Billionaire’s Effort to Crush Mamdani is Rooted in Fears of Nationwide Progressive Wave
I believe this is kind of interesting. Everyone of the important people are in a tizzy over a Muslim running to be the Mayor of NYC, Zohran Mamdani (a Muslim) wants to be NYC’s mayor.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon panned New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as “more a Marxist than a socialist.” They are coming out of the woodwork to oppose Zohran.
Jamie Dimon urges New York City citizens not to support Zohran. On the opposite side, what has Dimon done to support the everyday NYC citizen? Zohran must be a real threat if Dimon is complaining about his candidacy. The likelihood of Zohran winning is not that great unless people like Dimon make it a bigger issue. Then too, anything other than white and rich is problematic.
“Sanders Says Billionaire Effort to Crush Mamdani Rooted in Fears of Nationwide Progressive Wave,” Common Dreams
Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday reaffirmed his support for Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a fellow democratic socialist facing fierce opposition from deep-pocketed establishment figures who fear the broad nationwide appeal of his people-over-profit agenda.
Faced with the growing possibility that Mamdani would win the June 24 primary, Wall Street bankers, corporate executives, real estate developers, mega-landlords, and others rushed to dump money into disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign coffers. Now that Mamdani is the Democratic nominee, they’re pouring tens of millions of dollars into an anti-Mamdani war chest, despite not even agreeing on which candidate to back in November’s mayoral election.
In a Thursday interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour—who noted that Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy tour “has been drawing record crowds“—the Vermont senator said that policies like “giving massive tax breaks to billionaires and cutting healthcare and education and nutrition from working-class families [are] not popular.”
While acknowledging that “mainstream Democrats” have been unable to galvanize opposition to Republicans’ pro-billionaire, anti-working class agenda, CNN”s Amanpour pressed Sanders about what he would tell New Yorkers who say that Mamdani “has never run anything, and he says, free buses, and… is he antisemitic or not?'”
Sanders response . . .
“First of all, understand, he’s going to have the entire establishment, the oligarchy, the billionaires coming down on his head, not only because he’s demanding that the wealthy and large corporations in New York City start paying their fair share of taxes, they are worried that his campaign is an example of what can happen all over the country when you bring people together to demand the government that works for all of us and not just a few,” the senator said. “So, they really want to crush this guy.”
Sanders adds, “You have billionaires saying quite openly, ‘We are going to spend as much as it takes to defeat this guy.’ You have Democratic leadership not refusing to jump on board a campaign where this guy is the Democratic nominee. So, most importantly, I’m going to do everything I can to see that Zohran becomes the next mayor of New York.”
Some Democrats have done more than refuse to support their own party’s nominee. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) falsely claimed last month that Mamdani had made references to “global jihad.” Gillibrand speciously argued that “globalize the intifada”—a call for Palestinian liberation and battling injustice—is a call to “kill all the Jews.”
Freshman Congresswoman Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) also falsely accused Mamdani of “a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments.”
Congressional progressives including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), André Carson (D-Ind.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), the four practicing Muslims in the House of Representatives last month condemned what they called the “vile, anti-Muslim, and racist smears from our colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”
Despite the attacks against him, Mamdani is leading Cuomo (who is now running as an Independent) by 10 points in a Slingshot Strategies poll of more than 1,000 registered voters published earlier this week. Mamdani also leads Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa by 21 points and scandal-ridden incumbent Mayor Eric Adams by 24 points.
Observers note that establishment Democrats’ reservations about backing Mamdani seem to be fading amid the strength of his campaign. As Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hold out on endorsing their own party’s nominee, critics argue it’s time to follow other lawmakers like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerrold Nadler, Adriano Espaillat, and Nydia Velázquez—all New York Democrats—and endorse Mamdani.
“Mamdani won a record-setting primary victory, and unions, grassroots Democratic groups, and savvy elected officials are rushing to back him,” The Nation‘s national affairs correspondent, John Nichols, wrote Friday.
“Now it’s the establishment’s turn.”
“Democrats who say they want to replace their party leaders, 62% nationally say yes, compared to just 24% who say no.” CNN’s chief data analyst says the takeaway of Mamdani’s win is that “Democrats right now are out for blood — they want to take out their party leaders.”
https://x.com/i/status/1939454984027836679
What I’ve been saying for a year. (And I was rewarded here by having lots of my comments erased!)
@John,
Any of your previous comments that were trashed/spammed were erased either because they were off-topic or because they contained personal attacks. They weren’t deleted just because you repeated obvious stuff like in this comment.
Fortunately, Democrats’ base has finally awakened…two years too late.
John:
When people choose not to vote, there are consequences. The result is Tr__p.
Bill, you still seem not to have gotten the message… “If Everyone Had Voted, Harris Still Would Have Lost.
New data, based on authoritative voter records, suggests that Donald Trump would have done even better in 2024 with higher turnout.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/upshot/turnout-2024-election-trump-harris.html
Are you disputing the Pew survey results? Do you have better voter survey data? (Not simply extrapolations and projections of 2020 voter turnout and preferences?)
John:
At the top of your comment is an index row. The seventh one in is called “img” If you have the address for the NYT article image(?) you can save it and copy the address plus a title and post it. The NYT article is not accessible. As far as PEW and if you are citing an article of theirs, a link is called for so I can read it. I am not your librarian who is going to search for your proof in a discussion with me. Antagonists have to supply their own proof.
I have pulled some numbers and did an excel spread sheet with them for the last three elections and who ran in them. I will post it here. Most of the numbers are from Dave Leips Presidental Election results. You can google and find it. It is pretty extensive. The data on that Excel sheet takes numbers from there and also other places.
Trump lost bigly to Biden. Won against Clinton due to Electoral votes (Clinton had more votes) and squeezed by Harris who was head and shoulders in intellect over Trump. Why did two very capable women lose to Trump and a White Male clobbered Trump?
The turnout in 2016 and 2024 was far less than the number of eligible voters. Approximately twenty million did not show up in 2016 and approximately eighteen million did not show up in 2024. But look at 2020. Joe Biden was lucky. Only 10 million did not show up and he won. Those numbers are down in the lower right-hand corner.
Why is that, John? Do you think maybe they do not want a woman for president? Both women were well qualified to be the president. Perhaps, the nation does not care for a woman in the Oval office. I loved when Harris put Trump in his place. No more debates with her by-god as Tr__p could not compete at Harris’s level.
I do not care about your PEW report and neither do I feel I need a NYT subscription to see what the hell you are talking about on AB.
Bill, do you mean “(t)he likelihood of Zohar {not} winning” possibly? Not getting the implication that if Dimon and the rest calm down, Mamdani likely loses. Is that really what you mean?
Eric:
What took place in 2008? Dimon was one of the Wall Street execs who brought the collapse of Wall Street to our front door. He dabbled in pennies on the dollar investments just like many others did on Wall Street. Who paid for their gambling utilizing CDSs.
How quick we all forget. Here a good article from 2012 even you can get into. Jamie Dimon: ‘I was dead wrong’ – POLITICO
Here is a post by Ken Thomas when he was at Angry Bear. Guest post: Kabuki Theater Probably Won’t Shake Up NY Fed.
Dimon has done enough damage.
I have no idea why you can’t access the NYT link, which is readily available to me, even though I am not a subscriber. In any case, I found another link.
If Everyone Had Voted, Harris Still Would Have Lost – DNyuz
“The decline in Democratic support among young and nonwhite voters and the decline in Democratic turnout can be understood as part of a single phenomenon: As traditionally Democratic voters soured on their party, some decided to show up and vote for Mr. Trump and others simply decided to stay home. But if they did show up, polling data suggests they would have voted for Mr. Trump in surprising numbers.”
Here is that “Democrats soured on their party ” problem again…the huge mental block that party elites and their echo chamber need to overcome if Democratic candidates and their policies are ever to attract enough voters again. Mamdani is poking them in the eye. But can they afford to see the problem given their Big Money donor base? I frankly doubt it. I expect them to continue their lame “failure to explain properly” excuse.
@John,
“. . . polling data suggests they would have voted for Mr. Trump in surprising numbers.”
LOL! The words “suggests” and “surprising” are doing all the work in that sentence. There’s a lot of daylight between “polling data suggests they would have voted for Mr. Trump in surprising numbers” and the speculation that Trump would have gotten even a greater share of the votes if turnout had been higher.
You know, Joel, there’s a lot at stake here. Democrats can continue to make excuses for losing to Trump—voters’ sexism, racism, laziness, etc—and avoid doing any serious lessons learned. And they may still be able to win some elections when voters choose to throw the Republican bums out. But the t will lack enough of a mandate to get anything done.
Or Democrats can take voters souring on their party seriously…listen to Mamdani, Sanders, etc…and make a major course change to show that they actually care about ordinary voters. Loyal Democrats should help force their party to make a change and bring party leaders out of their torpor and denial.
The first step is to admit that the party has a problem. They should stop vilifying those that have noticed the problem and publicly talk about it. Dismissing any and all criticism of Democrats, especially former Democrats, is simply not constructive.
@John,
“Dismissing any and all criticism of Democrats, especially former Democrats, is simply not constructive.”
Agreed. Fortunately, nobody’s doing that.
Yadda, yadda, yadda…it’s easy to find post mortems like this on 2024: Democrats “Ignored What Their Voters Were Telling Them”—And It Cost Them Everything | Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/democrats-ignored-voters-it-cost-them-2024-election-book
Or this one from 2016: Team Bernie: Hillary ‘F*cking Ignored’ Us in Swing States https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-bernie-hillary-fcking-ignored-us-in-swing-states/
Or this one from 3 weeks ago: “Democratic Leaders Tried to Crush Zohran Mamdani. They Should Have Been Taking Notes.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/opinion/zohran-mamdani-democratic-party.html
John:
Quit littering my post and Angry Bear with your inane comments. I do the research and pull together the numbers and all you can do is whine and post the titles of other articles.
Take a vacation