The Radicals Running Mayor Mamdani’s City Hall

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is six weeks into office, and his transformation of City Hall is well underway. Yet many of the Democratic Socialist’s appointments have drawn significant backlash — some for their far-left policy positions, others for unearthed antisemitic social media posts. Here are some of the mayor’s most controversial picks.At the center of the storm is Mr. Mamdani’s pick for the city’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem. Born in Beirut and educated at Columbia University, Mr. Kassem built his legal career as the go-to lawyer for al Qaeda terrorists stuck at Guantanamo Bay. As a student at Columbia, Mr. Kassem was a prominent anti-Israel activist who petitioned the school to rename a dining hall sandwich from the “Israeli wrap” to the “more inclusive Middle-Eastern wrap.” In columns for the university paper, Mr. Kassem wrote about throwing stones at Israel from the Lebanese border.Mr. Kassem has also been vocal in his criticism of the overuse of the “terrorist” label. In a 2001 op-ed, he described the September 11 attacks as a result of “resentment these terrorists felt towards the United States” and “our country’s policies.”After the attacks, Mr. Kassem shifted his focus to representing detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base. One of his clients, al Qaeda member Ahmed al-Darbi, pleaded guilty in 2014 to planning a terrorist attack on a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Mr. Kassem and his students have represented at least 15 prisoners held at Guantanamo and other facilities.Most recently, Mr. Kassem represented a Columbia University student activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in March after the State Department revoked his visa and green card. Mr. Kassem has since recused himself from the team of lawyers helping the 31-year-old challenge his deportation, citing his new position in city government.Then there’s left-wing housing activist Cea Weaver, appointed in January as director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. Ms. Weaver went viral for controversial social media posts linking homeownership to white supremacy.In one post from 2018, Ms. Weaver claimed that “There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t.” The following year she declared that “private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy.”In other posts Ms. Weaver urged her followers to treat private property as a “collective good” and to “impoverish the (asterisk)white(asterisk) middle class.” In another she called on the public to “seize private property.” When confronted about Ms. Weaver’s past comments during an appearance on “The View,” Mr. Mamdani deflected criticism and reiterated his goal to “make the city that every New Yorker can afford. That includes those who are tenants, those who are homeowners.”Mr. Mamdani has also defended his pick for chief equity officer, Afua Atta-Mensah, after her social media posts disparaging white women resurfaced. In one post, Ms. Atta-Mensah suggested that “white women at nonprofit organizations” fall under the category of people who are “not police” but feel “like police to you.” In another, she agreed with a user that the show “Succession” made her want to “tax them to the white meat.”Her account was deactivated shortly before her appointment, but her posts were unearthed by the New York Young Republicans Club. “Afua Atta-Mensah has dedicated her career to serving the New Yorkers who are so often forgotten in the halls of power. There is no one I trust more to advance racial equity across our work in City Hall,” Mr. Mamdani stated in her defense. The pattern has continued at other levels of city government. The new Brooklyn borough director, Alvaro Lopez, once praised people who ripped down flyers of Israeli hostages as “heroes.” Mr. Mamdani’s advisor for “100 Day Planning and Implementation,” Drashti Brahmbhatt, led divestment campaigns against Israel while a student at Brown University. An additional source of concern for New York’s Jewish community is Mr. Mamdani’s pick to head the office of antisemitism. Earlier in February, the mayor tapped progressive Jewish leader Phylisa Wisdom for the post. Ms. Wisdom openly opposes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism — which recognizes certain connections between anti-Zionism and antisemitism — and has campaigned for greater state oversight of secular studies in Hasidic schools.Ms. Wisdom drew backlash for her response to a comment from then-mayoral candidate Andrew Yang expressing solidarity with Israel as it faced rocket fire from Hamas in 2021. “As an American Jew and a New Yorker, I am floored by this tweet (although never surprised),” she wrote on X. “NYC deserves a mayor who will stand up for Palestinians in the face of state-sanctioned violence.”So far, only one Mamdani appointment has lost her job over past controversial comments. In December, Mr. Mamdani’s pick for director of appointments, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, resigned after the Anti-Defamation League raised concerns about her posts referencing “money hungry Jews.” She also once wrote “it’s important that white people feel defeated.”Mr. Mamdani has also ignited criticism for his collaborations with a children’s YouTuber turned anti-Israel activist, Rachel Accurso, known online as Ms. Rachel. Though not an official appointee, Ms. Rachel helped plan Mr. Mamdani’s inaugural ceremony and appeared in a promotional video for the mayor’s free childcare initiative. Critics have accused Ms. Rachel of amplifying Hamas’s inflated casualty figures, repeating claims that Israel indiscriminately bombs children, and dismissing allegations of bias by insisting that “wanting kids to live isn’t antisemitic.” She drew further backlash after she platformed a Palestinian photojournalist who had celebrated Hamas’s October 7 massacre.In December, Ms. Rachel was nominated for “Antisemite of the Year” by a Jewish watchdog group, Stop Antisemitism. The title ultimately went to conservative podcaster, Tucker Carlson.

The Radicals Running Mayor Mamdani’s City Hall

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