Mayor Mamdani called Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, racist and bigoted for his recent attacks on the mayor.
During Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate against Gov. Hochul, Blakeman attacked Mamdani as an antisemite who “doesn’t believe in American values.”
And on Sunday, per reporting from the New York Times, Blakeman told a group of Hasidic leaders that Mamdani would not stop riots and violence against Jews if they were to happen in the city.
“I’m not surprised that he would try [to] incite a real sense of fear by engaging in this,” Mamdani said at a Wednesday press conference. “It’s not even a dog whistle. It’s just directly racist, to say that I would not respond to Jewish New Yorkers being killed and raped. That is what Bruce Blakeman would like New Yorkers to think this election is about.”
Blakeman, who is Jewish, has attempted to win support from Jewish voters in the five boroughs by using Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, as a punching bag. Mamdani is a strong supporter of Palestine and has been outspoken about Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he’s called a “genocide.” He’s been criticized for this stance by Jewish groups and leaders, and he has also been subject to a raft of broadly Islamophobic attacks.
“Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite,” Blakeman said during Tuesday’s debate. “The first thing he did as mayor, with all the issues that faced New York City — the first thing he did was sign an executive order to water down the definition of antisemitism.”
Blakeman was referring to Mamdani’s move at the start of his term to reject the broad definition of antisemitism that had been adopted by the prior administration, which equated some criticisms of Israel’s actions as antisemitic. The Mamdani administration has not adopted any formal definition of antisemitism.
Mamdani said he hadn’t watched the debate, but caught some clips from the roughly hour-long face-off. Asked whether Hochul should have defended him more vigorously against Blakeman’s attacks, Mamdani didn’t fault the governor.
“It is hard for anyone to keep up with all of the bigotry and racism that Bruce Blakeman exhibits on a regular basis,” Mamdani said. “So I think the governor did a good job, and I don’t ever fault someone for not being able to catch all of it because that is a fool’s errand.”
Most of the debate, though, did not center on Mamdani. Hochul attacked Blakeman for his friendship with President Trump, who campaigned alongside him last week, while Blakeman went after Hochul for her stance on immigration.
Mamdani endorsed Hochul’s re-election campaign back in February. Although he’s been publicly very supportive of Hochul, touting their work together on universal childcare, he has yet to campaign alongside her or release any social media videos in support of her bid.
