Exclusive: New York Democratic Socialists Privately Rail Against Mamdani, Fantasize About Seizing Power To Imprison Conservatives

Private messages between New York City members of the Democratic Socialists of America obtained exclusively by The New York Sun show a party turning on Mayor Zohran Mamdani after almost a year of broken promises. The leftists who publicly call to defund the police and “end mass incarceration” are also less interested in the cost of living and progressive ideals buttressing their candidates’ campaigns than “retribution,” messages from the NYC-DSA Anti-War Working Group chat show. “I really hate this man,” one DSA member wrote of the mayor this week, responding to news about Mr. Mamdani’s efforts to replace the current head of the city’s Commission on Racial Equity after the office criticized the Racial Equity Plan his office released last month. A screen shot of a purported text chain by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America’s Anti-War Working Group provided by the New York City Young Republicans Club shows members complaining about Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The internal messages about the mayor from a text chain of Anti-War Working Group members were first obtained by the New York City Young Republicans Club, which shared them exclusively with the Sun. New York City Democratic Socialists of America did not deny the authenticity of the messages in a brief statement to the Sun. “These messages don’t reflect any official position of NYC-DSA,” a press representative wrote. The mayor faced virulent rage from the city’s hard left this month, including chapters of the party’s youth branch, who protested his appearance at a vigil on October 7 and a press conference he held the following day, accusing him of abandoning the DSA’s push to “Free Palestine,” its long-term goal of defunding the police, and its opposition to ICE. The mayor has kept Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, an appointee of predecessor Eric Adams, in her role and made no perceptible progress on his campaign promise to dismantle the department’s Strategic Response Group, a special operations unit that has faced repeated accusations of misuse of force against protesters.Members piled on an ally who dared to suggest that “Zohran is walking a tightrope” trying to stay in the good graces of the NYPD.“He broke precedent by not bringing in his own commissioner like every other mayor before him, he put himself on this tightrope,” one member responded.“The people that didn’t vote for him get everything. The people who did get TikTok symbolism,” said another.A member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America’s Anti-War Working Group expresses dismay with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The text screen shot was provided by the New York City Young Republicans Club. In another message, one party man pointed to the mayor’s failure to shrink public school class sizes as well as other promised education reforms: “Everything he is doing are things he can do without putting up a fight. Like countless Black and Latino community advocates have said, he focuses on low-hanging political wins that don’t involve fighting systemic issues.”The Young Republicans club president, Stefano L. Forte, said in an interview that his members infiltrated the text chain but did not author any of the messages; rather, leftists began approaching the conservative group in recent weeks, “very concerned about how the DSA is kind of revolting on Mamdani.” “There are multiple members of the DSA who have now come to us from some of the more moderate factions who are very concerned about this kind of bloodlust and fantasizing of jailing Trump administration officials,” Mr. Forte said.The city’s Young Republicans have faced their own accusations of extremism during Mr. Forte’s tenure, reinforced by trips the club made to an all-white enclave in South Africa and a “Remigration Summit” in Portugal earlier this year. On Wednesday evening the young Republicans shared a handful of screenshots on X showing the party of collectivism and social justice dreaming about locking up conservative leaders. “i dont want to hear about affordability or the green new deal as much as i want to hear about how Stephen miller and Russell vought are gonna be in prison,” one leftist identified as “neil b” wrote in the NYC-DSA Anti-War Working Group chat. Mr. Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff for policy, and Mr. Vought, who directs the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, are both frequent targets of vilification from the left for their roles in crafting Trump administration policy. Mr. Miller has been a leading voice in the federal immigration enforcement surge, while Mr. Vought oversaw the wind-down of U.S. Aid for International Development as well as other agency cuts and freezes on federal grants.“Lowkey this is how we win american liberals. Promise to arrest rfk jr. and the rest of the admin. they want retribution” another member replied. “radicalize them en masse.”The group’s carceral ambitions aren’t limited to sitting White House officials, as their discussion of former Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro showed.“The Lula patriots are in control. The Lulag is waiting for Flavio,” a user wrote, sharing a headline about Brazil’s Supreme Court order that Mr. Bolsonaro surrender his passport after his election loss to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Mr. Bolsonaro had already fled to Miami. A screen shot of a purported text chain by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America’s Anti-War Working Group provided by the New York City Young Republicans Club shows members discussing their desire for Congresswoman Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez to arrest Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro.“If AOC pledges to incarcerate or at least extradite this man I will be excited about aoc,” neil b replied, alluding to the socialist group’s plan to endorse Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 2028 presidential election. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has not yet confirmed whether she will run.“The Hague is actually pretty nice in the fall, highly recommend visiting. I think it should be a mandatory treat for everyone in the White House,” wrote another.Mr. Forte said he hopes that unmasking the cynicism of the far left will wake up voters to the reality underlying New York’s progressive zeitgeist. “My club really wants to make it clear: if we don’t win, these are the type of people that are going to be in charge.”

Exclusive: New York Democratic Socialists Privately Rail Against Mamdani, Fantasize About Seizing Power To Imprison Conservatives

Exclusive: New York Democratic Socialists Privately Rail Against Mamdani, Fantasize About Seizing Power To Imprison Conservatives

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