Former President Barack Obama told Zohran Mamdani “your campaign has been impressive to watch,” and suggested that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election.
Former President Barack Obama called New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, praising his campaign and offering to be a “sounding board” into the future.
The private, roughly 30-minute phone call, which has not previously been reported, was described by two people who participated or were briefed immediately on what had been said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.
Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said.
I suspect Obama sees a lot of himself in Mamdani. A brown kid with big dreams and a funny name, with Republicans calling him a Muslim socialist and frothing at the mouth to “prove” he’s not a real American? It’s like the 2000s all over again.
Also internment camps, and extraordinary rendition, and drastically expanded government surveillance, and the FBI going after Muslims and leftists, and manufacturing an excuse for regime change in an oil-rich country, EDIT: two oil-rich countries… Yeah, maybe it’s a little too much like the 2000s.