New York, Nov 5 (IANS) Zohran Mamdani threw a challenge to President Donald Trump on immigration, declaring that for his enforcement campaign “to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us”.
A city led by an immigrant will always be welcoming to immigrants, he told a delirious crowd of supporters who packed a theatre in Brooklyn.
Addressing the US President who he said must be watching his speech, he said defiantly, “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I’ve got four words for you: Turn the volume up”.
As if taking up the challenge, President Trump posed an ominous four-word message on Truth Social, “…AND SO IT BEGINS”!
President Trump, who described the Democratic Socialist as a “Communist” said in an election-eve post that New York City will be “a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster” if Mamdani wins.
President Trump threatened to cut federal funds for the city.
Casting his victory as a model of a “brave new course” for the country, Mamdani said, “No longer will we have to open a history book for proof that Democrats can dare to be great.”
He reiterated his campaign promise to tackle the city’s affordability crisis through free fast buses, childcare for all, freeze on rents on some residences, and more and better public housing.
Every New Yorker will feel the impact of the change he was about to bring, he added.
About the hard work of fulfilling those promises, he said, “A great New Yorker once said that, while you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose”.
That was a quote by the legendary Governor Mario Cuomo, who happens to be the father of Andrew Cuomo, whom Mamdani defeated in the mayoral race and wanted to needle.
And he added, “If that must be true, let the prose we write still rhyme and let us build a shining city for all”.
“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light”, he said.
On the stage were his mother, movie director Mira Nair, and father Mahmood Mamdani, the Ugandan academic with roots in India.
Addressing what were some of the criticisms he faced, the 34-year-old said, “I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a Democratic Socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologise for any of this”.
He has faced accusations of anti-Semitism in the way he led the anti-Israel protests. and in a conciliatory gesture, he said, “We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of anti-semitism”.
He added that it will also be “where the more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power”.
“No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election”, he said.
Cuomo, in his concession speech, congratulated Mamdani and said he wanted to see him succeed for the sake of the “greatest city in world”.
That was met by boos from his supporters, and he tried to silence them saying, “That is not us”.
The other candidate whom Mamdani defeated, Republican Curtis Sliwa said in his concession speech, “Obviously, I wish him good luck, because if he does well, we do well”.
However, the founder of a vigilante group also held out a threat that if Mamdani implements socialism or weakens the police and endangers public safety, he would become “the worst enemy”.
–IANS
al/rad
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