There are politicians who generate consensus and there are politicians who generate Meghan McCain writing “I am going to say something that is going to anger my fellow Republicans” on social media before calling them “brilliant,” while a Democratic senator calls them a “clown,” while the British government is asking what they plan to do about an ICC warrant, and Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York City who took office in January, has achieved all three simultaneously.
McCain posted on X that Mamdani’s messaging was “absolutely brilliant in his tone” for “a low information voter who has no time to pay attention to the substance of his message,” describing it as “part folksy everyman” and warning that if Democrats nominate someone with “his tenor and tone on economics and national policy (leaving out Israel and international politics which is a whole other ball of wax),” the Republican Party has a serious problem, per HuffPost’s confirmed reporting. “He has gotten very strong, very fast and is evolving in his national messaging to the rest of the country,” she wrote. McCain’s parenthetical about Israel and international politics is the parenthetical that covers the parts of Mamdani’s platform that include discussing whether to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City, which is the position that caused Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to call Mamdani a “clown,” and which is the specific division between “his economic messaging is brilliant” and “his foreign policy is not what I am endorsing” that McCain’s post performs with precision.
Mamdani’s first six months as mayor have produced a series of statements that have kept him in every news cycle simultaneously. He has discussed arresting Netanyahu under the ICC warrant, which Fetterman called clownish and which the British government is watching with interest. He has positioned himself as the folksy economic populist that McCain identifies as a threat to the GOP brand. He has done both of these things from the same office, which is the specific political multitasking that produces both a Meghan McCain endorsement of his tone and a Fetterman clown designation in the same week.
The New York City mayor’s office does not have jurisdiction over ICC warrants, foreign leaders, or international law. It has jurisdiction over New York City. Mamdani is using both to generate national coverage.
McCain’s warning to the GOP has been noted by Republican strategists and dismissed by others. Fetterman’s clown assessment has been noted by Democratic moderates and dismissed by others. Mamdani has not addressed either.
When Meghan McCain calls a democratic socialist mayor brilliant and a huge problem and Fetterman calls him a clown in the same week, what exactly is the Democratic Party producing?
Sources
HuffPost: Meghan McCain Calls Political Foe ‘Brilliant’ — And A Huge Problem For The GOP
Raw Story: Mamdani Netanyahu arrest
Raw Story: Mamdani makes good on promise as NYC board votes to freeze rents citywide
