With comrades like these…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first 100 days in workplace had been rife with controversies over the unconventional, generally hateful, beliefs of his pals, appointments — and even his “aloof spouse” Rama Duwaji.
The political predicaments arguably reached their pinnacle final month when it was revealed that Duwaji used the N-word in social media posts greater than a decade in the past, amongst different questionable on-line antics.
Mamdani defended Duwaji, bafflingly attempting to defend New York Metropolis’s first girl from scrutiny by calling her a “personal particular person.”
However he hinted this week that his spouse may tackle a extra public position.
“I can say she hasn’t made any closing choice to that finish,” he informed NY1.
“However she is an artist,” he continued, “I’d say an unbelievable one among my very own opinion, and she or he’s somebody who’s all the time spoken concerning the significance of artwork as part of any flourishing society. And I can think about that that’s one thing that she may encourage to happen in our metropolis.”
Mamdani’s inside circle hassle began even earlier than he was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1.
Cat Almonte Da Costa, one among his first workers picks who was slated to function his head of appointments, resigned earlier than Hizzoner took workplace over her antisemitic social media posts.
“Cash hungry Jews smh,” learn a tweet by Da Costa from 2011, which was dropped at mild by the Anti-Defamation League.
A number of different vile posts surfaced, prompting Da Costa to apologize and resign inside hours of being uncovered. She lamented she had turn out to be a “distraction” to Mamdani’s mission.
Weeks later, Mamdani marked his first day in workplace by appointing his longtime pal and fellow housing advocate Cea Weaver to function the top of the Mayor’s Workplace to Defend Tenants.
Inside days, radical on-line posts from Weaver got here to mild — together with a 2018 missive through which she referred to as to grab personal property, deeming it a “weapon of white supremacy.”
Weaver later dubbed her posts “regretful” — going through a storm of condemnations by householders throughout the 5 boroughs.
Mamdani, for his half, stood agency by his fellow Democratic Socialists of America member.
“I made the choice to have her as our govt director of the Mayor’s Workplace to Defend Tenants, not due to her feedback, however due to her work,” he informed Pix11 in January.
Mamdani’s stance on Israel and his relationship with New York’s Jewish neighborhood — which accounts for about 12% of town’s inhabitants — drew scrutiny and outright alarm throughout his mayoral marketing campaign and afterward.
The ADL contended {that a} whopping 20% of Mamdani’s 400-person transition crew — a gaggle he employed after the election to seek the advice of him on coverage and appointments — had “extremist” backgrounds.
As a proud supporter of the Palestinian trigger, Mamdani cultivated friendships with figures like anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by ICE over his anti-Israel protest actions, and lefty Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
Piker drew lasting controversy for as soon as saying “America deserved 9/11,” a comment he has since referred to as “inappropriate.”
Each attended Mamdani’s election night time social gathering, whereas Khalil later additionally went to his inauguration and a personal Ramadan dinner held at Gracie Mansion, with Duwaji additionally current.
These dust-ups, nevertheless, had been solely a prelude to the reveal in March that Duwaji had a racist on-line footprint.
She got here below hearth for liking inflammatory Instagram posts celebrating Hamas’ lethal Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Shortly after, her Tumblr account was uncovered. Together with a 2013 put up through which Duwaji used the N-word, she contended that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist within the first place.”
Mamdani tried to downplay the severity by claiming his spouse was a non-public particular person, saying the main target must be on his personal ideas and politics.
“My spouse is the love of my life, and she or he’s additionally a non-public one that has held no formal place on my marketing campaign or in my Metropolis Corridor,” Mamdani informed reporters at a March press convention shortly after Duwaji’s previous accounts had been uncovered.
“I, nevertheless, was elected to symbolize all 8.5 million individuals within the metropolis. And I consider that it’s my duty due to that position to reply questions on my ideas and my politics, and my stances.”
One other controversial appointment got here to mild simply this week, when Metropolis Council members confronted Mamdani’s decide to be the commissioner for the Division of Investigation, Nadia Shihata.
Shihata had alleged donated $700 and canvassed for Mamdani’s mayoral marketing campaign.
When questioned by reporters concerning the Shihata’s clear involvement, Mamdani merely replied, “I used to be not conscious.”
— Extra reporting by Matt Troutman
