Video: Mamdani Tells MS NOW's 'Morning Joe' That Anti-ICE Politics 'Once Thought Only to Work in New York' Are Winning From 'Astoria to Albuquerque to Allentown'
A 2 minute 20 second clip posted by Breitbart with a transcript. The New York mayor says the city will not help civil immigration enforcement, wants businesses to stop letting ICE stage in their parking lots, and says voters are tired of corruption in politics and prices.
Breitbart posted a clip of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on MS NOW's "Morning Joe" on Thursday. We relied on Breitbart's transcript, not the video.
The question. Co-host Willie Geist asked how the city is handling ICE, saying that three-quarters of voters told pollsters conduct by ICE and the deportation effort was critical to their vote. He noted that New York has not seen the ugly street scenes seen elsewhere and asked what balance the mayor has struck with the NYPD and the administration.
The answer on policy. Mamdani said it "continues to be a tension with federal policy" and that the city will "never" assist in civil immigration enforcement. He said city property and agencies are not to be used for it, citing executive orders. He said he is also telling business owners to stop letting their parking lots serve as places where ICE stages enforcement.
The charge. Mamdani described ICE as a federal agency "willing to open fire on a moving car in broad daylight right after school's let out," and said agents shot at a car with a five-year-old child in it. He did not name a case in the clip as transcribed.
The political line. He said what is happening across the country shows that "the very politics we were told could only succeed in New York City is actually succeeding from Astoria to Albuquerque to Allentown." He closed by saying working-class Americans "are tired of a corruption of their politics and a corruption of their prices."
Why it matters here. Mamdani is arguing that the election endorsed his approach to immigration enforcement. We covered his earlier remarks to NPR about using power "as aggressively as possible." The ICE shooting claim is serious and is his account.
What we could not check. We did not watch the video, so we cannot judge tone or what came before or after. We did not verify the poll figure Geist cited, the shooting he described or the executive orders. We saw no response from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security or the White House.