THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025
Warfare concerning his speech: Candidate Mamdani also won on Tuesday night, in this case by just under nine points.
Warning! On a political basis, New York City isn't like anywhere else. Unique situations will always call for unique approaches and new ideas—but what about that victory speech?
What was up with his victory speech? On the front page of this morning's New York Times, Emma Fitzsimmons asks or maybe just wonders:
An Emboldened Mamdani Sheds Conciliatory Tone
A newly empowered Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday vowed to use his convincing victory in the New York City mayor’s race as a mandate to push an ambitious progressive agenda past potential obstacles, from billionaire antagonists to Albany bureaucracy.
In a shift from the mollifying tone he had used for months, Mr. Mamdani made clear that while he would govern for all New Yorkers, he was determined to deliver for those who had been agitating for structural change.
“I’m also looking to be clear about the mandate that we won over the course of this election, and it is a mandate to deliver on the agenda that we ran on,” he said in a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon...
[...]
The interview on Wednesday echoed Mr. Mamdani’s fiery victory speech on Tuesday evening, which took a more confrontational and at times boastful tone. The address was criticized by some observers as a “character switch” from his more congenial attitude during the campaign.
Forget yesterday's interview with the Times. We're here to discuss that "fiery victory speech" on Tuesday night, in which, according to Fitzsimmons, Mamdani "took a more confrontational and at times boastful tone."
The address was criticized by some observers as a “character switch” from his more congenial attitude during the campaign? In support of that statement, Fitzsimmons links to this report about CNN's Van Jones, who was trashed for what he said about Mamdani's speech by Charlamagne Tha God:
In reaction to what Jones said, Charlamagne urged him to "shut the F up"—more specifically, to do for forever:
...Charlamagne Torches CNN’s Van Jones for Calling Mamdani Victory Speech ‘Divisive’Charlamagne Tha God blasted CNN political commentator Van Jones and told him to “shut the f up forever” after Jones called Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral victory speech “divisive.”
On Wednesday’s The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne crowned Jones the “donkey of the day” over his Mamdani take. Mamdani came out victorious on Tuesday night—one of a number of big wins for Democrats—against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
And so on from there. Full disclosure:
Like Jones, we too were struck by the tone of the mayor-elect's speech. We aren't mainly talking about what Mamdani said. We're talking about the tone with which he said it.
Mamdani faces a difficult challenge—and mountains of inane criticism from the usual suspects. Before we're done, we'll return to Jones' critique of Mamdani's speech, and to Joe Scarborough's reaction to Governor-elect Spanberger's victory speech.
Charlamagne told Jones to shut the F up? Our question would be this:
Is it possible that Jones' critique was based on some form of sound judgment?
Van Jones has the right to an opinion but he has no special "sound judgment" when criticizing Mamdani, who won the election and was expressing his plans for his term as mayor. The NY Times via Van Jones mischaracterized that in a negative way as "shedding a mollifying or conciliatory tone." This is what they do. They will be on Mamdani's case as long as he is mayor.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that Van Jones lets himself be used as a tool of Mamdani's enemies like this. From Somerby, this lauding of Jones for criticizing Mamdani is what I would expect from a conservative like him. Mamdani has only just been elected. It is ridiculous to criticize his "tone" on his first day as Mayor.
"It is ridiculous to criticize his 'tone' on his first day as Mayor."
DeleteMinor point: Mamdani will not be mayor until next year. But leave that aside: What is "ridiculous" about questioning the tone of a speech that Mamdani made two days ago?
Tone is difficult to assess, highly subjective and more dependent on the listener than anything Mamdani is putting into his speech. What they call boasting is probably just appropriately confident. The confrontational part comes from someone listening who disagrees with him, but Mamdani is the mayor-elect now, so it is no longer his job to agree with voters but to fulfill his campaign promises, whether Van Jones or Somerby like them or not.
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ReplyDeleteGreat Scot!
ReplyDeleteMamdani has endured endless name-calling and abuse throughout the contest--from opponents, pundits, and national politicians. Still, he won handily.
Why wouldn't he be a bit "boastful and confrontational"? Even if he was, his words were mild in comparison to commonplace Republican rhetoric.
Yes, Mamdani has endured absurd abuse. Yes, his words were mild compared to the rhetoric of Repubs. And yes, it's natural for anyone who went through what he did to be "boastful and confrontational."
DeleteBut here is Jones' critique: "I think [Mamdani] missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent." There are not many such opportunities to do so; a victory speech is the time to welcome all, regardless of their political beliefs, to come together for the common good. Jones' critique is that Mamdani squandered that golden opportunity.
That's what Mandani did during the election campaign. It worked well enough for him to win fairly easily.
DeleteIn your opinion, what should Mandani have said to get the David in Cals, Maos, and Somerbys to join with him to provide a common good together?
I don't trust someone who calls a Democrat boastful and confrontational. If anyone is boastful and confrontational, it is Trump, yet he is never called that. This is just the start of a barrage of negative coverage of the guy who just won the election by a wide margin.
DeleteI'm less concerned about what Mamdani says than what he does. I have friends and relatives in New york City. I hope he doesn't screw things up for them.
Deletefuck off, Dickhead, you fascist freak. We don't care what fascists think about governing NYC,
Delete'From Somerby, this lauding of Jones"
ReplyDeleteHey numbnut, agreeing with someone on one thing is a long way from lauding them.
Somerby never lauds anything, but saying that Jones sorta kinda maybe might have possibly sound judgment is as enthusiastic as he gets. You have to remember that this is Somerby talking, not someone else who might agree or possibly not agree with someone.
DeleteAlso: Sandwich Guy found not guilty.
ReplyDeleteGiven how toxic Subway sandwiches are, I am surprised they didn't charge with using a biological weapon.
DeleteThe DOJ tried, but no one would believe them. The victim claimed the onions were smelly.
DeleteI like Subway sandwiches.
DeleteThe "exploding sandwich" magically reconstituted itself back into its wrapper before it hit the ground.
DeleteBut some of that lovely Subway aroma squirted onto the ICE agent’s body armor.
DeleteNot to mention the poor guardsman's dry-cleaning bill.
DeleteSteve M explains that the "Democrats stink" bandwagon was overturned by the election results. Somerby needs to acknowledge that too, instead of piling on to an attack on Mamdani (for being a New Yorker, it sounds like).
ReplyDelete"I'm pleased that the mainstream media is acknowledging the significance of the Democratic Party's victories on Tuesday. I'm pleased, for instance, that Nate Cohn of The New York Times is noting that the Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia appear to have flipped 7% of Trump voters, based on exit poll data. I'm pleased that Hispanic voters' return to the Democratic Party is being widely acknowledged. I'm pleased that some media outlets are acknowledging that the wins weren't limited to blue states and cities.
But I'd like an acknowledgment that the same mainstream media was wrong when it was telling us just before the elections that the Democratic Party couldn't possibly dig itself out of the deep hole it was in without massive policy and messaging changes. Just eight days before the election, we were all reading that Semafor story headlined "Left-Wing Ideas Have Wrecked Democrats’ Brand, New Report Warns." Wrecked! The brand was wrecked! And yet a "wrecked" party romped a little more than a week after that story appeared. It was only a few weeks after a series of Ezra Klein interviews in which he monomaniacally focused on the Democrats' apparent electability crisis, which included a discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates that should have been about Charlie Kirk's bigotry but was instead hijacked by Klein so he could obsess over the notion that Democrats must jettison some liberal policy positions in order to win elections. Will Klein admit that he was wrong about the hopelessness of Democrats' position? Will the rest of the media acknowledge that maybe young men and Hispanic men weren't lost to the GOP forever when Trump won in 2024? Will they admit that maybe Republicans also have policy positions that make them vulnerable, and that this is particularly a problem when they're in charge, as they are nationwide and in Virginia?"
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2025/11/whoops-never-mind.html
You can see a full transcript of Mamdani's victory address here.
ReplyDeleteI invite anyone to highlight the "boastful and confrontational" parts.
"We aren't mainly talking about what Mana I said. We're talking about the tone with which he said it."
DeleteSounds like he's one of them uppity Muslims.
Was he by any chance wearing a tan suit?
Somerby is going full on Maureen Dowd here.
Mana= spell checked Mamdani.
DeleteOK Mamdani got a serious dig on the guy he beat, first by saying he didn’t want to hear his name again, and then at the end by quoting his father, Mario with “We campaigned in poetry and we will govern in prose.” Pretty slick.
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ReplyDelete"we too were struck by the tone of the mayor-elect's speech"
Don't worry, Bob, we've seen it all already: "Hope", "Change", and then do everything The Man tells you to do. And then later buy a Martha's Vineyard villa for $15 million.
Standard Democrat pre-Autopen politics.
How dare that black dude write a book and charge for speaking engagements after leaving the presidency? Said a MAGAt who has no problem with a gritting white trash family leveraging the power of the presidency to line their pockets.
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DeleteYeah, "write a book", or "charge for speaking engagements", or sell "paintings" made of his own feces. Any top-level Democrat politician or family member is perfectly entitled. My point exactly.
I see, you had Hunter Biden up your sleeve when you complained about Obama’s wealth. Not even close to being a coherent argument.
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Delete11:51 and 12:29 didn't "complain" about anything, 2:23.
Quite to the contrary, he assured Bob Somerby that in regards to "candidate Mamdani" there's nothing to worry about: Democrat politicians always sell themselves out, and all their tough talk amounts to nothing.
Outta curiosity: how is it possible that it wasn't clear to you? Which words were unfamiliar?
We are talking here about the same Van Jones who teared up publicly over being thrown a bone by a white supremacist?
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are incapable of governing: Day 38
ReplyDeleteMoses Johnson maintains cover for child rapist in WH. Donny McRapey lies to the American people about the price of gas. Reporter stares, too petrified to contradict King Orange Chickenshit.