Jon Stewart joked with Zohran Mamdani he knew he was the front runner in the New York mayoral race because his critics ‘had gone 9/11 on him’.
The Daily Show host made the remark in an interview with the Democratic candidate Monday, after his opponent Andrew Cuomo failed to shut down a radio host saying Mamdani would have “cheered” if the attack happened again.
“You are clearly right now in the front running position,” Stewart said. “I can tell because they’ve gone 9/11 on you. So that’s clearly a sign of a closing argument,” he added sarcastically.
Mamdani was given a rapturous response when he appeared on the show, with just over a week until New Yorkers cast their ballots.
In a wide-ranging interview, the candidate told Stewart the days of “endorsements deciding elections” are over, after the host poked fun at the reluctance of prominent Democrats to show support for the mayoral candidate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has now endorsed his own party’s candidate but only once the mayoral race entered its final week.
“You know I think it’s interesting in many ways because our politics, and the media that covers it, is often focused on the question of endorsements.
“It’s part of what gave Cuomo this sense of inevitability in the primary; he just seemed to pick up all of these different endorsements.
“And, I think it showed that the days of endorsements deciding elections - those days have come to an end.”
The Democratic candidate defeated Cuomo in the primaries to clinch the party’s nomination, running on a platform of raising NYC’s corporate tax to match New Jersey’s. Using the money raised from equalizing taxes between the two metropolitan areas, Mamdani plans to make bus services free to use and to establish city-owned grocery stores.
Much of Mamdani’s campaigning has centered around canvassing, and he told Stewart that some voters show their support in more dramatic ways than others.
“Even when they’re telling you something that’s technically supportive, it sounds like you’re being heckled,” he joked. “I was on Nostrand Avenue a few days ago, and this woman just pulled up in her car. She was like: ‘I’m voting for you!’
“I was like: ‘thank you!’ Sounded like I was about to get my a** whooped.”
Mamdani, who was elected to the New York assembly in 2020, also told Stewart that his party needs to grapple with the conditions that elected Trump.
“ And I think it’s a frustration of mine that we’ve allowed the words 'quality of life' to become seen as if they’re bywords for the Republican Party,” he said. “They should be at the heart of any progressive politics.
“If you care about working people, you have to deliver an excellent quality of life for those people.”
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