LI pol ‘silenced’ by Dems while trying to grill Mamdani about antisemitism

A Jewish state assemblyman from Long Island is slamming fellow pols for silencing him as he tried to grill Big Apple Mayor Zohran Mamdani about antisemitism in Albany last week.

Orthodox Republican rep Ari Brown told The Post that his “pure communist” colleagues wanted “to prove to Zohran that they hate the Jews.

“They silenced me for demanding answers about rising hate against the Jewish community,” he said.

“Every New Yorker should understand exactly how dangerous that is.”

New York state Assemblyman Ari Brown told The Post he was “silenced” by his Assembly colleagues for trying to ask Mayor Zohran Mamdani questions about rising antisemitism in the city during a hearing in Albany last week. NYassembly.gov

Brown was trying to use his allotted time to confront the Democratic socialist Mamdani about New York City’s alarming rise in antisemitic incidents — a surge of 182 percent — during the mayor’s first month in office and also his failure to “unequivocally condemn” the slogan “Globalize the intifada,” which critics say encourages violence against Jews.

But the pol’s attempt to grill Mamdani prompted fellow Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D-Mount Vernon) to sternly warn the Republican, “Don’t go on – this is a budget hearing. Have respect for our mayor” before Brown’s mic and time were then yanked.

“That is not debate, that is intimidation. They want to shut me down,” said a defiant Brown, claiming he is the first yarmulke-wearing Republican ever elected to state office in New York history.

Brown, one of the state’s longest-serving legislators, claimed that nearly half of his Democratic colleagues are “terrified” of being primaried, “so they figured they’d go after the most conservative legislator in the state.

Brown said Democrats in the Assembly wanted to “to prove to Zohran that they hate the Jews.” Gabriella Bass for NY Post

“They want to prove to Zohran that they hate the Jews because Zohran is controlling the [Democratic Socialists of America],” he said, adding that some of his colleagues are “pure communists.

“No matter how far left they go, there is always a more radical communist waiting to primary them, so they fall in line and try to silence anyone who challenges the agenda,” he said.

The feisty conservative even invoked former President Ronald Reagan, who once said, “Communism only works as long as you can force people to obey.”

Brown said, “When a microphone gets cut in a legislative hearing instead of questions being answered, that warning stops sounding like history and starts sounding like right now.”

Upstate GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, in a post on X, also shredded the “unprecedented power grab” of “NY Socialist Dems,” saying, “Welcome to single party Socialist rule in NY … where elected members in legislative bodies conducting oversight on behalf of their constituents are NOT permitted to ask certain questions.

“In an unprecedented power grab, shut down and silenced an important question regarding antisemitism being propped up (and funded!) by the new Mayor. Tow the line or you will be silenced by the antisemitic Socialists,” she seethed.

Neither Pretlow nor Mamdani responded to Post requests for comment Sunday.