New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) was roasted over struggling to perform an “unassisted bench press” during a New York City Men’s Day event, according to the New York Post (NYP).
Per the NYP, photos “showed” Democratic Socialist Mamdani, “was unable to lift a bar loaded with what was said to be 135-pounds off the rack without help.”
Mamdani ended up giving credit to the man who spotted him, according to the outlet:
After throwing in the towel, Mamdani stood up and gave all the credit to the spotter, who was from the organization “500 Men Making a Difference.”
The 2025 frontrunner for mayor also walked down Eastern Parkway as part of an Open Streets event, taking hundreds of selfies as he passed the Brooklyn Museum.
While he may have floundered at the test of strength, Mamdani showed some skill with the soccer ball, the national sport of Uganda, where he was born and recently married.
Several people took to social media to question if there was a “better example of the modern Democratic Party” than Mamdani not being able to bench press 135 pounds without help.
“Is there a better example of the modern Democratic Party than this,” Ian Miller, a writer with Outkick wrote in a post on X.
“It’s easy to talk, it’s hard to carry the burden,” former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is running as an independent in NYC’s mayoral race, wrote in a post. “This guy can’t bench his own body weight, let alone carry the weight of leading the most important city in the world.”
“Men who cannot bench 225 should not be able to run for office,” one person wrote. “Men who cannot bench 135 should not even be able to vote.”
“Weak men create hard times,” one person wrote in a post.
“135 pounds is my warm-up,” another person wrote. “Weak.”
Mamdani, who won the Democrat primary for NYC mayor, has suggested creating city-run grocery stores. Mamdani has also received backlash over comments he made during a podcast in July 2020, where he spoke “against sending” police officers to respond to domestic violence calls, and added that the “police do not create safety.”
Breitbart News reported that Mamdani’s campaign has also spent “tens of thousands of dollars on a private security force,” though Mamdani has called to defund the police. The security company has reportedly advertised itself as proudly employing cops:
The openly socialist state assemblyman and Democrat New York City mayoral candidate made three payments ranging from about $8,000 to around $13,000 to Advanced Security & Investigations in June and July, expenditure reports obtained by Fox News revealed.
The Mamdani campaign spent a total of $33,495 in just two months with the company, which advertises itself as a “proud employer” of cops with the New York Police Department (NYPD) — which Mamdani has personally called to defund.
The New York City Campaign Finance Board showed that between July 12 and August 18, Mamdani’s campaign raised over $1 million “through a pool of small donations,” surpassing both Cuomo and current NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D), Hill reported.
During the same time frame, Cuomo’s campaign raised roughly $541,301, while Adams raised roughly $425,181, according to the outlet.
The average donation size for Mamdani’s campaign was $121, while the average donation size for Cuomo’s campaign was $646. The average donation size for Adams was $770.
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