Presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor Zohran Mamdani declared he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist during a wide-ranging interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
“I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality,” he told interviewer Kristen Welker. “Ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”
Fresh off his stunning defeat of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary, Mamdani credited his victory to his economic agenda, in which he pitched various plans to lower the notoriously high cost of living.
“What we’ve seen is that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day,” Mamdani said. “Our focus was on exactly that.”
Mamdani’s left-wing proposals and open identification as a democratic socialist have drawn skepticism from several members of the Democratic Party establishment. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, have declined to immediately endorse Mamdani in the general election for mayor.
“This [primary] is an election that went against so much of the analysis that had been told about our party and where we needed to head to,” Mamdani said in the interview. “And ultimately what we’re showing is that by putting working people first, by returning to the roots of the Democratic Party, we actually have a path out of this moment where we’re facing authoritarianism in Washington, D.C.”
Mamdani’s top challenger in the November election is expected to be Mayor Adams, who is running as an independent. Mamdani wasted no time criticizing the incumbent in Sunday’s interview, noting that Adams’ administration has hiked rents in NYC’s rent stabilized housing by 9% over three years.
“The median household income of those tenants is $60,000 a year,” Mamdani said. “The landlords of those units have seen their profits increase by 12%. It’s time for release for working-class New Yorkers.”
Originally Published: June 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM EDT
