Mamdani Puts a Smile on DSA Civil War as Rift Grows

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has attempted to brush off a DSA civil war even as a senior leader of the radical movement doubled down on calls for his police chief to go.Smiling at a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Mamdani said reports of a split with DSA congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier over his leadership of the city were “completely false.”However, a few hours earlier Ms. Chevalier said she had spoken to Mr. Mamdani on the phone and once again demanded that Police Commissioner Tisch leave her position. “I made it very clear that I think it is on Jessica Tisch to step down,” Ms. Chevalier told WNYC. “I also think the mayor and I have or see eye to eye.” The frenemies both claimed they had laughed about reports that they were at odds with each other.Ms. Chevalier has used the shooting by ICE of an illegal immigrant in the Bronx a week ago to again demand that Ms. Tisch leave her position. Ms. Chevalier claims that the police commissioner has violated “the letter, if not the spirit” of New York’s sanctuary laws protecting illegal immigrants.The national DSA has also demanded that Mr. Mamdani fire Ms. Tisch, while Mr. Mamdani has repeatedly stated that he has no plans to fire her.Splits are becoming evident across Mr. Mamdani’s leftist base over his stance towards policing and also towards Israel. Nerdeen Kiswani, a founder of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian group, accused Mr. Mamdani of ignoring Palestinian demands.Mr. Mamdani “issues so much condemnation when it comes to any slight, any perceived slight even, against folks in Jewish and Zionist communities” Ms. Kiswani told the New York Times, while he “barely says a whisper when it comes to things like this on Palestine anymore.”Palestinian filmmaker Ala Jaarah accused Mr. Mamdani of doing “more harm than good for the movement,” in a social media post. “That’s what it comes down to. We’re done being fed lies. We’re done with the displays of fake solidarity.”Last Wednesday Mr. Mamdani was heckled by DSA protesters who jeered him out of an event honoring the lives lost in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Palestinians killed in the ensuing war. Complaints against the mayor included his failure to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu when he came to New York, allowing real estate events hosted at synagogues that activists say deal in stolen Palestinian land, and keeping “Zionist billionaire” Tisch in her post. The next day, ICE officers shot and injured a convicted criminal illegal immigrant at the Bronx, leading to protests. Ms. Chevalier was filmed hurling abuse at an NYPD officer, who pushed her away. Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Tisch held a press conference that night, where Mr. Mamdani was again heckled by protesters and left after taking only two questions. Ms. Tisch, in her remarks, enumerated the arrested man’s criminal record. Ms. Chevalier characterized the move as an attempt to “justify” ICE’s shooting in a statement.More than a dozen Democrat lawmakers have signed a letter calling for Ms. Tisch, whose tenure began under Mayor Eric Adams, to be removed. Along with Ms. Chevalier’s claim that the commissioner enables ICE, she oversees the Strategic Response Group, a special operations unit that has been repeatedly accused of improper use-of-force and brutality. Disbanding the SRG was a campaign promise of Mr. Mamdani’s that he has neither kept nor provided a timeline for realizing.The DSA’s leaders have moved to limit the blowback against their Mr. Mamdani, threatening to defund the youth chapters that endorsed the October 7 protest against the mayor.“YDSA Steering [Committee] members were told explicitly that chapter leadership was considering removing funding from NYC-YDSA or stripping our organization of representation on NYC-DSA Steering as repercussions,” the New York City youth caucus said in a statement following the event.Before questions turned to Ms. Chevalier specifically, the mayor attempted to deflect questions about the anger hitting him from his own party by pointing at ICE as “the source of the anger that a lot of New Yorkers are feeling.” “Mayor Mamdani should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these dangerous criminals from his city—NOT vilifying law enforcement,” a spokesperson for ICE’s parent agency told The Sun.

Mamdani Puts a Smile on DSA Civil War as Rift Grows

Mamdani Puts a Smile on DSA Civil War as Rift Grows

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