Photo: AFP
In the short span of a few months, Zohran Mamdani has gone from obscure New York State Assemblyman to potential New York City mayor. With the rise to unprecedented heights in such a short time span, that means tonight’s Democratic debate may be the last best chance for Mamdani to stand out from the field of nine contenders- as well as draw more fire from his critics. City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino 9R-19TH) is among the most stringent critics of Mamdani, as she has consistently pointed to his socialist record, most recently with a social media post that ended with the word “deport”. She appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to explain the message.
“The tweet was as simple as could be,” Paladino told host Larry Mendte. “Let’s talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who has been a U.S. citizen for less than five years… much less a radical leftist who actually hates everything about this country and is here specifically to undermine everything we’ve ever been about. Now, after that, I simply put, ‘Deport’, period. We know that he is now an American citizen- we can not deport him. ‘Deport’ was sarcasm.”
Paladino is suspicious of Mamdani’s motives as a candidate, especially now that he has cut into Andrew Cuomo’s lead in the polls with three weeks to go until the Democratic primary: “He’s running for mayor in the largest city and the greatest city in the country. He’s looking to radicalize. He condones everything that is wrong by the radical left- and if they get insulted by honesty, or their feelings get hurt because I used the word deport, well, that’s just too damn bad!”
Photo Credit: Getty Images