Under legal attack from President Donald Trump, New York’s state Attorney General Letitia James has endorsed 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to be the next mayor of New York City.
In a barnstorming speech at a mayoral rally in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan on Monday night, James struck a defiant tone as she praised Mamdani as a “courageous” leader who would rally New Yorkers to resist Trump and “fight for a better future”.
“He, like me, knows what it’s like to be attacked — to be called names, to be threatened, to be harassed,” declared James. “Each and every day he wakes up with this fire in his belly, because he wants to build a better New York.”
Federal prosecutors have charged James with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, apparently as part of a wide-ranging campaign of retribution against Democratic politicians and others who have opposed the president.
James, the first woman and the first African-American ever elected as New York’s attorney general, led the state’s successful civil case against Trump for financial fraud.
She herself has denied any wrongdoing, calling the charges against her “baseless”.
New York Attorney General Letitia James takes the stage at a rally for Zohran Mamdani in Washington Heights, New York, on Monday (Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
“You see, I know what it feels like to be attacked for just doing your job. But I also know what it feels like to overcome adversity,” James told the cheering crowd on Monday.
“And so I stand on solid rock, and I will not bow. I will not break. I will not bend. I will not capitulate. I will not give in. I will not give up.
“You come for me, you gotta come for all of us! Every single one of us!” she concluded, to massive cheers.
“You see I’ve learned to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, who came before me and weathered the storm… and so I fear no man.”
She described Trump as trying to “weaponize justice for political gain” while “fraying our democracy” and “ero[ding] our system of government”.
“Let us stand together to defend our rights, to protect every safeguard, every institution, every immigrant, every norm, and every rule of law,” she told the crowd.
She closed her speech by exhorting Mamdani’s supporters to “make some noise”, repeatedly shouting: “Let them hear you!”
Zohran Mamdani has taken a decisive lead in the New York mayoral race since winning the Democratic primary June, with recent polls showing him firmly in front against Democrat-turned-independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
In his own speech Monday evening, Mamdani painted the Trump administration as a totalitarian force that is “snatching our immigrant neighbors from our city in broad daylight” and waging a “scorched earth campaign” against transgender people, political opponents such as James, and non-compliant judges.
He framed himself as a champion of vulnerable New Yorkers against these predations, but also the antidote to establishment Democrats who are beholden to corporations.
Zohran Mamdani has taken a decisive lead in the New York mayoral race since winning the Democratic primary in June (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
“For too long, we have been told to be satisfied with abstractions and strongly worded letters; to be content with a politics built atop the flimsy foundation of only that which we are against, without ever declaring what we are actually for; to accept leaders who would sell us out to the highest bidder,” he said.
“That is not what this movement is, nor will it ever be… a movement by the people and for the people answers only to the people.”
What Mamdani is for, according to his campaign platform, includes universal free childcare, free travel on city buses, a widespread rent freeze, city-owned grocery stores, and a new public safety agency to deal with low-level problems currently handled by armed police officers — all paid for by raising taxes on corporations and high earners, increasing tax audits, and cutting government waste.
Trump has responded by calling Mamdani a “100 percent communist lunatic” backed by “dummies”, while some Republicans have called for him to be deported and MAGA influencers hurled Islamophobic abuse.
Democrats have been divided on whether to embrace his campaign, with some accusing him of antisemitism over his past criticisms of Israel (which Mamdani strongly denies).
“There are some who oppose [my] vision,” Mamdani said on Monday. “Billionaires like Bill Ackman and Ronald Lauder have poured millions of dollars into this race because they say that we pose an existential threat.
“And I am here to admit something: they are right.
“We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy. We are an existential threat to a broken status quo that buries the voices of working people beneath corporations…
“And we are absolutely an existential threat to disgraced politicians like Andrew Cuomo, who diminish public trust, harass women, and are unabashed in their desperation to collaborate with Donald Trump and his donors.”
Cuomo, who resigned as governor of New York after a report from the state attorney general found that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women, has denied any wrongdoing.
