Who is the Real Zohran Mamdani?
Is he more Castro or Clinton?
If you watch Zohran Mamdani’s recent Meet the Press interview, you can see how people would think “this is a reasonable guy”. In the interview, Mamdani is the epitome of an off-the-shelf Democrat. He talks about pre-K and progressive taxes, he has positive things to say about the police, and he says “affordability” more than Hodor from Game of Thrones said “Hodor”. He’s got an up-with-people affability that would make Pollyanna roll her eyes and do the “jerk you off” hand motion. Far from being the bleeding edge of a radical movement, the Mamdani in that interview is the Amazon Basics version of a Democratic politician.
That can be tough to square with the Mamdani who said that “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” referring to the Israeli Defense Forces. That quote sticks in the mind partly because it’s radical and partly because it’s utterly confused — what the fuck is he talking about? Who is the boot and what are the laces in that metaphor? Mamdani is also married to a woman who liked several posts that celebrated the October 7 attack on Israel, including one that called claims of mass rape a “hoax”. And Mamdani has a long rap sheet of anti-police and anti-Israel rhetoric, including saying in 2020 that we should defund the police, calling police “racist” and “anti-queer”, saying that police, prisons, and “apartheid in Palestine” are symptoms of “white supremacy”, and being slow to disavow the phrase “globalize the Intifada” even as he was running for mayor.
And a lot of people are wondering: Which Mamdani is the real guy? Is it the hard-edged, Rage Against the Machine Mamdani, or the touchy-feely, Florence and the Machine Mamdani? Honestly, that question just makes me wonder about the meaning of the word “real”. Because I feel like I have a read on Mamdani — he seems like a type person I’ve known several times in my life. And when I think about who that guy is and what his journey looks like, the contradictions fade away and a coherent picture emerges.
