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This is Griffin from Breaking Points and I'm here seven minutes with zoron Mamdani's.
How's it going?
How you doing man?
Too? Well?
Man?
That's a great shirp.
By the way, Oh thanks Man. I had to buy it because the airline lost my luggage on the way here.
We're not giving them a shoutout.
This is for you.
Sure.
I wanted to start with a picture. We interviewed you a year ago. It's been a long time since. Man, the lots changed. What advice do you have for that young Zora on a year ago?
What date was that?
This?
I mean it says eleven months ago. And we used to get like thirty k views on the first one. Now we're racking them up.
There, you know, The reason I ask about the date is because about a year ago we went out to Fordham Road and Hillside Avenue spoke to New Yorkers. Many of them would voted for Trump, and we ask them why m And I think the advice that I would give that Zorn I would continue to give myself every day is listen to New Yorkers and a lot of times the political impulses is lecture, tell New Yorkers what
they should care about. What we found is that the best campaign you can build is one that actually reflects what New Yorkers are concerned about. It's cost of living again and again. The other thing I would say is maybe bench press a little bit more, but it's too late for that.
All right, We're gonna cut the push up contact.
Yes, all right.
So you recently released a video about being Muslim in New York City and the experience of that. Typically, when you've been asked about identity issues, you've pivoted back to your core campaign promises about affordability. Why do that video now? And do you feel like Democrat politicians have your back in this environment where you know, in my personal opinion, the Cuomo opposition and the Cuomos orders are hitting you with a lot of what I would say is George W.
Bush era racist attacks. Do you feel like they have your back?
You know, I've appreciated the words of support that I've received from a number of leaders within our party, especially here in New York City. I do think, however, that of many of the Muslim New Yorkers who do not have the luxury of being the Democratic nominee for mayor,
who deal with these indignities every single day. And the fact is that this racism is so endemic in our city's politics that when one hears it, one does not know if it's from a Republican or a Democrat, and it's you know, people have asked me why did I call it Islamophobia? And I just tell them what Andrew Cuomo said, because the evidence is right there. This is a man who went on a radio show and when the host said that I would cheer another nine to eleven,
Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed. He later went that same day to accept Eric Adams's endorsement. Adam said that he was endorsing him to stop a movement of violent extremists, to stop New York City from becoming Europe to stop
a movement that was burning churches in Nigeria. This is the kind of islamophobia that the closing message of these other candidates, and the reason I decided to say something about it is because this level of bigotry, it's one that should still shock the conscience, despite how unsurprising it may be in this moment.
So freeze the rent. Let's talk about some of the course stuff. So we've been hearing talk that Eric Adams is trying to pack the rental board with people on your way out like a reality TV real estate guys getting on there.
I think she stars in a show called Selling New York on the Nose. Eric Adam's Zio, what.
Are you going to do about that if you're mayor? And also, how are you going to stop landlords from you know, cutting back on cleaning or safety in the buildings if you freeze the rent?
You know. I think there's a few things. The first is the Community Service Society, which does incredible studies. They found that actually the rent that's being paid doesn't have a significant relationship with the repairs that landlords are doing. Oftentimes, and I've heard this actually from a number of tenants myself of that they've been paying their rent year after year, and a lot of their landlords are actually denying them
the repairs that they're owed. And so I think when we freeze the rent, you know we are doing so to provide relief to more than two million rent stabilized tenants across the five boroughs. We're not doing it actually to punish landlords, because we're actually trying to also make it easier for those landlords to maintain those properties by helping them take on the rise and cost of insurance
or the water bill or Coneedison. These are things we can do in tandem with our commitment to freeze the rent. And look, Eric Adams's attempt to stack the rent Guidelines Board is unacceptable. It's a betrayal of New Yorkers. It's also a continuation of this politics for the last four years. And I continue to be confident in our ability to deliver that rent freeze.
As a renterer in New York, I feel betrayed by that, by the Eric Adams things. How about you just said I want to talk about ice. We're seeing all these ice videos of goons, unmasked people taking people off the streets. Are you going to instruct the NPT to arrest ICE or other federal agents that break the law in the city.
Look, anybody who breaks the law in this city has to be held to account, whether that's ICE or whomever else. And I think that that should be just the standard that we have in the city and in this country. And what we found is that ICE is a reckless entity. It cares little about the law, it cares even less about the people that it's supposed to serve, and so much of its purpose is to intimidate and terrorize people across this country. And we saw that with the recent
raid on Canal Street. It's not just about the people that they threw against the wall. It's about the messages the're trying to send to New Yorkers that they can do this kind of a thing. And it's possible for them in this moment because they have a mayor who went on national TV to open the door to civil immigration enforcement.
All right, I want to talk flagrant. In the first couple of minutes of flagrant, you got Schultz to say that housing is a human right. That's awesome. You clearly passed the vibe check. Do other Democrats pass the vibe check. What's your advice for them going on these shows?
You know, I think it's funny. I've I've been running for mayor for now more than a year, and that's probably the first podcast that a lot of my own friends actually listened to I did, and I think it speaks to the fact that you have to treat, you know, New Yorkers, especially young New Yorkers, with legitimacy as well as the places where they actually get their news. And so often there's a condescension in our political approach to anything that goes beyond traditional media, and I think it's
time to bring that to an end. My advice to anyone going on those shows is just to be yourself, because if you're not, they will definitely get to the bottom of that pretty quick.
Okay, I got one more question for you, and then I want to hear about the proposals and how people can help you.
Sounds good.
So we talked about the NYPD we're going to and your team's tell your wrap up. So we're looking up this quick. Are you going to arrest in Yahoo? Especially with this NYPD commissioner?
Look, I've said time and again that I believe that New York City is a city that believes international law should have an actual embodiment of an international law. Benjamin Nettan Yahoo has been issued in arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, and I believe that is something that we should seek to honor. I've also said that I
will exhaust every legal possibility to do so. If there is not a law, I'm not going to create one because I'm not Donald Trump, but this is what I would actually be looking to do.
So last question, you know this, They've got a few days, but six days, five days? What can people do to help you in this time? We have a national audience, So what can our national audience do to help you at this moment? And let's roll through the right. We're freezing the rant, Universal.
Child can freeze the rent, going to mean buses, fasts and redeliver universal childcare. And the way that you can get involved to go to zoran for NYC dot com, Forward, slash, gootv. If you live in New York City, you can sign up for a care amassing shift. If you don't, you can sign up for phone banking. Because the reason I'm sitting in front of you It's not just the one point six million doors that volunteers knocked on in the primary.
It's the two point one million phone calls that they also made, and that can be done from anywhere across this country. So on good luck, Thank you, my friend, thank you. Appreciate it.