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Paige
From Executive Producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle.
Isaac Saul
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the New York City mayoral primary. Not typically something you think would require some national coverage, but what happened last night was a political shockwave, really, truly, that the entire country seems to be talking about. So we pivoted last night from a plan to cover some of the latest on the reconciliation bill to covering this story because I think there's a lot of meat on the bone here. As you can tell, it has been a whirlwind month of news, with Israel attacking Iran, the US Joining the strikes, the Supreme Court ruling on important cases, and a budget bill working its way through Congress. We had actually planned to cover that budget bill again this morning when the surprising results of the New York City Democratic primary broke last night. All this is to say we're news junkies. We love covering the news from all angles and turning the temperature down, being able to do the breadth of coverage we do at the speed we do it. It only works because we have a well supported team. That is thanks to the more than 62,000 Now Tangle members who support our work, allowing us to keep an incredible staff on this podcast, on our newsletter on our website. So if you want to support our work, which you should, and you're not yet a member, Please go to retangle.com member and consider becoming one. You'll also unlock all sorts of awesome content. All right. With that, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main story and I'll be back for my take.
John
Thanks, Isaac, and welcome everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran remains intact, despite both sides claiming the other violated the terms. Separately, an initial assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly found that US Strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities did not fully destroy the sites or Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium. The White House denied the report. Number two, NATO member countries reached an agreement to boost defense spending to 5% of their GDP, a plan spearheaded by President Donald Trump. Number three, a suspect accused of aiding the bombing at a California fertility clinic in May was found dead in a federal detention center center in Los Angeles. No cause of death has been given. Number four, a federal judge ruled that artificial intelligence company Anthropic can legally train its AI models on published books without author's permission under fair use doctrine, the first such ruling in support of this practice. At number five, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he plans to start voting on the one big beautiful bill on Friday, with votes continuing into the weekend. Why do you think this particular race is has become a countrywide story?
Zoran Mamdani
I think in some ways because it's a referendum on where our party goes. What we're talking about is a race that has now seen the most funded super PAC in New York City's municipal history, a race that is, you know, one that billionaires and corporations want to buy. And this is a tale that we're seeing across this country where it's a battle of organized money versus organized people. And ultimately it's a question for our own party of how do we move forward? Do we move forward with the same politicians of the past, the same policies of the past that delivered us this present, or do we move forward with a new generation of leadership, one that is actually looking to serve the people?
John
On Tuesday, results from New York City's Democratic mayoral primary showed state Assemblyman Zoran Mamdani in in a commanding lead over the field, setting the stage for him to become the party's nominee in the general election on November 4. As of 11:45am Eastern Time on Wednesday morning, Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, leads former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo 43.5% to 36.4%, with 93% of the votes in. Cuomo conceded the race on Tuesday night. For context, New York City uses ranked choice voting in primary and special elections for city offices. Voters rank up to five candidates on their ballots, starting with their top choice. If one candidate is the first choice of more than 50% of voters, they win the election outright, but if not, the ranked choice process starts. No candidate is expected to reach 50% in the first round of the mayoral primary, so the ranked choice tabulations will begin on July 1st to allow for the arrival of mail in ballots. You can read more about ranked choice voting with the link that we've included in today's episode. Description Eleven candidates were on the Democratic primary ballot, not including current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who chose to run as an independent in the general election. Adams cited a since dismissed federal corruption case against him as his reason for skipping the primary. Mamdani was born in Uganda and moved to the United States when he was 7 and grew up in New York City. He has served in the State assembly since 2021 and previously worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor. Mamdani ran on a progressive platform, supporting a rent freeze for all rent stabilized tenants, free city bus fares, city owned grocery stores and a Department of Community Safety to address mental health programs and crisis response. He also proposed raising taxes on corporations and wealthy New Yorkers to pay for these initiatives. While he is not yet officially the Democratic nominee, Mamdani declared victory on Tuesday night, telling supporters tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done, my friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. The first round result surprised many political analysts as Cuomo led the field in most polls for the majority of the race, bolstered by strong financial backing and institutional support. However, Mamdani rapidly made up ground over the last few months, highlighting accusations that Cuomo sexually harassed 313 women employed by the state and criticizing his management of the COVID 19 pandemic as governor. While Cuomo conceded the Democratic nomination, he can still choose to run in the general election as an independent candidate. On Tuesday, the former governor said he would analyze the primary results and confer with his advisors before making a decision. Today we'll cover the primary results with views from the left and the right and then Isaac's take.
Isaac Saul
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John
Alright, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. Many on the left say Mamdani's victory should be a lesson for the entire Democratic Party. Some praise Mamdani for running an explicitly progressive campaign and embracing voters of all backgrounds. Others say the outcome will have ripple effects across national politics. In the New York Times, Rebecca Katz wrote, democratic leaders tried to crush Zohran Mamdani. They should have been taking notes. The party establishment's impulse to stifle and ignore some of its most exciting emerging voices isn't limited to progressives. Take Chris d' Aluzio in Pennsylvania or Pat Ryan in New York. While decidedly more moderate than Mr. Mamdani, both congressmen campaigned last fall on bringing down costs for people in their swing districts and taking on huge corporations and billionaires, a strategy Mr. Ryan described as patriotic populism. Even though it won them both races. Washington Democrats have been hesitant to embrace that strategy, Katz said. If Democratic leaders don't start asking themselves how these candidates won and what they can learn from their successes will be doomed to fail in the future. Mr. Mamdani also got creative about how to communicate his message. He broke through on social media with viral videos that reached beyond the professionally online crowd. Mr. Cuomo and some of his other rivals derided him as a social media messenger, as if that were an insult. They mocked his videos at the debates, Katz wrote. While Mr. Cuomo and his allies wrote off Mr. Mamdame's social media messages, they missed how it was manifesting in palpable enthusiasm across the city. We saw that at the ballot box on Tuesday, but even before they started counting votes, you could feel it in the Guardian, Bhaskar Sankara said Zoran Mamdani offered New Yorkers a political revolution and won. Mamdani ran a relentlessly disciplined campaign built around cost of living issues, zeroing in on essentials such as housing transport, childcare and groceries. Repeated attempts to define Mamdani as merely a Muslim socialist with radical ideas to force divisive identity politics to the foreign or to make the election a referendum on Israel failed, Sankara wrote. But it wasn't simply messaging discipline that made Mamdani successful. Mamdani has a political talent rooted in genuine charisma. His fluency with language, clarity of purpose and authenticity allowed him to speak convincingly to voters from many different backgrounds. Voters, for their part, proved that they were ready for the change. They refused to succumb to cynical fear mongering about a supposed tide of crime and antisemitism that that would come from a Mamdani victory. Instead, they took a clear eyed look at their lives, assessed the failings of the Democratic Party and chose something fresh, new and fundamentally different over a failed political establishment, sankara said. Still, Tuesday's results carry deeper questions about the future. Mamdani's victory in this primary, significant as it is, must now be tested against Eric Adams and likely Cuomo again in the November election. Beyond that lies a far more challenging governing. In New York magazine, Ross Barkin argued, Zoran Mandani just remade American politics. This is a realignment election in the city and perhaps one of the most significant victories by an unabashed left wing candidate in the history of the United States. No one like Mamdani has ever won an election where as many as a million people voted. This is akin to a socialist winning a medium sized state. There is no real precedent for what happened tonight. Progressives across America will genuflect to him. For Republicans, he is the great new boogeyman, barkin wrote. One parallel if lofty, might be Barack Obama. Both Mamdani and Obama were initially derided by their opponents, regarded as too inexperienced, ineffectual and even foreign. Mayor Zoran Mamdani even a year ago might have sounded far fetched. The power elite in the city, the real estate and finance class, are terrified of Mamdani and are casting a bow for someone who can block his ascent. Adams, who skipped the Democratic primary, is extremely unpopular and scandal scarred, but he suddenly seems no less unappealing than Cuomo, who just got blasted apart by a young socialist, barkin said. With this kind of victory, Mamdani is emboldened. The Democratic establishment, which Cuomo so cowed, will now drift toward him. Labor endorsements will be forthcoming. Mamdani will have a great deal of money. He'll be his own juggernaut. All right, that is it for what the left is saying. Which brings us to what the right is saying. The right says Mamdani ran an effective campaign, but argues his proposals would be a disaster for the city. Some criticize Cuomo for his strategy in the race. Others say Mamdani is a threat to Jewish New Yorkers. The New York Post editorial board said Zoran Mamdani's win leaves NYC staring at the curse of interesting times. Credit Mamdani for running an energetic campaign with a forward looking feel for charm and grace under fire. Pity those who voted for him but believed his false promises and mistake his idealistic social media feed for real life, the board wrote and blamed Cuomo and the spineless Democratic Party machine for not really standing for anything at all and for relying on we're your only hope blackmail of the city's beleaguered business classes to gin up enough support to make it over the finish line. This is certainly an opportunity for Mayor Eric Adams, who's right now low in the polls thanks to his uneven first term performance and a taint of corruption mainly created at the behest of a White House furious that he called out some obvious failings of a president who the nation now knows was unfit for the office, the board said. Maybe Adams can come back roaring off the mat, or another candidate such as GOP nominee Curtis Slo can rally the city's silent majority behind a positive, credible vision for New York's future. Or maybe the city will be stuck with a mayor whose vision is nothing but unicorns, rainbows and the fantasies of the privileged progressive elite. In National Review, Jeffrey Blair described Andrew Cuomo's final humiliation. The most obvious takeaway from tonight is that the citizens of New York simply don't want Andrew Cuomo. To put it another way, they were as enthusiastic about Cuomo as Cuomo himself seemed about the city and the job he was seeking. Forget about Cuomo's baggage as governor of New York, blair said. Forget about his toxic reputation as a crude sex pest. New Yorkers might have gotten past that, but they could not get past his arrogance and seeming indifference to the issues facing the city itself. Long before Zoran Mamdami was perceived as a threat or anything other than the obligatory joke DSA candidate in the race, back when Cuomo could portray himself as a historic inevitability, he treated both the press and voters alike with icily remote contempt, as if the duties of campaigning for a position as lowly as mere mayor of New York City were beneath the dignity of a former governor, blair wrote. Cuomo's failed strategy reminds me of nobody so much as his fellow 2000s era political allies Hillary Clinton and Bill Daley. That all of them hail from the same political generation of Democrats is probably no accident. Hillary ran both her 2008 and 2016 campaigns with a sense of regal and implacable inevitability, and paid a brutal and historic price for her presumptions both times. In Commentary magazine, John Potteretz wrote about the threat of Zorani. What you will hear is that Mamdani ran a brilliant race, and he did. He focused on the fact that living in New York City is ridiculously expensive, and he would control costs by applying socialist principles to city government, somehow finding a way to freeze rents and starting city run grocery stores, among other free stuff, padoret said. And while he ran on affordability and did not make his anti Israel obsession a centerpiece of his campaign, he opened a chapter for Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin. He didn't hide it, even though he was running in the most Jewish city in America. Why? Because it was a feature, not a bug. Because it was a significant reason, if not the most significant reason, for his grassroots support. Mamdani is bad in nearly every way. His economic policies are ruinous. He openly called for defunding the police, ending incarceration and putting homeless beds in subway stations, podoretz wrote. But the real question now is the future of Jews in New York City with him as the mayor? Will he care about attacks on visible Jews if the encampments re emerge on college campuses and Jewish students are again under threat? Will he stand with those making the threats? If he can rise to the mayoralty of the nation's largest and most important city in a party that has been trending inexorably toward antisemitism for the past 15 years, will Jews in America be safe? All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
Isaac Saul
All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying. Which brings us to my take. Can everyone just please take a big deep breath? Zoran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primary is obviously a huge upset, and it is laced with important political narratives. But some of the reactions to his win that New York City will now collapse? That the mayoral nominee is a jihadi terrorist sympathizing commie? That Jews are no longer safe in the city with the largest Jewish population in the country? There are politically manic responses that completely miss these stories. So as someone who lived in New York City for nearly a decade, and as a Jew who also happens to think Mamdani is wrong about a lot of stuff, let me try to rationally flesh out some of the dynamics underlying Mamdani's victory. First, it is no mystery why he won. He is a young, fresh new face in the aging and boring Democratic Party. He's a fantastic orator to boot. Plus he has excellent political instincts. Videos of him hitting the streets and actually interacting with New Yorkers had an authenticity to them that other candidates could couldn't match. Promising rent freezes, affordable groceries, taxes on the rich, and free public transportation also plays well in one of America's most expensive cities. Yes, he is a self described democratic socialist, but to a lot of young New Yorkers, socialism just means tax the rich and strengthen the social safety net. Of all the words I just wrote to describe Mandani, the most important one is this authenticity. I've spilled a lot of ink criticizing progressives for their bad ideas, purity politics, intolerance and groupthink. Mamdani is unabashedly progressive, but he somehow avoids seeming preachy. He's not insufferably condescending, he doesn't lecture about language use and he doesn't practice purity politics. He focused entirely on persuasion, pitching people outside the progressive base. That he's right about the kitchen table issues and the old Democratic guard is wrong. In short, he's a great politician. Part of his authenticity comes from the willingness to show he's evolved and often in the right direction. If you listen to his engaging interviews with Derek Thompson, you won't hear an unreasonable, ideologically captured, crazed socialist candidate. You'll hear someone open to having his views challenged. He's already abandoned previous positions like defund the police, and he's now promising to work with the police to reduce their burden by hiring more cops as well as more social workers to do the work that police shouldn't have to do. If you only spent a few minutes watching one of the Democratic mayoral debates, Mamdani clearly stuck out. One memorable exchange came when the moderator asked each candidate which foreign country they would visit first and why. It was a bizarre question for a mayoral primary, and it was transparently designed to allow the candidates to virtue signal over global politics. Predictably, every Democrat on stage fell over themselves trying to list how many times they'd been to Israel or Ukraine and why they'd go back for their five millionth trip. Mamdani said he would stay in New York City and engage with Jewish constituents there, almost surprised at how obvious this answer was. The answer was reminiscent of Trump's America first mindset writ local, a leftist version of anti establishment populism that Democrats have been sorely missing in their response to Trump. Madani was also running against a very bad primary opponent in Andrew Cuomo. Please stop and consider this the Democratic establishment former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Governor David Patterson and former President Bill Clinton united against Mandani and behind an alleged sexual predator who who was receiving money from Republican mega donors, who diverted huge sums from the mta, who cut Medicaid, who lied about nursing home deaths and Covid, and who relied on his brother's position in the media to avoid accountability for any of this. Why would it be surprising that New Yorkers aren't buying that package? If you're trying to square Mamdani's win with New York swinging rightward for Trump in 2024, here's the Americans are fed up with cowardly, transparently inauthentic politicians who don't stand for anything thing. Naturally, the Democratic establishment is scrambling to respond. I suspect that rather than trying to understand his appeal, Democrats will instead spend the coming weeks figuring out how to defeat him with an independent candidate in the general election. Which would be pretty ironic given that Democrats spent the months since 2024 election wondering aloud how to connect with young men or popularize progressive policies. Now that they have a candidate showing them how, they immediately perceive him as a threat to be crushed. It's classic Democratic politics Of course, Mamdani is also wrong about a lot. His housing policy is not actually nearly as ambitious as he claims, though it would require an eyebrow raising $70 billion in new debt. His calls for rent control are a great way to actually make it harder to build, not easier, which is a pretty well explored phenomenon in housing economics that would further crush New Yorkers who are already struggling. His plan for city owned grocery stores is also genuinely bananas. Incredibly, his motivation for it is not to solve the food desert problem in New York City, which might actually be a reasonable justification, but to lower food prices, which I'm sorry, is nuts. Naturally, because of the oversight government run stores would require, they almost definitely would not out compete the private sector on prices. We see this across sectors every time the government enters an open market. As Noah Smith explained, major grocery stores survive on very thin margins and government run stores would compete directly with small, independent and often immigrant or minority owned shops in poor neighborhoods. These policies would hurt the very people Mamdani claims to be campaigning for and could explain in part why low income New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for Andrew Wilson Cuomo. I am curious to see Mamdani pursue some of his ideas though, mostly because I no longer live in New York City and my tax dollars won't have to fund the experiment. For instance, he has an ambitious free child care plan for all children from 6 weeks old to 5 years old. It will require a lot of city resources and higher taxes, specifically on wealthy New Yorkers and corporations, but it would provide an incredible public good that many residents desperately want and would benefit from from. I doubt the math will make this plan a net positive, but I'm curious to see him try. And I definitely don't consider offering free childcare in the country's wealthiest city an evil socialist policy. Other things concern me, but I'm not freaking out about them. Yes, Mamdani has embraced expressions like globalize the Intifada speciously claiming that it is a peaceful call for Palestinian human rights. Even his anti Zionist violence against Jews in the United States States ramps up Some of his biggest boosters do not seem like good people, and apparently eight years ago during his rather embarrassing attempt at a rap career, he praised a Hamas supporting group in one of his lyrics. His messaging in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks also left much to be desired. As concerning and often cringy as these things are, I find the epic meltdown around them totally unreasonable. Plenty of non hateful people, including some Jews, think that globalizing Intifada is a peaceful call to action. Every politician who gets popular enough will have dark corners of their coalition. And I don't take juvenile rap lyrics from nearly 10 years ago all that seriously. Neither should you. The truth is, Mamdani has addressed all of these criticisms head on in thoughtful ways. Most notably, he did so in an interview with Stephen Colbert that's genuinely worth watching. He was endorsed by Brad Lander, one of his top opponents in this race, who is also a proud Jew and Zionist. He was the campaign manager for a Jewish mayoral candidate in 2018. He has embraced an endorsement by the most well known Jewish politician in America. He is running to be mayor of the most populous Jewish city in America. A lot of people just need to take a beat and stop acting like a literal Hamas spokesperson is about to become the mayor of New York City City New York will be fine. Sharia law is not coming for the Big Apple and it isn't societal decline for New Yorkers to elect a Muslim mayor 25 years after 9 11. In fact, it shows our capacity to see people as individuals and not caricatures of some larger monolith. If Mamdani actually becomes mayor and that's still an if, by the way, he will face massive pressure to moderate his politics. And he probably will. He will experiment with grand policy promises and probably fail on some and succeed on others. And if he does become mayor, New Yorkers will have to hope for the best. Meanwhile, the rest of us will get to see how a democratic socialist can actually govern in a major American city and will judge the merits of his ideology accordingly. As a former New Yorker, I'll be rooting for Mamdani the same way I root for Trump or Biden or any other American leader to succeed and deliver for his constituents. I have serious doubts he will, but New Yorkers will cast the final judgment on his successes and failures. That's democracy at work and we'll all survive it. We'll be right back after this quick break.
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Isaac Saul
All right, that is it for my take today. We're skipping today's reader question because my take was a little bit long and there was so much to say. But I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace.
John
Thanks Isaac. Here's your under the Radar story for today, folks. On Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer announced that an investigation led by the US Marshal Service rescued 60 critically missing children in the Tampa Bay area. The initiative involved 20 agencies and focused on children aged nine to 17 at risk of crimes of violence or those with other elevated risk factors such as substance abuse, sexual exploitation, crime exposure or domestic violence. 69% of the children rescued had been missing from the community, while 31% were missing from foster homes. The operation is believed to be the most successful missing child recovery effort in the history of the usms. The Sarasota Herald Tribune has the story and there's a link in today's episode description alright, next up is our numbers section. Mamdani's lead over Cuomo in Brooklyn. His largest lead in any borough was plus 17% with 358,000 votes reported. Cuomo's lead over Mamdani in the Bronx. His largest lead in any Borough was 18% with 104,600 votes reported. Andrew Cuomo's average first choice polling lead on April 1st was 24.2% on according to Race to the White House. Andrew Cuomo's average first choice Polling lead on primary day was plus 7.9%. The amount spent by the primary super PAC supporting Andrew Cuomo as of June 20 was $16 million. The amount spent by the primary super PAC supporting Zoran Mamdani as of June 24 was $1.2 million. The high in New York City on primary day was 99 degrees, the city's hottest recorded temperature in over a decade and the age of Zohra. Mamdani is 33, which would make him New York City's youngest mayor in more than a century if he is elected in November. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. A 45 year old man had been suffering from advanced heart failure for months before receiving a successful transplant in March. But this was no typical surgery. Instead, surgeons at Baylor St. Luke's Medical center in Houston used a robot to reach the patient's heart through small incisions without opening his chest, marking the first fully robotic heart transplant in U.S. history. By avoiding large incisions, the revolutionary procedure reduces the need for blood transfusions and lowers the risk of rejecting the new heart, explains Dr. Todd Rosengart, chair of Baylor's surgery department. This robotic heart transplantation represents a remarkable giant step forward in making even the most complex surgery safer, he said. CBS News has this story and there's a link in today's episode Description all right everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, Please go to readtangle.com where you can sign up for a newsletter membership, podcast membership or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y' all. Peace.
Isaac Saul
Our Executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Lowell. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman with Senior Editor Will Kbach and Associate editors Hunter Casperson, Audrey Moorhead, Bailey, Saul Lindsey Knuth and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. To learn more about Tango and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website@linkretangle.com.
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Tangle Podcast Summary: A Political Shockwave in New York City
Podcast Information:
In this episode of Tangle, host Isaac Saul delves into the unexpected and impactful results of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. What was initially slated to cover national legislative developments swiftly pivoted to focus on the primary's surprise outcome, highlighting its national significance amidst a tumultuous month of global and domestic news.
Isaac Saul opens the discussion by emphasizing the podcast's commitment to comprehensive news coverage:
“We had actually planned to cover that budget bill again this morning when the surprising results of the New York City Democratic primary broke last night. All this is to say we're news junkies.”
[02:30]
John, the executive producer, provides a detailed breakdown of the primary results. State Assemblyman Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, emerged as the frontrunner, leading former Governor Andrew Cuomo with 43.5% to 36.4% based on 93% of the votes counted. Cuomo conceded the race but retains the option to run as an independent after analyzing the results.
Key points include:
John highlights Mamdani’s victory declaration:
“...we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done, my friends, we have done it.”
[06:10]
The left-wing analysis lauds Mamdani's victory as a transformative moment for the Democratic Party. Rebecca Katz of The New York Times praises Mamdani for his progressive campaign and ability to connect with a broad voter base through authentic social media engagement. She emphasizes that his success challenges the traditional Democratic establishment to rethink its strategies.
Bhaskar Sankara commends Mamdani’s focus on essential cost-of-living issues and his ability to unite diverse voter groups:
“Zoran Mamdani offered New Yorkers a political revolution and won.”
[07:20]
Ross Barkin in New York Magazine describes Mamdani's win as a historic realignment in American politics, comparing his breakthrough to Barack Obama's early political challenges:
“This is akin to a socialist winning a medium-sized state. There is no real precedent for what happened tonight.”
[08:00]
Conversely, right-wing commentators express concern over Mamdani's policies and potential impact on New York City's Jewish community. The New York Post criticizes Mamdani’s idealistic proposals, labeling them as unrealistic and detrimental to the city's economic stability. They argue that his social media-driven campaign masks false promises and that his victory signifies a problematic shift towards progressive elitism.
Jeffrey Blair from National Review attributes Cuomo’s loss to his poor campaign strategy and personal scandals, underscoring the electorate’s disillusionment with his leadership:
“The most obvious takeaway from tonight is that the citizens of New York simply don't want Andrew Cuomo.”
[15:10]
John Potteretz in Commentary Magazine raises concerns about Mamdani's stance on Israel and its implications for Jewish New Yorkers, questioning whether Mamdani can balance his progressive ideals with the city's diverse demographic needs:
“The real question now is the future of Jews in New York City with him as the mayor.”
[17:45]
Isaac Saul offers a balanced perspective, acknowledging the magnitude of Mamdani’s victory while addressing the polarized reactions. Drawing from his personal experience as a former New Yorker and a Jewish individual, he emphasizes the importance of viewing Mamdani’s win through a nuanced lens.
Isaac states:
“Zoran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primary is obviously a huge upset, and it is laced with important political narratives. But some of the reactions to his win... completely miss these stories.”
[19:37]
He commends Mamdani’s authenticity and effective communication, noting his ability to resonate with voters beyond the progressive base. While critiquing some of Mamdani’s policies—such as the feasibility of city-owned grocery stores and rent control—Isaac acknowledges the potential positive impacts of initiatives like free childcare.
Isaac also addresses concerns about Mamdani’s past statements and endorsements, arguing that the backlash is disproportionate:
“A lot of people just need to take a beat and stop acting like a literal Hamas spokesperson is about to become the mayor of New York City.”
[24:15]
He concludes by advocating for a measured response, emphasizing that democracy’s strength lies in its ability to adapt and judge leaders based on their performance.
John shares an inspiring story about a coordinated effort led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer and the US Marshal Service, which successfully rescued 60 critically missing children in the Tampa Bay area. This operation, involving 20 agencies, is hailed as the most successful missing child recovery effort in US Marshal Service history.
Key statistics from the primary include:
The episode also features a remarkable medical advancement: surgeons at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston performed the first fully robotic heart transplant in the U.S. This groundbreaking procedure utilized robotic technology to minimize surgical invasiveness, reduce the need for blood transfusions, and lower the risk of organ rejection.
Dr. Todd Rosengart, chair of Baylor’s surgery department, remarks:
“This robotic heart transplantation represents a remarkable giant step forward in making even the most complex surgery safer.”
[30:20]
In wrapping up, Isaac Saul reiterates the significance of Mamdani’s primary victory and anticipates a contentious general election. He urges listeners to remain rational and view the developments through a balanced perspective, emphasizing the resilience of New York City’s democratic processes.
Isaac concludes:
“If Mamdani actually becomes mayor... New Yorkers will have to hope for the best. Meanwhile, the rest of us will get to see how a democratic socialist can actually govern in a major American city and will judge the merits of his ideology accordingly.”
[29:00]
Note: This summary excludes all advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions and analyses presented in the episode.