New York City (NYC) Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) doubled down on his “Tax the Rich” plan as hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin has expressed interest in furthering his Miami investments.
During a press conference on Wednesday, a reporter asked Mamdani “what sort of conversations” he had had with Griffin, the CEO and founder of Citadel, since Mamdani’s video in April, announcing a pied-à-terre tax and featuring Griffin’s penthouse in the video. The reporter also noted that Griffin had expressed that Mamdani’s video was “creepy” and “weird.”
“Ken Griffin, yesterday, was speaking about, calling your video again — he called it creepy and weird, and he said that, again, you targeting him has just been very unfair, and he said that he’s going to be doubling down his investments in Florida rather than New York City,” a reporter said. “I just wanted to get your take, what sort of conversations have you had with him since that video? Have you spoken with him? What sort of concerns are you having when it comes to potential job losses? Are you looking at ways to build up?”
“I want all New Yorkers to succeed,” Mamdani responded. “That includes business owners and entrepreneurs, who creating good paying jobs who make this city the economic engine, not just of our state, but frankly of our country. That also includes Ken Griffin, who is a major employer in our city. That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth, while working people are pushed to the brink.”
Mamdani continued to express that if people want NYC “to be one that working people can actually afford to live in” then there needs to be “meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers paying their fair share.”
Griffin was previously reported to be considering backing out of a $6 billion project in NYC that would help create roughly 6,000 “highly paid construction jobs.”
Gerald Beeson, the chief operating officer (COO) for the Citadel LLC, told the Daily Mail that it was “shameful” that the NYC mayor had referenced Griffin’s name in his video.
“It is shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share,” Beeson told the outlet.
Breitbart News’s Paul Bois reported that during the Milken Global Conference, Griffin expressed that Mamdani had “made clear” to Griffin’s New York partners that they “need to double-down” on Miami.
“When we moved from Chicago, there was a debate between New York and Miami; it’s unquestionably true that we made the right choice,” Griffin explained. “I’ll leave it at that. And now, what the Mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally, my New York partners, is that we need to double-down on our bet in Miami because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces the opportunity for people to live in the American dream and a dream of earned success, not a dream of redistributive handouts that leave people dependent on government for their lives.”
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