Zohran Mamdani Gives Closing Message of Campaign

0:00Ben Meiselas:The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods Market, no antibiotics ever, burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribeye, grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department and round it all out with 365 brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices. Whole Foods Market, make your summer sizzle. And you can't make this up. While the American people are suffering during this government shutdown, as people are fearful, they may lose their health care, their SNAP benefits may go away. Donald Trump is posting this.

0:40Ben Meiselas:I renovated the Lincoln bathroom in the White House. It was renovated in the 1940s in Art Deco. He's posting about marble floors and marble toilet bowls. And I mean, it's been post after post and golden handles in the sinks. I mean, is he just trying to rub it in right now in people's faces who are suffering? I want to bring on Zoran Mamdani to the show. Great to see you again. And, you know, we had you on here before the primaries. And one of the things we talked about is how you took a tour across the boroughs and you were listening to what people were saying, including Trump supporters. And as you see right now, the American people are suffering.

1:21Ben Meiselas:Trump made all of these promises, none of them being delivered on the issue of affordability or any of this stuff. He's posting marble this and the Kennedy Center is going to be expensive rugs and carpets. I mean, what's going on, Zora? You know, there was not a single New Yorker that I spoke to that told me the reason they were voting for Donald Trump was for him to spend$300 million on a renovation of a White House ballroom. And what I heard instead is exactly what you alluded to. New Yorkers who are fed up with the cost of living and who wanted a president who would deliver on the promise of cheaper groceries, deliver on the promise of lowering that cost of living.

1:57And instead, this$300 million, which could have been used to feed 100 ,000 New Yorkers, provide them with SNAP benefits, is instead being used for these personal refurbishments. And I think it just speaks to the fact that this isn't about, you know, whether it's possible to do so. It's just a question of want. Donald Trump does not want to provide health care for 4 million Americans. He does not want to ensure that SNAP benefits continue for close to 2 million New Yorkers. He does not want to actually take care of the very people whose despair that he diagnosed and then whose support that he betrayed.

2:28And it's time to actually offer a politics in this country that doesn't just say that working people are struggling, but then does something about it. And that's at the heart of the campaign that we have here in New York City. It's the heart of many campaigns across this country. We're looking to call the question on the authoritarianism from Washington and show that democracy can deliver right here at home. Right.

2:47Ben Meiselas:I mean, he keeps going out there and bragging. I brought in twenty two trillion dollars. The number always changes. Seventeen trillion, eighteen trillion, twenty trillion. I think the people of New York in the borough know a Ponzi schemer now and a con man when they see one. Don't you worry. Those those those dividend checks, they're coming right around the corner. Your tariff rebates. Just it's all right. The workers, I think Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said this yesterday, this year was Wall Street. He said this, next year, we got you workers. Next year is your year. Isn't that what they're always next year?

3:22Ben Meiselas:Just always next year. And I think people voted with their pockets in mind. They wanted to see if they could actually be able to afford the things that they would afford four years prior. And what they're instead seeing is Donald Trump was focused on his own pockets. And that's the politics that's on offer in this moment. And it's gotten to the point where we have active duty military families who are lined up for food pantries across this country. And that is an illustration of what Republicans care about at a moment when so many Americans are crying out for any kind of politics that's looking to actually help the working class of this country.

3:55They're not finding it in Donald Trump.

3:56Ben Meiselas:You talk about want. It seems like one of the things he wants to do is harm New York and its boroughs. I mean, he kind of gloats about the pain he wants to inflict, whether it's tunnel projects, Penn Station rebuilt, just projects that would be genuinely helpful, it seems, you know, for a city that plays a major purpose in the world. And he seems to focus so much on attacking the city and the people you're running against, Cuomo and others, they don't seem to criticize that. They seem to be like, whatevs, that's just what we're going to do. That's a wild concept to me when someone is so adversarial against like against the city.

4:35Yeah, I mean, look, Andrew Cuomo ran an entire primary campaign on the premise that he was the best candidate to take on Donald Trump. And then we beat him by 13 points. And he almost immediately got on his hands and knees and started to beg for help from that same president. And we've seen him beg for that president's help. We've seen him beg for the help of that president's donors. And we've seen it all as New Yorkers are coming to the realization that if you're so busy begging, we actually can't count on you to stand up for this city. And it's time to have a mayor who's not only able to name the president or the crisis at hand, which is authoritarianism, but also to deliver for the people that we're looking to serve.

5:11Because right now there is an abdication of responsibility in the city and it's time to actually stand up and fight and deliver for the people across the five boroughs.

5:20Ben Meiselas:These billionaires threw everything at you. You got unlimited money was thrown against you. they've accused you of everything they photoshopped you in every way Ackman posted the longest things that are not even we're all like I can't even read they threw literally everything and you know you started at one percent and no one should take any polls for granted November 4th is coming up people still need to volunteer and I want to talk about that in a bit but they threw everything at you and just how have you been able to handle that aspect of it? Because I don't know, it seems like a lot, a lot, they've accused you of everything imaginable.

6:02Ben Meiselas:If I listed it here, this interview would go 10 hours. We wouldn't have enough time. I mean, look, in this week alone, I think that we've seen around$10 million in additional outside spending. And we both are not naive to the impact that it can have and the ways in which can, you know, flood New Yorkers airwaves and their mailboxes and their TV screens. And at the same time, we took on about$25 million of that very kind of spending in the primary. And what we showed time and again is we were able to overcome that because we had built then a volunteer team of 52 ,000 people. Now that volunteer team is crossing 100 ,000 people.

6:35And that is the kind of coalition that we have to take this message of affordability all across the five bars of New York City.

6:42Ben Meiselas:Look, homestretch, right? November 4th is right around the corner. People who are watching though, what can they, they still should not get complacent. Quite the contrary. Now is the time in a marathon where you actually got to really start running the fastest. So what should people out there be taking away if they want to help out? What can they, how can people get involved? So the thing that I would tell you all is to go to Zahran for nyc.com forward slash GOTV. And it's important to do that because no matter how good one poll looks or how exciting an article reads, this race is not yet won.

7:16And it's because we knocked on 1.6 million doors in the primary, because we made 2.1 million phone calls in that primary, that we won that race. So if you're in New York City, come for a canvas shift. We have so many coming up. And this weekend, we're actually trying to break the world record for doors knocked in New York State in a single day, 200 ,000 on Sunday alone. And if you're not in New York City and you still want to help out, please join our phone banking. You could make the difference and actually have the conversation with a New Yorker who was yet to hear from someone directly about why they support this campaign.

7:45Ben Meiselas:Before we go, I just wanted to highlight one more time that was so smart. Right after the election, you went and you spoke to those Trump MAGA voters, or you spoke to people in the city, why did you vote this way? I remember that video. You went back to basically the same location. This week you were back there and you were talking to people. What have you kind of learned from that experience and what insights generally can be, you think, extrapolated just as we build towards figuring out ways, not even as a political party, this or that, but like just as fighters for people right now during uncertain times.

8:22Look, I think it comes back to listening to New Yorkers. That's what we wanted to do last year because we'd heard so much about caricatures of who voted for Trump and why. We wanted to ask New Yorkers themselves. And it was a beautiful moment to return there because I could see everything that our campaign has built. Last time around, I had to struggle to get anyone to talk to me. And this time around, I had people coming up to talk to me about the same issue, cost of living, but how they saw in our campaign a pathway to actually tackling that crisis. And that means the world to me, because it shows what 100 ,000 volunteers and an incredible team has been able to build.

8:54And now with just four days to go, we are on the brink of making history, but we can't take anything for granted.

9:00Ben Meiselas:So everybody, you got to get out there, tell people about this race. And what's the website again that everybody, if they want to volunteer and help get out the boat, what should they do one more time? It's Zohran for NYC, Z-O-H-R-A-N-F-O-R-N-Y-C dot com forward slash G-O-T-V. Zohran Mamdani, great to see you again. We appreciate you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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