shutdown began on October 1 by freezing funding for New York’s infrastructure projects, among other things).

Perhaps encouraged by political allies and donors that they both share, Trump has for awhile been hinting that he sees his former enemy, Cuomo — whom Mamdani defeated for the Democratic nomination — as a better fit for New York. During the “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, Trump made it official, putting his weight behind Cuomo as the supposed lesser of two evils.

“It’s going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump said.

“So I don’t know that he’s won, and I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” he said.

Mamdani has jumped on the Trump remarks as a final opportunity to troll Cuomo.

“Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo. I know how hard you worked for this,” Mamdani posted on Instagram.

— Nicole LaFond

Curtis Sliwa Campaigned With A COVID Quarantine Rioter

The home stretch of New York City’s mayoral race offered us yet another example of how extremist politics have become standard fare for the GOP.

With voting set to take place on Tuesday, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa spent last Sunday morning campaigning alongside City Council candidate Heschy Tischler. Tischler, who bills himself as part of “Team Trump,” is an activist in Brooklyn’s ultraorthodox Jewish neighborhoods. Tischler gained widespread notice as a vocal part of protests against COVID quarantine measures in the community that ultimately turned violent. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to a charge of inciting a riot for his role in those demonstrations, which included an attack on a local journalist.

Sliwa’s embrace of Tischler is all the more hypocritical since the longshot mayoral hopeful first made a name for himself as a vigilante anti-crime crusader. Time and time again, MAGA Republicans are showing us their supposed concerns about law and order don’t extend to their own political allies.

— Hunter Walker

GOP Will Soon Need a New CR

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Republican leadership is discussing how to deal with the House-passed GOP continuing resolution (CR) that is set to expire on Nov. 21.

“We’re very mindful of the calendar. We’re very frustrated by that,” Johnson said during a Monday press conference, adding that GOP leaders will be discussing options.

The House, of course, has been out of session since House Republicans passed the GOP CR on Sept. 19. That was 45 days ago. Johnson will have to bring them back in order to pass any new CR.

GOP leadership is reportedly, privately discussing a new CR that would go into early 2026. Meanwhile some senators are reportedly pushing for a deal that would involve a package of appropriations bills alongside a new CR — that would reopen the government — and a vote to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Republican leadership has been insisting they won’t vote on any appropriations bills or measures to extend the subsidies without a deal to reopen the government.

— Emine Yücel