New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, fully dressed in a suit, jumped into a public pool in East Harlem on Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of the city’s pool program but also found himself swimming in the murky waters of antisemitism surrounding the state’s recent primary.
The mayor took the bizarre plunge into the Thomas Jefferson pool to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the city’s outdoor pool construction program under the old Works Progress Administration.
As he toweled off and walked from the pool, Mamdani revealed it was not one of his nicely tailored suits voters saw him wear during the campaign and plugged a national charity that sells donated used garments.
“Thank you to Goodwill,” he said, with his trademark charismatic smile. “We appreciate the suit that we got.”
“The event was intended to highlight expanded free swim programs and the historical legacy of the Olympic-sized facilities,” Fox News reported.
However, the cable news network also reported that “the spectacle was quickly overshadowed by a fiery clash with a top New York Republican.”
The network described the feel-good event as turning “political” by remarks the new mayor apparently made at the location, according to Fox News.
“…the celebratory splash quickly turned political as Mamdani targeted New York GOP gubernatorial candidate and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, demanding an apology for recent comments Blakeman made about Democratic Socialists of America-backed congressional candidate Brad Lander,” Fox News reported.
Lander is Jewish but in Blakeman’s view, he is an antisemite.
Following Lander’s 10th congressional district primary victory over incumbent Dan Goldman, who is also Jewish, Blakeman said in a Newsmax interview that Lander was “a disgrace” and “would be a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could.”
All three of the victorious Democratic Socialist candidates that Mamdani endorsed in the primary have made it clear they do not support Israel, with one of them, Darializa Avila Chevalier, supporting the Palestinians and accusing the Jewish state of “genocide.”
The mayor came to Lander’s defense, calling him a “proud Jewish New Yorker” and describing Blakeman’s comments as “unacceptable and unconscionable.”
Mamdani added that he thought likening Lander to a Nazi prison guard was “disgusting” and claimed it was typical of the Republican Party to be fighting to “dehumanize anyone they disagree with.”
Blakeman fired back in an interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday afternoon.
“This is coming from the same guy who wouldn’t march in the Israel Day Parade, called AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] members ‘monsters,’ and canceled the Puerto Rican Day Breakfast,” Blakeman told the outlet. “Zohran Mamdani has no credibility. He is a bigot, an antisemite, and anti-American.”
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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