NYC mayoral debate exposed Zohran Mamdani as man who has never dealt with reality

Finally, Zohran Mamdani had to face the difficult questions.

At this week’s final Mayoral debate the gloves finally came off.

Why does Mamdani think he can run this city when he couldn’t even turn up for work when he was in the legislature?

Why does he think he can be a representative for the poor when he awarded himself the biggest pay-rise any representative has ever got?

How can he present himself as a “progressive” when he spends his time palling around with politicians in his native Uganda who actually persecute and imprison people for being gay?

Those were just a few of the questions that finally came up this week, not just from Mamdani’s chief opponent in the race, Andrew Cuomo but also from the moderators.

By any normal standards, recent days should have been a car-crash for candidate Mamdani.

How can someone seek to run this city when they have been tied to someone involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing?

I know that Mamdani and his family weren’t living in this country when the World Trade Center was first attacked.

And I know he wasn’t a citizen of this country until years after the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.

Yet even if he has no memory of the terrorist attacks, the city still does.

In any ordinary season Mamdani’s associations, nevermind his policies, would have done for him.

But as everyone knows this is a very abnormal season.

Mamdani is hoping to sail into office by just flashing his sweatily ingratiating smile and presenting himself as reasonable.

Meanwhile anyone who has even the slightest nose for a faker can spot him from blocks away.

How is Mamdani going to pay for free bus-rides in New York, the moderator asked?

Mamdani smiled joyfully, as though he had been hoping to answer just this question.

Free bus rides would reduce assaults on bus drivers, he claimed.

Exactly why there would be fewer attacks on bus drivers if everyone could ride for free was not made clear.

The moderator pushed on.

Where would Mamdani find the $700 million his scheme would cost?

Eventually Mamdani admitted it.

New Yorkers could get free bus rides because they would pay higher taxes.

Brilliant.

What a scheme.

When Mamdani himself went on the offensive he tried to present Governor Cuomo as “Donald Trump’s puppet.”

Of course the President hasn’t endorsed anyone in the race.

But Mamdani hoped that even mentioning the “T” word would drive voters into his own arms.

Which was strange because the main stunt Mamdani pulled on Wednesday night was a move he stole from President Trump.

The big “reveal” by Mamdani was that he had brought along to the audience one of the women who made allegations against Governor Cuomo in 2021.

Mamdani didn’t bother to note that the claims in question were significantly dismissed in the courts.

Nor did he note that this stunt was simply a copy of Donald Trump’s famous ambush of Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential debates, when Trump turned up with the women who had made allegations against Bill Clinton.

But perhaps we shouldn’t expect Mamdani to have any original ideas for his debate stunts.

After all, he doesn’t have any other original ideas in his head.

Anyone who has ever watched a socialist try to slide into political office in any country will know the trick Mamdani is trying to pull.

During the race socialists like him present themselves as concerned only about justice and fairness.

They make promises of all the free stuff that people will get — and are said to have a right to have.

And so they sidle into office, full of promises they know they can’t keep.

And when they get in?

Well then you get the real glimpse into their character — or lack of it.

It is only after victory that socialists reveal their true nature.

It’s then that they reveal that they aren’t interested in justice.

They are interested in revenge.

That they aren’t interested in giving out free things.

They are interested in taking things — principally cash — from the public.

They hold themselves out as the champions of the poor but in office their only achievement is to make everyone poorer.

Are New Yorkers really going to fall for this?

It seems amazing to think that this city could vote in such a candidate.

A man who is not just unqualified but entirely unsuited to the job of Mayor of this city.

A lot of people I speak to know that Mamdani will be a disaster for this city.

But then in the next breath many of them tell me that they’re not intending to vote because their vote somehow won’t count.

Well that depends on you.

And it depends on all New Yorkers.

If people use their vote then the city can still be saved.

If people think they can sit this one out then they only have themselves to blame for what will come.

No Kings . . . and no clue

Have you ever seen a sadder display than the “No Kings” protests last weekend?

I managed to wander into one of them and wondered what the participants were smoking.

There are plenty of criticisms people can make.

But why do people have to invent things?

Why do they have to pretend that going after criminals who have broken into the US illegally and committed crimes here in fact constitutes an attack on all ethnic minorities?

Why do they have to pretend that the President’s efforts to clean up the crime-ridden streets of many American cities is fascism?

Why do they have to pretend that a commitment to law and order express a desire to be a monarch?

Watching the protestors last weekend I couldn’t help thinking again how parts of the left in this country seem intent on inventing literal bogeymen.

It is like the women who dress up as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale” and pretend that the US government wants to take control of their wombs.

Why not run against some real problems instead of protesting against invented ones?