Mamdani under fire over resurfaced 2021 video endorsing socialist goals

Democratic New York City mayoral candidate and self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism over remarks made at a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference where he urged attendees not to compromise on goals like seizing the means of production During the appearance which was part of a YDSA winter conference Mamdani then newly elected to the New York State Assembly lamented that multiple socialist principles remain outside the political mainstream Right now if we're talking about the cancellation of attendee debt if we're talking about Medicare for all you know these are issues which have the groundswell of popular advocacy across this country Mamdani says in a video to conference goers But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in whether it's BDS or whether it is the end goal of seizing the means of production where we do not have the same level of assistance at this very moment NEW YORK MAYORAL HOPEFUL ZOHRAN MAMDANI SLAMS CAPITALISM ON CNN CITES MLK TO DEFEND SOCIALISMMamdani went on to say that it was critical for people not to compromise on these less popular ideas despite publicly asserting this week he is not a communist It's critical the way that we organize the way that we set up our you know set up our work and our priorities that we do not leave any one issue for the other that we do not meet a moment and only look at what people are ready for but that we are doing both of these things in tandem Mamdani continues in his conference address Because it is critical for us to both meet people where they're at and to also organize for what is correct and for what is right and to ensure that over time we can bring people to that issue On Monday the video of Mamdani speaking at the YDSA conference began making the rounds on social media EX-NYC MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SAYS THERE S A LOT OF EXAGGERATION OVER MAMDANI FEARS Mamdani s socialism nomenclature is no joke or aspiration billionaire Bill Ackman commented in response to the video as it began appearing on social media It is the business plan of a movement that he is leading and for now winning Don t rely on my summary Listen to him speak his own words Mamdani smiles like a crocodile as he says his end goal is to elect more socialists and seize the means of production President Donald Trump's crypto and artificial intelligence czar added in response to the video Democrats have become the party of the Luigi Left Tesla Terrorism and Crocodile Communists Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for a response to these criticisms but did not receive a response in time for publication Last week Trump personally criticized Mamdani who upset former New York Gov Andrew Cuomo in the NYC mayoral primary earlier this month as a communist lunatic It s decisively happened the Democrats have crossed the line Trump wrote We ve had Radical Lefties before but this is getting a little ridiculous Trump doubled down on the communist claim this week in an interview with Fox Business adding that if elected Mamdani better behave or danger his city losing federal funding In response to Trump's criticism of being a communist Mamdani directly refuted the claim to NBC News over the weekend No I am not Mamdani responded when requested point-blank by NBC's Kristen Welker I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look how I sound where I'm from who I am ultimately because he wants to distract from what I'm fighting for And I'm fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since then betrayed When we talk about my politics you know I call myself a Democratic socialist in plenty of techniques inspired by the words of Dr Martin Luther King from decades ago who commented Call it democracy call it Democratic-Socialism there has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God s children in this country