Transcript of Zohran Mamdani State of Mind

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Rte. 2fm. So are we supposed to start? The podcast.

Ready? Do it. One, two, three. I'm so embarrassed. All right.

Patriots, gay triets, they triets, black triets, brown triets. Welcome to America's Top DEI podcast, Live We're from New York City. And you guys, I don't know if we're cool or if the stars are aligning, but we are here with New York City mayoral candidate Zora Mamdani. How are you today?

I am doing great. It's such a pleasure to be here.

It's a big deal to be on America's Top DEI podcast. Yeah.

That's how I know I made it. This is big lead. Regardless of what happens, you made it. It's not the primary win. That's right. We're right here. This is it.

This is where it's all happening. Okay, we like to ask all of our guests what they've had it with. Zora, what have you had it with?

I have had it with uncles asking me what's next. So everyone will be well-acquainted with that moment in your life where you think you've done something, and there will always be an uncle who whispers in your ear, Where are you headed to next? Yeah. And so we've been doing photos, and there'll be an uncle who whispers, Man, are you going to Senate? Governor? I'm like, This is a great place to be. Why can't we just celebrate this moment?

Do they also ask you, Are there any kids in the work? Right.

Yes.

This is a common question. But my parents are thankful that now the press corps gets to ask me the questions that they used to ask me.

They can just listen in.

When are you going to have his first kid?

No more get engaged. They're like, When are you going to have kids? Do I have to do all this right now? Just take a break.

Yeah, that's a lot of pressure for people that don't have kids yet. There's this just constant promoting of breeding, the promotion, like when are you going to breed? When are you going to do it? Yeah, it's a lot of pressure. All right, Pumps, what about you? What have you had it with?

Okay, I'm not technologically savvy.

Really?

Shut up. And what I've had it with is I always put in my wrong password, and then my computer says, Do you want to save this password? And I'm like, No, because it's wrong. So then I have four tries of different passwords, and I never get it right. So it's like, wait until I say save the password before you start asking me, because I'm always putting in the wrong password, and I have to go back. So I've had it with that. Technology is not my friend. You're young. So you understand technology.

I feel like I do, but even I'm already starting to feel a little bit out of it.

Like left behind? Yeah. When I started practicing law, there was no such thing as emails or internet.

We are in different places. She's a lot older. I'm not going to say we're in the same moment.

Instagram is a huge... I remember on the cell phone, I remember doing the A, A, A.

You had no email when you started practicing law?

When I started practicing law, there was no email.

This is not only American- This is like pre-pom pilot.

Yes, yes.

Pre-blackberry, pre-all of it. We had those little things you would get at Best Buy. I think it then was Circuit City. When you kept your calendar. It was a whole thing. And I remember when I moved out of my house, it was in the attic, and I was like, It's a dinosaur. Yeah, the only computer the same that they had was Solitaire.

Wow.

That's crazy, isn't it? All right. And I look so young. Oh.

There's nothing little botox and filler can fix.

That's right. No injections that I won't take.

Okay. Let me tell you what I've had it with. Please. I have had it with politicians that think that they're badass and they act like they have courage. And in fact, I think they put on what I would call a in cowardice. One example would be Lil Marco Rubio, who, I don't know, for years, there is a video record of him having clarity about authoritarianism, clarity about Vladimir Putin. You can go on and on. Jd Vance, who we call it Little Smoky because of the smoky eye. There's a lot of these right now. But one, particularly when I think of New York, that could put on a profile in cowardice is your opponent, Andrew Cuomo. I just cannot believe the 180-degrees turn, where he's trying to act like this manosphere tough guy. And he has abandoned all progressive beliefs that he had before. Like So many people, once they open up to Donald Trump, once they capitulate, they become worse and worse and worse. And Andrew Cuomo has capitulated to Donald Trump, and the moral rot has just absolutely followed.

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think it just shows that he doesn't believe in anything other than his own power. And the fact that he believes that's his God given right is to forever be leading the city or the state. And it's quite jarring for many who spent, like me and like all of you, months hearing from someone about how they would be the best person to take on Donald Trump and now have that same guy be the one who's on the phone with Donald Trump, talking about how to stop our campaign.

Think about how failed as a politician you would have to be to call a man who clearly, in my opinion, I'm not a doctor, has full-blown dementia, who tried to give a microphone a blow job on the campaign trail. Donald Trump did this. And he has to have a three-hour meeting where everybody tells him he's so great because he's that insecure. So how much has Andrew Cuomo fallen that right now, currently, He thinks the best thing for New Yorkers to do is to call a demented man with muffin top cankels, bruises all over his hands, and an army of sycophants around him. I mean, how on earth is that going to help New Yorkers? And then that makes me question his judgment. It makes me question Andrew Cuomo's judgment, because I wouldn't call Donald Trump if he were the last person on the planet for advice.

And calling him not just for advice, but for help. Because Because Andrew Cuomo's path in his mind, is that Donald Trump intervenes in this race and makes what is a four-person race into a two-person race. And he does that by getting Eric Adams and Curtis Sliva out of it, such that it's a one-on-one with Andrew Cuomo. Now, it's difficult for Andrew Cuomo to understand, but he would also lose that race as well. But still, he is trying everything he can do, not just to ask Donald Trump, but to say, Can you help me? Can you actually make this a race that is easier for me?

But when you think about it, Donald Trump has a history of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct allegations. Andrew Cuomo has the exact same history. Neither really believe in anything except for being liked. And there's no... Again, it's a profile in cowardice. I don't see either one of them standing for anything. They just accept who has the biggest check right now, who can write me the biggest check? And it's so obvious once you open up your eyes to it. But when you think about all the people surrounding Trump, it's almost like by design, it's a prerequisite that you have some moral collapse in your background to be able to even talk to him. And I think Andrew Cuomo has this.

I mean, he has often surrounded himself with the people who are quickest to say yes to any idea that he has. When Andrew Cuomo entered this race, we put out a video standing in front of Trump Tower, talking about the similarities between the two of them. Because it's not just the allegations. It's not just believing in power above all else. It's also a record of cutting Medicaid. It's also a record of claiming to fight for working people and then selling them out to the highest-profile donors. I mean, before Elon Musk was running Doge at the behest of Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo was giving Elon Musk $959 million in tax breaks here in New York. The stories have a lot of parallels, and that is part of when people ask me, who's my biggest opponent in this race? I say it's not any one of the candidates on the ballot. It's the disaffection and despair that most New Yorkers feel when they think about politics, because that is what keeps so many home. I understand where they're coming from, because if you've seen this, and we're talking about in one hand, a Republican, another hand, technically a Democrat, as it pertains to Andrew Cuomo, why would continue to have faith?

Our job now is to reckon with those betrayals and say that politics can be something else. It can be more than just this complacency, just this sense of looking at a cost of living crisis that's spiraling out of control and pretending that we're just spectators to it, as opposed to actors who are either choosing to stop it or exacerbate it.

Right. Okay, I have a question on this. I'm from Oklahoma, so I'm way far removed from this. But I've never heard of anyone that's been a Newyorker that's like, ra, ra, Donald Trump. So I find it odd that somebody who is so deeply unpopular in New York City, that Andrew Cuomo would go to him for help. That makes no sense to me.

Well, first, I have to say that the first play that I started in middle school was Oklahoma.

Really?.

I was curly. Really? Jumping toad stools. That was one of my lines. That's amazing. They put a lot of makeup on me. But But I do remember that.

It's a completely white production as is everything in Oklahoma.

Can they whiteface you?

I think I was pretty close. I think I was pretty close. But I think Andrew Cuomo is going to Donald Trump not because Donald Trump's endorsement would swing New Yorkers, but more because Donald Trump has the ability to narrow this race and to take a Republican candidate or an ostensibly Democrat, now Eric Adams. It's hard to know how to describe him out of this race. Correct. That's one way, and that's accurate.

And to bully you.

Intimidate you. I think that what Andrew Cuomo doesn't seem to understand is that him and Donald Trump, they're two sides of the same coin that New Yorkers want to throw away into the dust bin of history. We want a new politics. We had the option to elect our own bully, and we chose not to do that. And why would we not make the same decision again in November? That's what he's having a hard time understanding because just doesn't understand that no means no.

I think something that's so interesting, and this doesn't get... A lot of people don't realize this, but one thing that Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump have in common is an affection and adoration towards authoritarian right wing strongmen. And Cuomo has an affection and adoration for war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and volunteered to be his attorney. And this is really... It really rocks the conscience when you think about it, that somebody who... When you live in flyover states like we do, when you think of New York, you think of it as progressive, on the cutting edge of human rights, on the cutting edge of acceptance, on the cutting edge of tolerance. And we aspire, as Blue Dods and Red States, aspire for that type of freedom that you have here in New York. And when I think about a politician like Andrew Cuomo representing Benjamin Netanyahu, who is killing journalists intentionally because they are reporting on the famine and the starvation in Gaza. And then I think about what it means to be an American, specifically a Democrat, an American, and the value of free press and the value of human rights. And so I think that there's a lot more in common with Donald Trump and Cuomo than just the surface stuff we talked about.

But this adoration and admiration of strongmen that want to oppressed people seems to be something that is really getting contagious in the United States, and it's really freaking me out. And that's why I think they're so threatened by you. And they're talking about, wait, lifting or other stupid shit because you- I've had it with bench pressing.

Yes. I've had it with pull-ups. I've had it with going to the gym.

Which is way overrated.

No, I'm glad there's not a single New Yorker who voted for me on the premise of upper body strength. So we're feeling good about our chances in the general. We're just where we were. We're just where we were. But I think to your point, it feels like this idea of values or international law or anything that we can hold on to has just been thrown away in view of a politics of might is right. That's just what people seem to be comfortable with. And I think this is not a intellectual or ideological concern for New Yorkers. I met a New Yorker who had more than 80 members of her family in Gaza killed by the Israeli military. How do you speak to that New Yorker, understand their pain, and then answer the question of how a leading candidate for mayor volunteered to defend the leader that effectively killed those family members. And you mentioned it's a famine, right? We've just been certified by international experts that at least half a million Palestinians are in immediate danger of starvation, of acute malnutrition, of death. And since then, in a little more than a week, we've now seen the Israeli military bomb a hospital and then bomb those who are coming to assist in the recovery right after the double tap strike.

I mean, it is an affront to the conscience. And what is so painful for us as Americans is that we are enabling this genocide. It's not something that we're simply watching. We're not witnesses to it. It's a continued decision by our federal government to allow for this. And the only position one has to take is to bring this to an end. And yet here I am running against someone who, after to resign in disgrace from leading the state thought the best use of his time was to volunteer to defend Benjamin Netanyahu.

Pumps and I need to share with everybody that we have written a book. It's called Life is a Lazy Susan of Shit Sandwiches. And believe it or not, Pumps and I have not always been so rock solid. And we talk about all of our trials, tribulations, most of all our fuck-ups. Yes, because fuck-ups are relatable and a part of the human experience.

I have gotten so much feedback regarding the book that because of my situation with the religion and addiction and all that, that people relate to that. So I do think there's something to take away that's comforting about it because we've all been in very difficult situations.

And, listener, what we want you to do, this is the It Book for summer reading. So please get your copy of Life as a Lazy Susan of Shit Sandwiches and take a picture of yourself with the book in really great places and tag at I've Had It podcast, and we will share your images with our summer It book. You can buy it in bookstores, you can buy it in the link in our bio, you can buy it at Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc. All the retailers. Happy reading and happy summer. Some might say, Homes. Com is the best home shopping site. Could it be because it has a sleek, spam-free site or the most in-depth school info? Homes. Com Homes. Com knows every parent wants the best for their kids, so they're the only ones with school and district details and reviews from multiple sources, including niche. It may be Homes. Com's super comprehensive and transparent agent directory. Or maybe it's that homes. Com is the only site that always directly connects you with the listing agent who knows the home best. Perhaps it's because homes. Com has the most in-depth neighborhood content of any home shopping site that's extensively researched to highlight the personality of each neighborhood.

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Is that what they were?

Leftist Tennis.

They wrote a manifesto about pickleball. Okay. Danced Pickleball. And they came on our podcast, and the New York Times published their manifesto, and it is hilarious. It is like tongue in cheek. Like, pickleball is capitalism. We have to stand up for tennis. And they're very smart. They're very clever. So They messaged me before I was aware of that there was even a New York mayoral race going on. Like, Hey, you need to check out this guy. I was like, Yeah, we're too busy monitoring Trump and all this other stuff. So then you really started I'm hitting the national news and stuff, and I was like, Oh, my gosh. And then I heard what you were saying, and I was like, Oh, my gosh. I love this guy. And then you win the primary, not just win, but I mean, like LeBron James, MJ style, dunked on him. And I was like, Oh, my God. Yes. We have a movement. It has a face. And then I was like, The endorsements. And then you've got people that we've had on our podcast that I have found to be profound strongly disappointing for not endorsing you. While at the same time, I hear people like Marjorie Taylor-Green on a podcast with Steve Vannen.

Let's not even joke around about this. Well, Marjorie Taylor-Green is an anti-Semite. I mean, there's just no question about it. But she's finding an argument that the Democrats should be making right now because she's a grifter. But her argument is, MAGA isn't America first, they're Israel first. Look at what they're doing. And for people that live in all of these flyover spaces that hear that, we're smart enough to know that they hear this bit of news and that bit of news, and it's going to resonate. I'm worried that the message that you have, which is obviously where the Democratic Party needs to be, centrist politics led us to this moment. I'm worried that some grifters on the right are going to misdirect this whole thing. I'm wondering if you had any thoughts on that and where the party needs to go, because you've got two women from Oklahoma here that are like, this is the message.

Thank you.

I mean, truly, it really is the message.

I think we've already seen an example of this very thing in Donald Trump's presidential campaign. He diagnosed a very real crisis of affordability. And when you asked a lot of people what his campaign was about, I would often hear cost of living, cheaper groceries. These were things that kept coming up. And when he won the presidency last November, we saw that in New York City, that there was a real right outward shift in the results. And we saw that it actually was happening far from the caricatures of Trump voters. It was happening in many times in the hearts of immigrant New York City. I went to two of those places. I went to Fordham Road in the Bronx. I went to Hillside Avenue Queens. And I asked New Yorkers, who did you vote for and why? And I heard Trump, Trump, Trump again and again and again. And when I asked why, I heard about rent. I heard about Con Edison, Gas and Electric. I heard about even Metro I heard about groceries, I heard about childcare, I heard about how life was easier four years ago, how things seemed more in reach at that time, and how Donald Trump had this message of change.

And now we know him to be insincere, we know him be ridiculous. We know him to be horrific. And yet we also know that if you do not address the crisis that people are living through, if you tell them, in fact, that they are wrong, then they will not respond to you. You have to be able to have a politics that is responsive to people's everyday not only needs, but concerns, anxieties. And we have run this race with a firm focus on what we think is the most pressing crisis, which is affordability. I mean, this is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world and one in four are living in poverty all at the same time. And as you've said, if we don't address this, there will be others, especially in the Republican Party, who do. And instead of blaming the actual reasons for this lack of affordability, instead of saying, Eric Adams raised the rent by more than 10% on rent-stabilized tenants, or the fact that we continue to green light more and more gas and electric costs going up, or that we have actually increased the water bill to the highest it's been in 13 years.

All this is from city government, state government, so much of our responsibility. If you don't take that on, someone like Donald Trump will come and say, This is happening, and you know who to blame?

Immigrants. Right. Those drag queens.

This is who's doing it, too. Right. Right. And I think we need to be clear-eyed that if we don't address this crisis, someone else will, and they'll lead people in a completely different direction.

Are you seeing a lot of in your polling, internal polling data? I remember AOC, that there were people that voted for Trump and voted for her. And then she did the Instagram Live and talked about it. Are you seeing that same thing, where people that voted for Trump Then in the primary, went and voted for you.

We have. And we've seen it in people that we've spoken to, and also just that the issues that people bring up, it's not as simplified as politics is often discussed at at a national level, where people sort themselves into ideological camps. There are people for whom their number one issue is groceries, the cost of groceries, and they vote alongside that. They kept hearing about it from Trump, and they heard about it from us. I think part of our posture has been, we welcome anyone to join this movement. We don't ask them where they've been or why they haven't joined yet. We welcome them because I think too often we've practiced the politics of purity, where we ask you, we badger you, we lecture you, we heck you There's a level of condescension about those who don't already agree with us. That is not how you welcome people in.

I think I do that sometimes.

I was in your point, yell, gifty.

No, that's a good reminder. No, it's a good point. No, it's a good reminder. See, this is why we need politicians like you. You're making us better already. Don't you feel better? I feel better. I'm going to be a little bit less bitchy the next time I'm judging a triple trumper. What about you, Pumps? I don't know.

It's going to be tough. I'm going to try in your honor, but it's going to be hard. It's going to be tough.

Okay, so let me ask you some fun things. What's one thing in politics that makes you say, I've had it every single day?

Honestly, the campaign finance of it all. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I'm lucky that I'm here in New York City. We have the campaign finance where there's a matching fund system. If a Newyorker gives 10 bucks, it's matched eight to one, and that's incredible. And yet still, you have superpacks that can completely reshape a race. And in the primary, we survived more than $30 million in opposition spending. It's amazing. And it's both incredible, and yet it shouldn't take this much to get to this point. You shouldn't have to wake up one morning and find out that when your friend turns on TV, there are seven ads, and they're all all sponsored by DoorDash and whomever else attacking and smearing and slandering your campaign. I think it's part of the results that we see across this country are directly tied to the fact that people can buy elections. Yeah. Right. And it's just such an absurd inversion of what democracy is supposed to be.

I completely agree. Let's talk about this. The idea of you to certain people, maybe a Jewish person or a person that's been really good at capitalism, maybe they have a hedge fund and they've crushed it, or they own DoorDash, or they own Uber. They have this fear towards you. I'll give you an example. I went to an engagement party in Oklahoma City a couple of weeks ago, and the couple that was getting married Jewish and said, I love your podcast, blah, blah, blah. I said, Oh, yeah, we're going to New York, we're going to have Zora and Ma'am Donian. And she went, and I went, You're the biggest Democrat on the planet. And she was like, Oh. And she was like, Isn't he? And I'm like, he is not anti-Semitic. He is a candidate for everybody, for workers, for everybody that's been left behind. And you see there's certain triggers that you trigger in people, and it's this fear. What do you have to say to the stereotypes that are built in to maybe what you look like, or maybe the fact that you're Muslim, or maybe the fact that you've really had moral clarity on Israel, Gaza, or the fact that you have real moral clarity about billionaires paying more in taxes?

What do you say to the people that are progressive by nature, but there's something about you that triggers this default setting of fear inside them?

Well, the first thing is I don't begrudge them because if they turn on TV or open up a newspaper, they'll often engage with the caricature of me. And if that's all I read about myself, I'd probably have concerns, too. And It's an opportunity for me to introduce myself as I actually am because so often the fear mongering is so immense. I had a guy come up to me and say, I heard you're going to be the first Muslim mayor. I said, Yeah. He said, I heard that we might not be able to buy alcohol in New York City. I was like, Who are you buying alcohol from now? A Muslim guy at your bodega, most likely. I think it's like, you're going to be fine. So some of it is borders on the absurd, but some of it is also that we see that it's a lot of what our campaign is portrayed as, as if there is no precedent for it. Think about democratic Socialism. I am a Democratic Socialist. I also wouldn't be the first Democratic Socialist mayor. We've had a number, and we've even had a mayor who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

That's David Dinkins. Not just a decades ago. And people ask me, how can this interact with New York City being the home of global finance? And I say, my focus as a Democratic Socialist is ensuring that every New Yorker lives a dignified life. That is my responsibility to ensure that what you need, what is necessary for you, is something that you're not priced out of. Not what you want, not what you'd like. But we all understand people need K-12 education, so we have public schools. But for some reason, we think that childcare is something that you could be priced out of before you get to K through 12. That it's okay that New Yorkers have to spend $25,000 a year procuring childcare. I believe that the city should provide universal childcare. And this is something that I've sought to share with people about what our vision is and the fact that if they have questions, if they have concerns, I'm here to answer them. Because what oftentimes people are worried about is what Andrew Cuomo is telling them, which bears no relation to what we're actually talking about or fighting for.

It's so true. The fear mongering stuff. It's very easy. Certain people I have found recently are really, really scared of a lot of things, particularly like right wing people. If you think about the list, of the people that they're scared of, it grows by the day. You've got drag queens, trans people, Muslim people. They've added the liberal white woman. You guys just got added? Yeah, we got added. The liberal white woman. The water's just fine.

Yes.

I like this group a lot better. But it is this masculinity thing that's merged with capitalism and sometimes religion and patriotism. We talk about it. We see it all the time on flights. When we flew up here, I saw a guy, and he had on this MAGA-coated merge. It's like Patriot warrior. It didn't quite say MAGA, but you know. And what's interesting is, we talk about politics all the time on the pot, is underneath that is there's some brokenness or left behind. And so I feel like your campaign, I heard you speaking one time when the leftist tennis people turned me on to you. I heard you speaking about the people that make New York City run. And anybody who's ever been to New York, lives in New York, there is an engine of workers and people that make it run. And I just think there's so much courage in fighting for those people people legitimately, not in a grifty way, but a legitimate way. I love so much that you're doing this. You're too polite, but I'm going to go on the permanent record and just state it really pisses me off that a lot of people in the Democratic establishment have not endorsed you.

And it's not going unnoticed. We have a lot of followers. We've spoken about this with other podcasters in the left. And I know that you're staying out of all of that. I respect that you're not a tity baby like Trump complaining because somebody didn't support you. But I just want you to know the fact that you're not bad about it makes us triple mad. And we will just be warned of the liberal white woman. Yeah. We're going to live out on that. Right, Pumps?

Absolutely. Okay. Elizabeth Warren, one of my favorites. We love her. She came right out.

She's from Oklahoma, originally. Really? Yes. She's born in Oklahoma City. Yes.

Isn't that crazy? That's okay.

We love her.

That liberal white woman there. There you go.

That liberal white woman. Hey.

Okay. I have a question. I immediately I've completely heard when you won by a landslide, he can't support Jewish people. He can't represent Jewish people. And I thought, that's a window into your soul, isn't it? So how do you respond to that? Because I find that so offensive.

One of the most One of the most beautiful things about this city is its rich legacy of a Jewish community. And I mean, the cultural legacy, the legacies that we've all grown up with. And I moved to this city when I was seven years old. I grew up in Morningside Heights. And so much of my introduction to New York City was also an introduction to Jewish communal life. I remember coming back from my sixth bar mitzvah and asking my dad, Why don't we do these? Do we have anything like this? I was like, We don't have anything.

I remember the first bar mitzvah I went to. I was like, This is amazing. This is so cool.

I think that it's also to the earlier point of so many of these people's concerns are so removed from what New York City life is like. This is a city that is a celebration of the possibility of all of us from everywhere across the world, of all different religions being able to flourish in the same place. My commitment is a commitment to not only protect Jewish New Yorkers amidst this rising anti-Semitism, but also a commitment to ensure the flourishing of Jewish life. I think that that is what I share with New Yorkers each and every day, that this will be a city that is not remade in my image. It's going to be remade in the image of struggling New Yorkers, of those who so often would have had what they needed to live a real fulfilling life, but now are in danger of being priced out of the city they call home.

I just want to say that I think as somebody who lives in a flyover state, the New York mayoral race right now for me is so important because it shows America, where you have a lot of Americans right now that are reverting, they're being very regressive in thoughts about white nationalism and things. It reminds them that we are a nation of immigrants, and you can come here and you can run for mayor, build businesses, build families. I think we're best when we celebrate multiculturalism. I think the freest city in the world where you feel the most freedom, the less judgment on the planet, is this city right here, New York City. I can't even begin to tell you how judgmental they are in the Bible Belt. This This episode of I've Had It is brought to you by Booking. Com. Booking. Yeah. From vacation rentals to hotels across the US, Booking. Com has the ideal summer stay for absolutely anyone, even those who might seem impossible to please. Whether you're booking for yourself, your partner, your picky teens, or your sleep light early rise mom, you can find exactly what you're booking for on booking.

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Okay, we had a conversation about this. I thought he was trying to flex about his dad. I don't know why he threw grandma in. What do you think that was? I mean, I was trying to be logical.

He's telling a bunch of progressives, Look, I'm a neppo, baby. I don't know. I don't get it.

Here's what I wonder, and I'm not... Obviously, this applies to Andrew Cuema, but other politicians It happens, too. When it's over, it's over. You have to go out gracefully. I feel like everything he's ever accomplished now has a stain on it because of this thing. He just couldn't let it go. I asked her three days after the primary, I was like, I thought Andrew Cromwell got his ass kicked. What's going on? She had to explain it to me. I'm like, At some point, the people around you say, It's over.

It's enough. He doesn't keep those people around.

Oh, it's like the Donald Trump thing, like you were And I think he was actually quite graceful when he called me on election night.

Was he? He called me and he said, You ran the better campaign. You engaged young people. Tonight is your night. And if it's all right with you, I'm going to go out and I'm going to say that we spoke. And I shared this. I said, Absolutely. And that moment of grace has sadly been a fleeting one for him because this is a public processing of of the fact that he lost and lost by a margin of 13 points. So much of his persona is a persona of strength and inevitability. And to have that just taken from you, it leaves you sending these kinds of tweets.

Speaking of this, okay, here's another one. Andrew Cuomo tweets, Just fixed a flat with nothing but a paper clip and my charm. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear white tailored suits. At Zora, K. Mamdonnie, Still can't handle the gas.

I think this is real.

It's fake. Oh my God.

That's how bad it is, though. That's how bad.

You might have written his next tweet. Great.

Okay, okay. Here's some more. You got me. I was so much lost. Okay, here's Andrew Cuomo. Fun fact, I don't need a scavenger hunt. People already know where to find me on top. #builtdifferent.

This is fake. Yes. I know he was angry about the scavenger hunt.

Okay. Here's- I don't think he's gotten the hashtag. Here's Eric Adams. I'm sure a scavenger hunt was fun for the people with nothing better to do. Ask our working families, trying to do whatever they can to survive if they participated. Ask the people worried about making rent if they thought it was worth it. Ma'am, Donnie is trying to turn our city into the squid games.

I think that's real. It's real. It's just this is a guy whose administration has had fun doing illegal things, and now thinks it's illegal to have fun.

But here's the thing. You are so clean and good at this. They're mad at you for having a scavenger hunt. You know what I mean, it's like- But I think it's...

You know, there is room for joy in our politics. Yes. As corny as it may sound, if all we ever do is struggle and fight, we will exhaust ourselves. We have to also have a vision of what life could be like, what we're fighting for. And we had 4,000 New Yorkers come out for this scavenger hunt. And I met a number of them at the end of it. And there was one mom who came from New Jersey with her three kids. And she said, You're going to have me move in New York because we came here just to have a good day together. It was a Sunday. And I think that we've often forgotten that there is also supposed to be rest in people's lives, not just work. I mean, 9: 00 to 5: 00, it now just feels like all it is is a Dolly Parton song. Because for so many New Yorkers, they work far more than that. It's not that work week any longer. But we've gotten to a point where we've glamorized that as if it is a sign of a healthy society, when in fact, we should glamorize I recognize people having weekends, people being able to spend time with their friends and family, people being able to do things beyond just hustling and struggling.

I think part of the inability of Cuomo and Adams to understand the scavenger hunt is that they don't understand the room in a working person's life for rest, for relaxation, for time.

I would just say they're fun haters. Yeah, fun haters. That was a nice way for you to put it. I'm going to go on the record.

Andrew Cuomo- If you only have two seconds, it's fun haters.

Eric Adams, they're fun haters. Okay, now I'm going to do some headlines, and you tell me if they're real or fake. All right, this is a headline, I believe. Okay, yeah. Reilly Gaines latest to mock Zora and Mamdani for his Mam Scromny gym fail. I'm absolutely judging a All attention for how much he can bench, Gaines says.

Real.

It's real. Yeah. And I just want to point out for the permanent record that she tied for fifth. She tied for fifth place.

So had that- I got to be honest, I wasn't I'm really sure who she was.

Oh, my gosh.

But there are many who can bench more than me, and they're all welcome.

Right. Okay. Here's another headline. Democrats, like Zora and Mamdani, claim to embrace young people. They're betraying them.

Fake?

Real.

Oh, okay. Real.

Okay. Let's see. Here's one. Okay. Queens' politician, Mam Donnie, claims New York needs fewer cops, more community drum circles.

That's fake.

Fake. Okay.

I was like, I know this is false.

What's so great for those of you that aren't watching that are listening, he's really clinging on to everything.

Yeah, he's analyzing every word.

You won't believe what news articles we read.

Here's another one, headline, NYC will be turned into a sewer again under Mam Donnie.

Fake.

Real. Wow. Where? Fox Business. Okay. Well.

Shout out to my friends at Fox Business.

Oh, they hate us, too. Okay, here's another one. Nyc Billionaire likens Democratic Socialist Mamdani campaign promises to those of Castro. Fake? For real? Real?

Okay.

Who was that? I don't have my glasses. Okay. All right. Last one. Zora and Mamdonny thinks wokeness can pay the rent. Fake.

Fake.

Okay. You nailed it. Okay. There we go. You went out on top. Can't. It can't. I'm like, what is this? You're so earnest. I just don't know.

The crazy crap is so crazy. It really is stranger than fiction. You hear that all the time. Truth is strange. If I saw a movie of Donald Trump, I would not believe it's real. That whole circle jerk of the cabinet meeting, I would have been like, there's no way that happens. None.

Sure does. There's so many examples in our politics here where it's hard to believe. But I mean, even think about it. If I had told you that a top Adams advisor would be found giving a wad of cash in a bag of potato chips to a journalist, that would seem absurd. Right. But this is what is happening. I mean, we had the mayor's top advisor, Ingrid Louis-Martin, take bribes of clamcakes a cameo in a Hulu show in order to stop the opening of a safer street, McGinnis Boulevard. It's like, you just wouldn't believe that this is the level of corruption that's going on in front of us.

Okay, I would because of the whole Eric Adams. I was reading that and I was like, wow, he's really, really corrupt.

What did he do?

There was all kinds of stuff. He was taking bribes, right? Kickbacks?

Yeah. I mean, there have been all kinds of allegations with him. It's It's hard to keep up. Trump, of course, stopped at all. The most recent ones have to do with his advisors. He has this one advisor, Ingrid Louis Martin. She received, I think, more than $100,000 in bribes as it is alleged. But also she is someone who... I mean, it's just so nakedly corrupt, right? You have this local family called the Argentos, and they run a film production in Greenpoint, and they didn't want there to be the creation of a bike lane. And so they just donated directly in the allegations, say, either to her son or in free catering or in a cameo alongside Forest Whitaker. And then all of a sudden, the bike lane is gone for half of the street. I mean, it's crazy.

It's crazy.

Okay, here's some fun questions before we wrap. Who pretends to be progressive in New York politics, but is really just a corporate sellout?

I mean, Andrew Cuomo. Come on.

Okay. If you had to pass a law banning one everyday New York behavior, like tourists stopping in the middle of the sidewalk or landlords hiking the rent, what would it be?

Okay, those are vastly different levels of importance.

Yeah, I was going to say.

Do it petty and do it legit.

Okay. Petty. Petty, you got to walk fast in New York City.

I agree.

Completely agree. And single file. A single file? Yeah. You can't hold hands and walk. It's just not convenient for everybody else.

What about the romance? Have you seen his subway thing with his wife in the subway photoshoot?

You can't be closer behind her. You can grab on your hips. She's supposed to walk in five.

Pumps is America's most popular asexual. I am.

That's true. I don't believe in romance.

It's an honor to meet you.

Dei and asexual.

And America's grandmother, who didn't have an email when she started practicing law.

I don't know if I'm with single five, but it's got to be fast. It's got to be fast. I think there's room for everybody. There's tourists, there's New Yorkers, but just got to walk fast.

I have to say, everybody says New Yorkers are so rude. Yesterday, I was going around in a corner trying to find the downtown RW, and I was just finding the town. And I asked this woman, she was the sweetest thing on the planet, and she helped me. I have never had a New Yorker be rude to me when I asked for directions, not once.

We're good people. We're just in a rush.

Somebody asked for directions yesterday, too.

I was like, Well, I don't know.

What did you say?

I said, I just I got no two. I might look all sophisticated, but I'm still walking around trying to find the downtown line.

What's the most capitalist thing you secretly enjoy? The most capitalist It's the worst thing I secretly enjoy. Is it Uber Black? No, it's not Uber Black. Okay, here's a product from a company that I can't live without.

Okay.

Haagen Daz coffee ice cream.

That's good. Oh, that sounds Good. I just had a Pavlovian reaction when you said that.

And the big tub, not the- You don't go for the individual. No. Let's just come on.

How much are you eating a night? How much coffee, ice cream? Are you eating this in bed or on the sofa?

It depends. Sometimes it's on the move between the bed and the sofa. You got to just have it with you.

Right out of the tub? Right out of the tub. Double dipping. Right out of the tub.

Yeah, okay. For me, it's coffee for my wife, Dolce D'Alece. That's her favorite flavor. But yesterday, I was at my local supermarket, and I'm looking at the haagen-daz that's there, and I can't see coffee. You know that there are the other flavors behind, right? Right. So I'm rummaging. And then I look-Fogs at the whole thing. Rummaging, and this woman looks at me and she's like, Oh, my God. And I'm just like, I wonder what image this looks like of a Democratic nominee looking past cookies and cream, past vanilla bean, looking for coffee. She said, Are you an ice cream I'm a fan. I said, yes, yes, I am.

What in particular?

Just looking for my coffee. Did you find it?

I did. Okay. Since your ascension to national recognition, because this happens to us all the time, because we've had the podcast for less than three years. Someone will see me and they're like, and I'm like, oh, what is it? I look around and I'm like, oh, it's me. She said, does that ever happen to you where somebody's like, and you're like, what are they talking about? Oh, I forgot. I'm running for mayor. They've seen me on TV.

It is a big shift. I mean, even just in how we ran the primary race, it was just us running around the city. I mean, quite literally, sometimes on a city bike or walking or taking the train or whatever it was. And now you can't quite do it that way. Because most of this is a beautiful reason that New Yorkers are so excited. But when you take the train, you got to be ready to talk to people because people are so excited that you're there. And that's lovely. But it is also a little bit of a... It's hard to believe in your own city that people are looking at you. Right. Because so much of what it means to New Yorkers, you're just on your way, going wherever you're going. Don't care.

Mind your own business. That's a beautiful thing about New York. They mind their own business.

I love that.

What are you doing? What are you doing here? What are you doing at the Sea Town looking for a big tub of coffee? I scream. I'm sorry.

She's like, Don't you have people for that?

We haven't found the guy yet. The Haagenas position is still open.

Please submit applications.

I'm going to take this application. Well, I cannot tell you how enjoyable this has been. We love, love, love New York City. I love what you're doing nationally, which I know it's not your intention, but it is. There is a trickle down of empathy and a trickle down of competence that people are recognizing that is a breath of fresh air that my mother and I need. Shut up. I'm writing Jennifer out.

She has a huge crush on Zora. I was very curious for a moment.

No, she's lying.

Jennifer has a huge crush on Zora. She says she doesn't. So I modified it to an intellectually stimulated crush.

Okay, listen. I'm going to let Mabel have it.

I just have to tell you every day on the podcast, it's like, Oh, we're talking about this. Well, Lauren Mondami says.

I have.

She has. I mean, it's been flying out of her mouth.

Because we need a sane person right now that has the message to go forward. And I think we have to move our party. We have the leaders that we This is who we have right now. We're trying to fight against fascism. So we're trying, deep in the Bible belt, to move people this way. And so I cannot thank you enough for having us on. If you win, when you win, the boss of all the mayors is the mayor of Oklahoma City. Yes. His name is Mayor David Holt. And he's lovely. And he is our friend. He's been on our podcast, and he's the boss of the mayors. It's like the President of the Mayor's Association or whatever. He's about 6'5, Yeah. He's big and tall. Oklahoma City Thunder. 5'11. I know. But he's the nicest man on the planet.

The best day of his life was Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA title. Yes.

We will introduce you when you win. He is lovely. He is fabulous. And I think mayors do such important work because politicians in red states are consistently disappointing. But we have a lovely mayor in Oklahoma City, and it's a very local and fabulous, and he cares about everybody in every single community he advocates for, so it's great. Zoraun, thank you for coming. Thank you. This is such a pleasure. I hope you're with.

Thank you. We got this. I bet you're well.

We're feeling good. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Listen up, Patriots, Gatriots, and Natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called iHip News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20 minutes hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America always served with a side of petty grievances.

We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube.

Please go rate, subscribe, and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an angel say? Cacah. A little bit more enthusiasm. Cacah. That's it. That's the patriotism that this country means right there.